Disappointment for best teachers

• CM, Dy CM, three edn ministers skip the function
• No message from CM irks teachers
• 203 teachers awarded
• Parthasarthy evasive on DSC

It was a most cherished moment in their profession, something that they and their family members remember it for the rest of their life. State-level best teachers, who have labored hard for years together in moulding the careers of many a student, were a disappointed lot as the function, organised to facilitate them was marred by absenteeism, governmental indifference and utter disregard for their noble profession by the political leadership.

Chief Minister N Kirankumar Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Higher Education Damodara Rajanarasimha, Minister for Primary Education S Sailajanath and Minister for Medical Education Kondru Murali failed to turn up for the function organised at Ravindrabharati in Hyderabad on Thursday. While the Chief Minister confined himself to the Camp office, the other three have decided to stay away, keeping themselves ‘busy’ in other cities.

Only Minister for Secondary Education K Parthasarathy has turned up for the function, which has started one-and-half hour behind the schedule. It was officials who have run the entire show. Three senior IAS officers- Sunitha, Vanimohan and V Usharani read out the messages of President, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Human Resources Development, MM Pallam Raju. But there was no message from the Chief Minister. Deeply anguished over the belittlement, they have demanded an apology from all of them.

Rajanarasimha was away in Chennai and Sailajanath, who was also the convener of United Andhra Ministers’ panel, reportedly preferred to stay away as his presence may ruffle the feathers of someone from the Telangana region.

“Why should this disrespect? We don’t think on narrow lines. In spite of intense social agitation and bandh, teacher from 13 Seemandhra districts have come to receive the awards. But our ministers have no time” Dr P Madhusudhan Reddy, Government Junior College Lecturers Association lamented.

“Receiving an award from the hands of Chief Minister gives us some degree of encouragement. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that chance” a teacher from West Godavari remarked. “The award is remembered not just by me but by all my students and colleagues. A photo without the Chief Minister naturally disappointing” another teacher from Mahbubnagar expressed his feelings. As many as 203 teachers were presented Best Teacher Awards on the occasion. Out of them, 57 Primary Teachers, 38 NFTW, 23 JLs, 78 College and University Teachers, 3 from Technical Education and one from Department of culture.

Speaking on the occasion, Parthasarathy listed out some of the demands that were put forth by the teaching community. He smartly evaded on holding DSC-2013, for which lakhs of aspirant teachers have been waiting. He simply mentioned the word DSC but did not say whether it would be held at all before next elections. Minister said the issue regarding rationalisation of Aided Teachers is settled and a GO will be issued shortly. Stating that the government schools have been losing its identity and sheen, the minister has warned that if the government schools lose their priority, the country would be in trouble.

Prof P Jayaprakasha Rao, Chairman of the Higher Education Council has exhorted the teachers to focus on imparting quality education . “Teacher absenteeism, accountability have of late become worrying factors. Thought the GER of the state is higher (21%) than the national average (18%), how much qualitative stuff are we able to impart is the question. The employability indicators show everything is not good in this direction” he opined.