Govt must listen to the voice of teachers and give genuine recognition to their rights – Prof Prasad

The National Federation Party says government must listen to the voice of teachers and give genuine recognition to their rights and responsibilities while Minister for Education Premila Kumar says they acknowledge the work of all the teachers who worked hard to assist students with schools during this crisis.

While giving their World Teachers Day message, NFP Leader Professor Biman Prasad says teachers will be at the centre of the recovery of learning and teaching losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that has seriously disrupted classroom learning.

Prasad says they know that teachers and school heads have worked together in using digital platforms such as zoom classes, Moodle, google class rooms and other online platforms to reach out to the students.

He adds many of them have also gone to the extent of preparing worksheets and made contact with parents to ensure that students continue to learn.

Minister Premila Kumar says there have been many unsung heroes during this pandemic and they applaud the work of the frontliners but adds teachers are our COVID warriors as well.

Kumar says she is grateful that many of them have readily embraced changes by working harder than ever to do their job in a totally new setting that required them to turn to new methods of teaching and overcome its challenges.

She says teachers have been living up to this year’s theme of being at the heart of the recovery.

However the NFP Leader says it is unfortunate that the partnership between teachers, teacher unions and government have been eroded over the last decade through the imposition of many laws and regulations.

Prasad says the major disincentive to retaining highly experienced and quality teachers has been the reduction of the retirement age to 55 years and putting teachers on contract employment instead of permanent appointments.

He says this has resulted in the exodus of quality teachers who quit their jobs before reaching the retirement age to take up teaching job offers overseas.

Prasad says one of the priorities of the NFP in government will be to once again provide permanent employment to all teachers and civil servants and abolish the current policy of short-term employment contracts.

He adds they will also ensure that the retirement age of teachers and civil servants is increased to 60 years.