Opposition TDP demands CM Jagan for financial support to private teachers

The demand comes after the tragic suicide of an educator couple who were facing a financial crisis due to the pandemic

Covid-19 caused a financial crisis in the private education sector and has claimed the lives of an educator couple in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

Karnati Subrahmanyam (33) and Rohini (27), who run a private school in Koilakuntla town took the extreme step after failing to repay the huge loans they availed to develop their school named Life Energy.

Though the English medium school was functioning for the past few years, the lack of new admissions during the pandemic and the regular fee collection hit for the second consecutive year has worsened their debt situation.

Unable to face the pressure from the money lenders, the couple consumed poison halting their car at Karivena, while returning from their relative's place on Sunday night. They sent out a video addressed to their family, students and parents explaining their plight. According to the police, the couple invested about Rs two crore in the school.

Citing the incident as yet another tragic story of private-sector teachers in the Covid-19 time, TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh has demanded CM Jaganmohan Reddy to extend financial help to private school and college teachers in Andhra Pradesh, on the lines of Telangana and Karnataka, “in order to rescue them from severe financial crisis and hunger pangs.”

"It is deeply distressing to note that, on the day schools reopened in AP, a teacher couple running a private school in Koilakuntla committed suicide. They buckled under pressure from money lenders. How many more such incidents must happen before the AP government takes meaningful action? There are more than 12,000 private schools in AP, providing employment to nearly 1.25 lakh teachers," Lokesh, an MLC said on Thursday.

Stating that dozens of private teachers have committed suicides in the Telugu states, Lokesh added that the Koilakuntla teacher couple suicide “was alarming and an eye-opener to the deteriorating situation.”

In a letter to the Chief Minister, Lokesh said that thousands of teachers in private schools have not been receiving salaries regularly since the lockdown last year and that there is no clarity on when the retrenched teachers would be rehired. Lokesh said that contract teachers in government junior colleges are facing similar problems.

“Their hunger pangs and rising debts is the hidden epidemic afflicting our education sector. There have been multiple news reports of teachers forced to sell vegetables, undertake construction work and other manual labour. A Telugu lecturer with a PhD in Kadapa was forced to do agricultural labour to support his family,” the former minister said.

Pointing that Telangana has earlier announced Rs 2,000 financial assistance and 25 kilos of rice per month to private teachers and Karnataka a relief package of Rs 5,000 for primary school teachers, Lokesh said that the YSRCP government should also extend similar immediate financial and in-kind transfers to such families in AP.

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