SRIKAKULAM: Valla Tavudu, who taught at a private school for 15 years and holds a double MA and a B.Ed, has been working as a daily wage labourer under the NREGS at Guravam village in Rajam mandal since last month. He used to earn Rs 15,000 per month, but the school management hasn’t paid him since March 22, he says.
“To sustain my family, I had to find another source of livelihood, and since the NREGS was an immediate alternative, I applied for a job card in May and got it in a few days. I now earn Rs 180-200 for each day of work, and though it is difficult, I’m happy it helps meet my family’s basic needs,” he explains, adding that he asked the school management to pay at least half his salary during the Covid-19 crisis, but his request fell on deaf ears.
The lockdown has forced more than 80 per cent of private school teachers in Rajam to take up daily-wage work.
The Rajam assembly segment has 27 private schools that employ 450 teachers. Across the district, about 14,000 teachers work in private schools.
With no alternative, many of them now work as daily-wage labourers at construction sites, rice mills, and under the NREGS. Another teacher from Rajam, Parisi Naidu, who holds an MA and B.Ed, now works at a rice mill.
“Though I have been teaching at a private school for the past 10 years, I took up this job just to feed my wife, children and elderly parents,” he tells TNIE.
“I have been in Rajam for a decade, but people are not willing to lend money to private school teachers because of our poor repaying capacity. The rice mill owner pays Rs 500 for each day of work, but I get hardly three working days in a week,” he adds.
The lockdown has forced more than 80 per cent of private school teachers in Rajam to take up daily-wage work, as even the renowned corporate schools have stopped paying staff.
“When I asked for my salary for the lockdown period, the school management told me to collect the pending fees from students,” says Raghavi, a corporate school teacher in Srikakulam.
“The management even asked me to get new admissions,” she adds.
When contacted, Srikakulam DEO Chandrakala said strict instructions have been issued to private schools to pay staff during the lockdown.
She also said that at a review meeting, the management of private schools said they had been paying staff. The DEO said she would check this with the managements of private schools.