Government teachers pressed into ‘Hamara Ghar Hamara Vidyalya’ feel that it is better to open government schools. More than 50 school teachers have died of Covid but these teachers are visiting places and taking classes.
The school education department started a programme called ‘Hamara Ghar Hamara Vidyalya’ to cater to students who do not have access to online education. The teachers were asked to visit such homes and provide guidance to such students.
However, the scheme gradually turned into mohalla schools as most of the students from government schools do not have access to online classes. Teachers were asked to visit the student's house and provide remedial classes. In due course, teachers started calling students to a particular place and started taking classes under an open tree or in front of somebody’s house.
This scheme has a monitoring system, the fear of which drove teachers to take classes either in mohallas or in villages.
However, after more than 50 teachers succumbed to corona virus teachers have started expressing their apprehensions. ‘The teachers who have died of corona haven’t received any help till date,’ said a teacher wishing anonymity. Besides 50 deaths hundreds of teachers are in isolation and several in hospitals.
A section of teachers said that not only teachers but students are also exposed to the deadly virus during classes taken near their homes. It is better to open schools and call the students there adopting all security measures than to provide them education in an unsafe environment, said a teacher.
‘This programme was opposed even when it started. Nevertheless, they started going to villages to save their jobs,’ said Subhash Saxena, posted as principal in a school.
However, district education officer Nitin Saxena clarifies that teachers have been exempted from visiting areas that have been declared as containment zones but did not reply when asked that containment zones have been reduced to the smallest of size including neighbourhood houses only.
