Covid-19 Vaccination: Karnataka requests Centre to treat teachers as frontline workers

Bengaluru: With 9, 10 and pre-university classes set to resume full-day from Monday, the state government has urged the Centre to treat teachers and other education department staff as frontline workers for the purpose of Covid-19 vaccination.

The government has used their services for door-to-door collection of data, spreading awareness about the need for social distancing and assisting health officers and other allied activities. Now that school activities have more or less commenced, the government wants to ensure children are not put to risk, education minister S Suresh Kumar said in a letter to union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. This will go a long way in reinforcing the faith of the teaching community in our system, he added.

Karnataka's chief secretary has already submitted a proposal to this effect to the union health secretary, Kumar said, requesting the union minister to approve it at the earliest.

The centre, the education minister said, has treated revenue officials as frontline workers and is open to treat people from other sectors as well. "The staff of the Education department, more importantly our teachers have had a huge role in terms of containing covid through their on-field contributions that included maintenance of containment zones, too," Kumar said.