Telangana govt teachers spend from their pockets to keep school premises clean

HYDERABAD: Teachers in government schools in the city are digging into their pockets to ensure the safety and health of their students and to ensure that the school premises, when the students return for classes on Monday, are hygienic and safe.

With no funds released to schools over the past seven months, there is not just enough money for basic expenditures when it comes to maintaining hygiene in schools, it is learnt.

As schools across the state gear up for the reopening with sanitisation, and social distancing protocols for students, there is a dearth of cleanliness service personnel in government schools.

Teachers are spending from their own pockets for hiring personnel for cleaning school premises, a headmistress of a government school in the city, told Deccan Chronicle.

Meanwhile, government officials said that funds, pending since June, will take at least a week to be released.

"In contrast to the government's announcement to release special Covid funds for TSCHE, government schools have been ignored. We are still waiting for the grants we were supposed to get in June. We are managing with the stocks that we received before the lockdown", said another government teacher, who wished to remain anonymous.

However, the government schools are satisfied with the arrangements made by GHMC and the TRS government. For the past 10 days, teachers say, officials have been visiting every alternate day, if not every day to deep sanitise the classrooms, corridors and toilets. Proper provision of drinking water, electricity and proper maintenance of sanitation has been the norm ever since the announcement by the government,’ a headmaster said.

Majority of parents give consent, schools delighted

There seems to be a sense of confidence and security among parents, as at least 60-70 per cent of parents have given consent to send their children to school. The statistics are even higher in government schools, where about 90 per cent parents have expressed their willingness.

B. Narasimha, headmaster of Yousufguda Government High School, said, "We called up each and every parent of students in Class 9 and 10, and asked them to take the consent forms from the school. So far about 80 per cent of them have given a positive response, while others, who are yet to return from their villages, say they will come back to the city and give consent, raising the number further".

In schools like Hyderabad Public School, at least 60 per cent have consented, while the remaining 40 per cent say that they will wait and watch for a little while to take a decision, said vice-principal Amritha Chandra Raju.

Similar is the case in schools like Johnson Grammar School in Nacharam, which are taking all measures to sanitise the premises.