Pvt schools nonchalant over safety of teachers

It appears like the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools are not bothered about the safety of teachers. A few schools do not provide facilities and also deny holidays for staff, to check the contact of infected persons.

Teachers in many schools are under fear of infecting the virus as some of their colleagues have tested positive recently. A majority of the schools have failed to keep hand sanitisers, hand wash and other safety equipment.

A teacher of a reputed school in Vijayanagar said, “Nearly, five staffers of the school have tested positive for Covid-19 and three of them have recovered. Many of us were primary contacts of the infected, but, the school sanctioned leave only for a day and asked us to attend to work from the second day itself.”

Another teacher complained that the management is not allowing leave and is unnecessarily asking the teachers to come to school. Although online classes are being held for Class VII to X students, the school management has directed all teachers from Class I to X to come to school every day. “We have family, children and aged persons at home. How can we manage, if the schools pressurise us to come to school without any precautionary measures?” the teacher asked.

“We asked our management to grant leave or at least allow us to conduct classes from home. But, they denied. The management is planning for Christmas holiday. All teachers are made to sit closer and no standard operating procedure (SOP) is being followed from the last two months,” she said.

The teacher expressed displeasure over the state government, Education and Health departments and district administration. “State board schools are sanctioned three weeks holiday, but, why CBSE and ICSE school teachers are neglected? Aren’t we human beings? Why the government is discriminating during the pandemic?” the teachers asks.

An officer of the Education department claimed that CBSE and ICSE schools do not come under their purview. All schools are supposed to make necessary arrangements and no school should force all teachers to come to school, to conduct online classes. He assured of taking action against the schools violating the norms.

A Health department official claimed that the institution head must bring it to the notice of the Health department and the persons, primary contacts of infected patients, must be under quarantine for at least seven days, if anyone tests positive. The officer said that action will be taken against the school managements, if any fail to follow the SOP.