THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: St Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Pattom here witnessed a war of words between a group of teachers and the Kerala School Teachers Association (KSTA) members on Tuesday with the majority of the teachers taking a decision not to cooperate with the ‘salary challenge’.
The incident took place after AEO Siyad and KSTA secretary K P Santhosh Kumar reached the school to evaluate the number of teaching staff who had contributed towards the challenge.
The AEO and the KSTA members convened a meeting of the teachers and a majority of them expressed dissent over the government’s decision.Thereafter, Santhosh Kumar allegedly threatened them and asked them to participate in the challenge and a war of words ensued between both the groups.According to Santhosh, there are some teachers who are pro-Congress and others who openly disagree with the salary challenge.
“I did not threaten them. I only tried to convince them. There was some disagreement at the meet. But I am sure everyone will change their decision,” Santhosh said.Around 250 teaching staff in the school had signed a petition showing their reluctance to participate in the salary challenge owing to various financial commitments.
School headmaster Aby Abraham said it was just a discussion between two people with different political ideologies.“As far as the salary challenge is concerned, we can’t insist that all the teachers contribute. It is a personal choice. There were no issues at the meet,” he said.