Break the Chain Slogan goes for toss in J&K?
1.25 lakh teachers, 25000 non-teaching staff attend schools minus students amid Covid spike. Teachers urge government to allow them work from home, say can give online lectures from homes in better way than schools, risky to go out of homes every day
Srinagar, April 22, 2021: While the administration is trying to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by implementing five pillared strategy—nearly sixty thousands government teachers in Kashmir make their ways to reach respective schools only to teach students through online classes. This has put a question mark on the much touted slogan of UT—“Break the Chain.”
Besides the teaching staff, the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) has learnt that nearly 15,000 non-teaching staff was also attending the schools amid surge in COVID-19 cases.
Top officials of the School Education Department told KNO that nearly 1.25 lakh teachers and twenty five thousand non-teaching staff was working in the department
“In Jammu and Kashmir there are more than 23,000 government schools in which nearly 1.25 lakh teachers are posted that include nearly 65,000 in Jammu and 60,000 in Kashmir,” the officials said.
Meanwhile, the top officials of the Jammu and Kashmir Disaster Management Committee told KNO that the government departments will function normally.
“As of now, as far as the roaster for half of the attendance of employees is concerned, we have no proposal or plan to devise a mechanism of roasters for the government departments,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the government teachers said that the department has the highest number of employees after the police department.
“The government could have easily charted out a mechanism to slow down the COVID-19 among the teachers. In Jammu and Kashmir, the School Education Department is the second leading sector with the highest number of employees,” said one of the teachers.
He said, “There are more chances of spreading the virus when over one lakh teachers at a time are leaving for the schools to attend their professional duties.
A delegation of teachers from various schools of Kashmir told KNO that they are putting their lives on the line by reaching to their respective schools amid tremendous surge in Covid-positive cases. “We are giving online lessons to students from our respective schools. This we can done easily from our homes. Giving online classes from our homes will help break the chain. We urge the government to re-consider the decision of attending schools when Covid is at its peak.”
A teacher posted in a government school in HMT area of Srinagar said that one of their colleagues tested positive for the Covid and entire staff was to undergo testing. “We even spent one day with the same teacher who tested positive. This is strange. Government must take care of lives too. We can deliver better through online classes from our respective homes rather than rushing to our schools every morning,” the teacher said wishing anonymity, adding that “by staying in our homes, we can break the chain. It is more risky to go out every day and come back after meeting staff members.” He also urged the government to allow teachers to work from homes—(KNO)
