HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government has decided to organize a special vaccination drive for government and private teachers in the state starting from Thursday.
The director of school education A Sridevasena said that the special vaccination drives should be organized from Thursday in all districts for the benefit of government, private and gurukul school teachers and non-teaching staff.
“As per the direction from the state government, these drives will be held in Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs) in all mandals under the supervision of the health department,” said Sridevasena.
She asked all teachers and other staff to get vaccinated in this special drive before the commencement of physical classes on July 1.
She suggested that teachers and other staff carry their identity cards and Aadhaar card to the vaccination centers.
She also directed the education and medical department officials to work in coordination and complete vaccinating 100 per cent of teachers and other staff by June 30.
Ever since the state announced the reopening of schools and other educational institutions, teachers have been demanding a special drive as several of them have lost lives and were infected with Covid-19 during the pandemic.
“Hardly 40 per cent of teachers have got vaccinated till date.
It would have been even better if the state conducts special drive only for teachers instead of asking us to visit PHCs.
It’s not clear yet if there will be separate queue or registration for teachers and other staff and whether or not we will get vaccine on priority basis when several others are waiting for a dose in queue,” said Chava Ravi, general secretary, United Teachers Federations, who has been demanding a special drive for teachers.
He said that it would be even better if students are asked to attend physical classes after receiving at least the first dose of vaccination.
Apart from organizing a special drive for vaccinations, the teachers said that the state should also renew services of vidya volunteers as there are 7,500 vacancies in high schools and maintaining social distancing in classrooms without them would not be possible.
They also asked the state to hire sanitation workers and added that municipal corporations or local bodies are only cleaning school grounds, but not the classrooms and washrooms.