Teachers' body opposes proposed school restructuring programme, calls for protests from May 5 in Andhra Pradesh

The Hindu

29-04-2025

Leaders of Andhra Pradesh Teachers Federation (APTF) are gearing up for protests in a phased manner from May 5, against certain policies, including the proposed school restructuring programme, which they feel would be detrimental to the interest of the school education sector. The federation leaders plan to stage protests at old taluka headquarters on May 5, dharna at district headquarters on May 9 and a State-level dharna in Vijayawada on May 14.
The previous government introduced incoherent policies that led to chaos in the school education sector. The current TDP-led coalition government had promised to clear the chaos and come up with coherent policies, but instead, this government is adding to the confusion, said federation's State president Ch. Manjula and general secretary K. Bhanumurthy.
They said the previous government proposed to merge Classes 3 to 5 in the High Schools, but the current regime proposes to merge even Classes 1 and 2 also, which is unacceptable. They said the federation was also opposed to the variation in allocation of teacher-student ratio in each school individually.
The leaders said the present system of primary schools (Classes 1 to 5) and High Schools (Classes 6-10 or 12) in every village should be continued and instead favoured integration of pre-primary education with primary schools. They said schools that include Classes 6 and 7 should have four School Assistant posts and those with Classes 6,7 and 8, should be allocated six School Assistant posts as per GO. 55.
Every primary school should have at least two Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) posts regardless of the student strength and a uniform teacher-student ratio should be maintained across the State, they demanded, adding that additional section should be created in high schools where the number of students exceed 45 per section.
They said the department should implement teacher promotions based on the State-wide seniority lists and the existing State and Subordinate Service Rules and implement Telugu as the medium of instruction as recommended by the National Education Policy (NEP)- 2020.
Their other demands immediate implementation of the 12th Pay Revision Commission (PRC), release of the three pending DA instalments and clearance of dues related to the 11th PRC and other pending financial arrears.