HYDERABAD: Feeling humiliated after being rebuked by Hyderabad district collector Yogita Rana, 14 teachers of the Raj Bhavan Government School here applied for mass casual leave on Friday and staged a protest on the school premises. It was during a review of unit tests held on January 17 that the collector got angry when she noticed that the marks got by students were less than 75 per cent. She warned that they would be replaced if they did not buck up. Parents and students were also present at the discussion.
“The intention of the collector was good but the way she burst out cannot be justified. You can not humiliate teachers before the students or parents. It should have been done privately,” said United Teachers Federation state secretary Chava Ravi, whose association extended support to the protesting teachers.
Nearly six months ago, the medium of instruction in the school was switched from Telugu to English. “Though it has become an English medium school now, the same regular teachers, numbering 11, appointed at the time of its inception, have been working. So, not only have we to teach in a language we are not well versed with but we also severely short staffed and instead of appreciating our efforts, we are told that we would not be allowed to teach at this school,” said a language teacher in the high school section.There are 600 students in the primary classes and 550 in the higher classes with six teachers for the former and 11 for the latter. Besides, there are six Vidya Volunteers to aid high school teachers.