VIJAYAWADA: Not just students, but the vagaries of a pandemic has also taken a toll on teachers, both professionally and emotionally. While many working for private schools and colleges are looking for alternatives after being forced out of a job, many, who are still employed, are equally upset with the current situation.
“We are teachers and not clerks or someone with an expertise in administrative works. In the initial months of lockdown, all that we were asked to do was to call parents and ask them to pay the school fees. I felt like someone who wishes to carve his niche in fine arts but is being forced to study for banking,” said a mathematics teacher of a private school in Vijayawada, who wished to remain unnamed.
The teacher said she and her colleagues had not been paid their salaries for the last five months and, in spite of that, they were conducting online classes.
“As many of us are not tech-savvy, we had to first learn the technical aspects before conducting the online classes, initially. But how are we supposed to survive, especially with the rising cost of living, when we have not been paid for months?”
“Little things, which seemed so mundane earlier, such as writing on a blackboard now seems to give us a sense of excitement. Lockdown now feels more like a punishment,” she added.
Meanwhile, government teachers, unlike their private counterparts, have been getting their salaries in full. K Srinivas Rao, a government teacher, said despite being financially stable, changes in his work left him disturbed.
“We received half our salaries for the initial two months and then we were paid in full. But changes in the work is what disturbed me the most. I have been a teacher for the past 16 years and apart from teaching I know nothing. Suddenly, we were asked to help in spreading awareness about a virus we barely knew anything about, relocating people from low-lying areas during the floods and collecting fees from students.”
Both the teachers, however, shared similar concerns of students getting into mischief during the virtual classes. They said only a handful attend the classes and some complete their homework.