He threatens to come on the street with children if lockdown is extended beyond April 1
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — A video is doing rounds on social media where a school teacher is expressing his anger towards the move of Uttar Pradesh government to close schools for a week starting from March 24.
The video filmed on March 23 shows the teacher addressing an assembly of students at a primary school seemingly in Gorakhpur district, the home turf of Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath.
The teacher says that if schools are not allowed to open on April 1, he will come out on the road along with students in protest. The teacher claims he is worried about the future of the students forcing him to warn the government.
He alleges that the government was putting the future of children at stake “because you don’t want them to get education.” He accuses the government of using coronavirus as a pretext to suppress those who stand up in opposition and calls the lockdown announcement a ‘dictatorial move’.
Raising questions over the double standards of the government in dealing with the gatherings, the disgruntled teacher says, on one hand the government is closing the schools to curb spread of coronavirus but at the same time it is organising festivals in Kumbh and Gorakhpur or election in Bihar, the teacher asks, facing the camera. “Did Coronavirus not spread then.”
He goes on to say that if the government is closing schools then it should also stop holding religious festivals. “First you yourslf follow the rules, we are ready to follow them,” he says. According to the teacher, by shutting schools, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is “ruining
the future of students and the livelihood of teachers.”
Since the coronavirus lockdown started last year, he says, “193 people in Gorakhpur district have cancelled the registration of their schools because they were unable to pay the rent of the school infrastructure hired on lease.
“You are attacking our livelihood.”
He says the school has waived off the fee
of children for lockdown time “because we do not want to burden the guardian”.
In March last year, India enforced a month-long countrywide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus. The schools in most states are yet to function normally and add to that a new wave of infections is raging even though it’s been more than two months since the
government started a large vaccination programme to protect people from the
virus.