THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A total of 1,707 teachers and non-teaching staff in the state have not taken the Covid vaccine, General Education Minister V Sivankutty has said. These employees have been served show-cause notice and those who do not give satisfactory reasons can go on leave without pay, he added.
After the government started toughening 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 the vaccine is in Malappuram while the lowest is in Wayanad.
The 1,707 unvaccinated staff includes 1,495 teachers and 212 non-teaching staff. While 1,255 school staff in the lower primary, upper primary and high school sections have not taken the vaccine, the number of unvaccinated staff in the higher secondary and vocational higher secondary section was 223 and 229 respectively.
“RT-PCR test every week will be mandatory for teachers and non-teaching staff. Those who cannot take the vaccine due to medical conditions such as allergy should produce a certificate from a government doctor,” the minister said.
Though the government had earlier decided to publicise the names of the teaching and non-teaching staff, it decided against such a move in the wake of requests from teachers’ unions. The government instead released district-wise figures of the unvaccinated staff.
The minister also said that differently-abled students in schools as well as special schools can attend offline classes from December 8. School uniforms will be made compulsory from December 13 to avoid confusion over students’ concession in buses.
The minister also announced that 72 new Plus-I batches have been sanctioned in 21 taluks where there is a shortage of seats. This includes one batch in science, 61 batches in humanities and 10 commerce batches.
Centre flags mortality rate in 4 districts
T’Puram: The Ministry of Health and Family Affairs has directed the state health secretary to keep a watch on four districts which reported more number of Covid deaths in the last two weeks. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to state Health Principal Secretary Rajan Khobragade about rising number of deaths in Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kollam districts and directed him to initiate steps to reduce fatality.