T'PURAM: A total of 1707 teachers and non teaching staff in the state have not taken Covid vaccine, General Education Minister V Sivankutty said on Saturday. These employees have been served show cause notice and those who do not give satisfactory reasons will be asked to go on leave without pay, he added.
After the government toughened its stance against unvaccinated school staff, their number dwindled from over 5,000 last week to 1,707. The highest number of teachers and non teaching staff who have not taken Covid vaccine is in Malappuram while the lowest is in Wayanad.
Of the 1,707 unvaccinated staff, majority of them (1255) are in the Lower Primary, Upper Primary and High School sections. While 223 teaching and non-teaching staff in the Higher Secondary section have not taken the vaccine, the un-vaccinated staff in Vocational Higher Secondary section is 229.
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Even though the government had earlier decided to publicise the names of the teaching and non teaching staff, it decided against such a move owing to pleas from teachers' unions. The government instead released district-wise figures of the unvaccinated staff.
The Minister also said that differently abled students in schools and special schools can attend offline classes from December 8. School uniform will be made compulsory from December 13. Owing to seat shortage, 72 new Plus one batches have been sanctioned in the state, Sivankutty said.