Teachers plan dharna against 'neglect' of tribal schools

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, OCT. 2. The Andhra Pradesh United Teachers Federation (APUTF) will organise a dharna in front of the Office of the Commissioner, Tribal Welfare, here on October 6, to protest against the Government's ``indifferent'' attitude towards tribal schools in the State.

Addressing a press conference, the APUTF president, Mr. P. Krishnamurthy, and general secretary, Mr. N. Narayana, cited two instances -- the move to entrust the girijan vidya vikas kendras to the DPEP project and a cut in budgetary allocations for tribal education by about Rs. 11 crores -- to show that the Government was apathetic to the tribal schools.

They said the Commissioner of Tribal Welfare submitted proposals for sanction of 996 posts in the upgraded ashram schools but, not a single post was sanctioned. Similarly, not a single teacher of the 1000-odd physical education teachers selected recently was allotted for the tribal schools. Injustice was done to non-tribal teachers, who were working in tribal schools for the past 15 years for want of eligible tribal teachers. There were about 500 such teachers, whose services should be regularised and absorbed in other schools following recruitment of tribal teachers in tribal schools.

The dharna was being staged as part of the struggle to highlight the ``peculiar problems'' being faced by the tribal schools, Mr. Narayana explained.

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Section  : Southern States
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