THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The death of an aided school teacher in Kollam, forced to run from pillar to post over the past four years to get her appointment approved by the government, has once again brought into public focus the fate of around 5,000 such teachers languishing without salary for the past several years.Sreekala Austin, a widow, was appointed Hindi teacher against a vacancy that arose in 2016, but the education department refused to approve the appointment citing technical reasons.
Sreekala’s protracted fight for justice had an abrupt end when she died of a heart attack recently. Her death triggered outrage among the teaching community. On Teachers’ Day, they took out a protest march to the Secretariat demanding justice for their colleagues who have been suffering due to an undeclared freeze on appointments in the aided sector.
“Sreekala is the representative of around 5,000 teachers who have not been paid a single paisa for the past four-and-a-half-years. It should be mentioned here that these teachers were appointed by managements as per the Kerala Education Rules,” said A V Indulal, general secretary, Kerala Aided Teachers’ Association (KATA).