KOZHIKODE: You may have heard about night duty for emergency staff such as healthcare workers and police personnel. But what about night duty for school teachers? Scores of school teachers - on ‘work arrangement’ with the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) - are currently undergoing a ‘night duty’ of sorts. After eight hours of work during the day in schools, these teachers - a majority of them women - have to undergo ‘review sessions’ which may extend up to midnight.
As part of ‘Malayala Thilakkam’ project of the SSA, the teachers, now re-christened as Cluster Resource Coordinators (CRCs), are undergoing a six-day residential training programme across the state. The teachers had come under the SSA after they lost their posts in their respective schools due to staff fixation.
What bothers the women teachers more is not the workload, but the lack of security or official monitoring in the accommodation provided to them. Take, for instance, the SSA training programme in Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts. The teachers, numbering over 40 from both districts, have been accommodated in a lodge-like facility with no security.
“It’s hard to convince our families about the peculiar timing of the training programme,” a woman teacher told Express. “We do not have an answer to their query as to why the programme extends to such odd hours. There have been instances where some trainers have misbehaved with the women staff during late hours. Most of us are afraid to complain for fear of disciplinary action,” she said.
SSA officials maintain a residential programme with daily review meetings is necessary to ensure the success of the ‘Malayala Thilakkam’ programme which aims to improve proficiency in the mother tongue among students.
“Many of the participants will not be able to report on time or do the necessary follow-up if this is carried out as a regular programme. That’s why a residential programme has been insisted,” said Siddique A, SSA district project officer, Alappuzha.
Teachers’ unions are planning to petition the Education Minister on the matter. “Instead of conducting this day-and-night affair, the training programme can very well be extended over a 10-day period where practical sessions can be followed by review the next day. In such a case, women teachers can avoid staying in unsafe places during odd hours,” said a teachers’ union leader.