The Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation (APTF) has urged its members to participate in large numbers in the proposed protest across the State on August 11 (Thursday).
The federation leaders have been spearheading a 100-day programme against the ‘implementation of policies that are detrimental to the education sector’ by the government. As part of the series of protests, the teachers plan to picket all district Collectors’ offices on August 11.
“We want all teachers to participate in the protest being staged in support of our key demands and make known the strong resentment against the policies that are being thrust upon the education sector in the name of reforms and the National Education Policy (NEP),” said Ch. Manjula and K. Bhanu Murthy, the federation’s State president and general secretary respectively, in a statement on Tuesday.
The main demands of the federation include repeal of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and G.O. 117, immediate steps to drop the school restructuring programme, continuation of both Telugu and English as the medium of instruction in schools and immediate release of the employees’ provident funds and retirement benefits.
Post card campaign
The teachers have staged demonstrations at the revenue offices and submitted representations to the local MLAs and other people’s representatives to bring pressure on the authorities concerned to concede their demands . They are also running a post card campaign on August 11.
The federation leaders said that they were forced to follow the path of confrontation as the government remained ‘indifferent’ to their problems.
