Adelegation of government school teachers met Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday and presented him with a memorandum seeking legislation to make assaulting teachers on school premises a non-bailable offence.
Last week, a teacher at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya at Janta Flats, Nand Nagri was assaulted inside the school premises during school hours. The police arrested three people in connection with the incident on Saturday. According to R Sathiyasundaram, DCP (Shahdara), the teacher had slapped a Class 8 student on grounds of ‘indiscipline’ on Friday after which the student’s grandmother, uncle and two friends of the uncle entered the school where both parties had an argument before they assaulted the teacher Sanoj Yadav.
In their memorandum presented to Sisodia, the Government Schools Teachers’ Association (GSTA) has written, “There is no denying that there has been a drastic rise in the hostility against government school teachers by parents and students. However, the ghastly incident of 27 August, 2022 shook the entire teaching community and only cemented our preceding statement.”
They have demanded the introduction of legislation “to declare any criminal act or assault against the teachers and staff on school premises a non-bailable offence” along the lines of the Delhi Medicare Service Personnel and Medicare Service Institution Act, 2008. They also demanded that all schools with a student strength over 2,500 be run in two shifts for “better stability, discipline and safety of staff.”
Another demand was that all teachers be relieved from Covid-19 duties and that the GSTA elections, pending since 2017, be held soon.
