Nalgonda, June 28. 2020: Covid-19 pandemic turned his life upside down. He was forced to return to his village in Nalgonda district with his wife and eight-month-old son when the lockdown imposed to check the pandemic spread forced the closure of the school and left him jobless.

Satyanarayana was paid one-third of his salary in March before the school management said it could no longer pay him.

Left with no other source of income to survive, Satyanarayana enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme under which at least one member of every rural household is guaranteed 100-day manual work annually. “I was paid ₹150 daily for desilting work at a local tank. But that was hardly enough. Later, I joined as a labourer in cotton fields, where I am getting around ₹300 daily,” said Satyanarayana, who has a master’s degree in Telugu literature.

He said he worked as a teacher for a paltry salary of ₹15,000 a month. “Yet, it was a noble profession with respect in society.” He said if he starts thinking about his qualification, he would die of starvation.

Satyanarayana’s situation mirrors that of many like Zaheer Ahmed Sheik, 40. Sheik worked as a Hindi teacher but is now forced to eke out a living loading and unloading gas cylinders at a warehouse for ₹500 weekly.

Sheik, who is from Mancherial district in Telangana, earned ₹15,000 monthly till the pandemic left him jobless. “Since I could not survive in Hyderabad without a job, I returned to my town and have been working at the warehouse… I have also been painting buildings. In all, I am earning ₹5,000 a month,” said Zaheer, a father of two. “When I think about the future, I get scared.”

Tumki Praveen, a mathematics teacher from Jagitial town, ended up as a fruit seller after losing his private school job. “What else could I do? I do not have money even to do a petty business.”

Telangana Private Teachers Federation president Sheik Shabbir Ali said there are 11,700 recognised private schools in the state and most of their teachers have lost jobs. “As per the official statistics, 1,20,350 teachers were working in these schools, but unofficially the number is more than 250,000.”

Ali said many prestigious schools have resumed online classes but they too have engaged fewer teachers. “In many districts, several big schools have formed groups and are engaging common teachers to take online classes…”

Telangana private school managements’ association president Papi Reddy said the private schools were aware of the plight of the teachers but they were also helpless because of the uncertainty in Covid-19 pandemic.

“There is no possibility of the schools being reopened even partially, unless the Covid-19 cases come down to a minimum level. The government is also not willing to take risk in allowing students. Many private schools are facing the threat of closure due to huge financial losses because of lockdown,” he said.

He admitted that there were schools which evaded payment of salaries to the teachers but hastened to add that they would have certainly paid the arrears after the reopening of the schools.

In the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, too, the situation is no different. Many private school teachers have been forced to sell vegetables and even work as construction and daily wage workers.

“I earned a lot of respect among students as a maths teacher and principal of a private school. But now, I have lost my job and am forced to go from street to street to sell eggs,” said Nageshwara Rao from West Godavari district.

Andhra Pradesh Private School Teachers’ Union president Didde Ambedkar said there are over 12,000 recognised private schools in the state that employed 125,000 teachers. “Many schools have not paid salaries to their teachers since February, much before the lockdown was imposed.”

While school education secretary Chitra Ramachandran could not be reached for comment, an officer on special duty in the department said the state government was not in a position to take any decision on reopening of schools due to rising Covid-19 cases. “We are awaiting a direction from National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT). We shall take a call after seeing the guidelines of the NCERT,” he said.

National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) executive committee member Dr K Ramdas said neither the private schools nor the government could be blamed for the present situation. “As I understand, it is not possible to open schools, at least primary schools, till December, because no parent will be willing to take risk by sending his children to the school,” he said.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/jobless-telangana-teachers-turn-to-manual-labour/story-5vrtE6OfHGkNueNWydqhNJ.html