Members of the Legislative Council from the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) K.S. Lakshmana Rao and Shaik Sabji on Friday said that a three-day national conference of the School Teachers’ Federation of India (STFI), scheduled to be held in Vijayawada from May 20, would highlight the ‘unilateral’ decisions of the Central and the State governments on key aspects related to the education sector.
At a press conference, the MLCs released a wall poster designed to publicise the event. They said the STFI had been at the forefront, fighting for the rights of teachers and other issues for the last 22 years. Governments are drifting away from scientific and secular approaches to policy formulation which is having a detrimental effect on the education sector, they opined.
A massive rally by teachers culminating in a public meeting would mark the first day of the event. Nearly 800 teacher delegates from 30 teachers’ organisations would attend the rally, they informed, adding that speakers at the conference would urge the government to repeal the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and reinstate the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and oppose the implementation of the National Education Policy-2020.
At the meeting, issues such as the government’s privatisation policy, social justice, discrimination against women and ‘communal terrorism’ would also be deliberated upon, they said.
