Vijayawada: A section of government school teachers are getting ready to opt for voluntary retirement from service, saying they are unable to bear pressure for non-academic work and upset over delay in salary payment and other financial benefits in Andhra Pradesh.
The teachers say there is heavy pressure from officials to supervise works like renovation or construction of school buildings and preparation of food for mid-day meal and submit a lot of data online in relation to these works.
“We are being pulled up by officials for failing to spend the sanctioned money in one day and submit bills. We wonder how we can manage things when progress of construction works is linked with availability of construction materials, masons, labourers etc,” teachers say.
Some teachers say each of them had spent Rs 3 three lakh to Rs5 lakh from their own pockets under Nadu-Nadu phase-1 for construction works and failed to get release of funds even after two years.
They say though they are being relieved of poll duty, the quantum of workload and the mounting pressure from senior officials to complete the works tense them up.
“The main task of taking lessons to the students in the classrooms is getting sidelined as we are getting preoccupied with the supervision of non-academic works etc.
There is a norm that the teachers who have completed 33 years of service including 28 years of service and five years of weightage can avail voluntary retirement from service by getting 50 per cent of pension of the last pay from the time of their retirement. We are getting ready to opt for VRS.”
A government teachers’ union leader said, “We have joined the government service to teach the students. Any task given to us to improve their academic performance is welcome but subjecting us to a lot of pressure for non-academic work is worrying us a lot.”
