Days after Maharashtra went under a lockdown in March, 35-year-old Farhan Ahmed (name changed on request), a music instructor at a Mumbai school, was made to go on leave without pay.
Citing delay in fee payments from parents, the school had said it could not pay nearly 150 teachers and instructors associated with it for the next few months. While the school gradually got those teaching key subjects on board in the coming months, Ahmed is yet to hear from the authorities.
With schools continuing to teach online owing to Covid-19 pandemic, several professionals like Ahmed, whose jobs are quite different to teach in the online mode, are staring at an uncertain future.
“Over the past several months, schools, citing poor financial condition, have sacked several staff members and terminated the services of all those whose jobs are seen as ‘redundant’ in the online mode. Even as parents have started paying fees after the delay in the initial few months, schools are using the pandemic as an excuse to maximise profits and cut costs,” said Ahmed, who now relies on his private classes to make ends meet.
The others who have been affected by such decision of the schools are instructors for extracurricular activities like sports, school bus operators, counsellors, the administrative staff etc.
Raheen Jummani, a psychologist who has been working with a Mumbai school as a counsellor and supports the mental health-related initiatives of many others, said several institutes have terminated the contracts of counsellors altogether.
“A private school that I was working for terminated my contract and did not offer any explanation. Many other counsellors had similar experiences,” said Jumani.
She said the larger concern was that schools were willing to do away with something as important as the mental health of students. “They are doing this during a pandemic, when students are already stressed and anxious with all that is happening around them and need emotional support. Schools are willing to compromise on such a crucial part of the children’s wellbeing altogether,” she added.
Anil Garg, president of the School Bus Owners’ Association (SBOA), said that while school buses continue to remain off the roads as physical schools are closed, private schools have gone a step ahead and terminated their contracts with bus owners.
“Schools have just ended the contracts and have even gone to the extent of saying that they would change the contractor if need be in future. While the support staff which worked on buses like bus drivers, cleaners and female attendants are out of work for all this while, schools have not even shown the dignity to pay them some allowance to meet their basic needs. The worst hit by this move are the female attendants, many of whom run their homes on the salaries they get from their work. With no job, they are struggling to make ends meet,” said Garg.
There are nearly 50,000 school buses and around 1.5 lakh bus staffers in Mumbai.
Several schools in the city also terminated the contracts of sports instructors and physical education teachers. Sunny Singh, who works as a sports coach for a city-based international school said the school terminated his contract in the month of May and gave him no reason.
“Some officials said that parents were not willing to pay the added cost for sports considering schools were shut. But I was coaching students over online platforms and it was working well. Schools need to realise that children also need to stay fit and active even if it means some basic activity in their homes and neighbourhood,” said Singh.
The principal of a leading school in the suburbs said that schools are finding it difficult to retain the services of professionals whose roles are not clearly defined in the online mode due to fund crunch.
“In the initial few months after the lockdown, schools had to struggle to get even tuition fees from parents as many cited financial constraints. While the situation has improved over the last few months, parents are still not willing to pay fees for extracurricular activities. Buses are not plying so they are not paying transport fees. Hence, we are not able to retain the services of these people anymore,” she added.
