The Children of a Lesser God

I am a higher secondary teacher who has been working in the department for many years now. From day one we teachers have been facing a number of problems. Governments came, governments went, but our problems are here to remain

The High school teachers were the cream of the school until we went there. Immediately there arose a clash between HSAs and HSSTs. There were a lot of allegations against us. I am one person who underwent such torments. Rumours spread out about most of the teachers. It’s very normal among people to react when someone is appointed superior to them. But this clash has been continuing over a decade.

The school teachers work five days a week and so does the college teachers. Why are only the higher secondary teachers working 6 days a week? According to school teachers,
“Kai niraye cash medukukayalle? Pine joli cheythal entha?”
I agree that we do get a decent salary but what about the college teachers? Are they not being paid three times our salary? How come they are free on Saturdays and Sundays? They are free because they have to prepare. And they are university staffs who come under the UGC. That is their explanation. Don’t we have to prepare for the following week? Are we not teaching the same Pre-degree which were once taught in colleges? The only difference is that it was Pre-degree then and now it is higher secondary.

My immediate provocation to write this article is that we have been forced to go for valuation of answer scripts. The Centralized valuation camp where I go, five subjects are being valued there. It is a school with just a little over 500 students. This school is in the heart of the city. Believe me, there are no fans in this school. In the room where I sit there are seven groups of teachers. Each group has five assistants and a chief. So in all, we are forty two teachers in a room with barely any place to sit. It is so congested that all of us are soaked in sweat by afternoon. To add fuel to this, most of the days there is no water in the toilets. Teachers from Trivandrum district come here for valuation. How long does the authority expect teachers to work without going to the toilet? Majority of us reach by 9:30am in the morning. All of a sudden news spreads that there is no water to wash our hands and to go to the toilets. Is it not violation of human rights? As far as I know, the atmosphere should be conducive to work. There are many teachers who are elderly and asking them to work in such an atmosphere is atrocious.

The worst of all is that there is a step motherly treatment towards the teachers going for valuation. Answer scripts are issued only after 9:30 am. The next set is issued after 1:30pm. The camp coordinator takes back the afternoon set only after 4:30pm. The reason they give is that the Joint Director has given them strict instruction that the teachers should leave the camp only after 4:30pm. What does he gain by keeping us there for all these hours? Does he think that he is doing us something great favour by calling us for valuation? Never!!!! He is just torturing us and I think he gets a sadistic pleasure in keeping us in that miserable place. Please remember there are teachers who have to catch the trains to reach their hometowns in the evening.

We are sacrificing our summer vacations for valuation. You may argue that this work that we are doing can be surrendered and we that we get an additional income. Let me tell you frankly, many teachers are not interested in cash. We prefer holidays. This is the only time that we get to spend with our family. Even that has been grabbed away from us. Don’t we teachers need holidays? It has been made compulsory for us teachers to attend the CV camp. If not, a memo will wait us when we go back to school. Valuation for certain subjects go beyond May 15. By the time valuation is over, we teachers are forced to go for vacation class. In short teachers are being denied their summer holidays.

Are we children of a lesser God? Or are we slaves who are expected to slog the whole year?

After all the hard work we do, memos are kept ready for the slightest mistake. Memos are given to teachers, who don’t attend the valuation camp. Memos are given to teachers who have attended the camp but for a slight mistake that they commit. It is simply not possible to give 100% attention in the work we do in such an atmosphere.

You, leaders of the teachers’ union please unite and protest against the atrocities on us.