Srinagar school fires 20 teachers for refusing to use hack-prone ‘Zoom’

Srinagar: Green Valley Educational Institute in Ellahi Bagh Srinagar Thursday served termination notices to at least 20 teachers, mostly females, who were hired just two months back after the latter expressed their apprehension about the privacy and security issues flagged by users regarding ‘Zoom’.
The Kashmir Monitor got hold of the termination letters handed over digitally to the teachers.
“You have explicitly expressed your non availability to join e-classes which is the need of the hour…Your letter of dissent to take the e-classes is enclosed herewith…Consequent upon your dissent, which tantamount the blatant disregard and disrespect of the school rules and regulations, the Management has decided not to extent your probation…your services are dispensed off with immediate effect (sic),” reads one of the orders issued to a teacher on Thursday.
In rest of the orders too, the school has cited the same reason to fire the teachers.
The school has also withheld the salaries of these teachers during these tough times.
“Whatever is due to you in terms of salary for the period you worked, it will be disbursed after the reopening of the institution,” reads the order.
The Kashmir Monitor has already reported how the application is under scrutiny over privacy and pornographic hacks.
A teacher who was issued the termination notice told The Kashmir Monitor that while they had expressed their hesitation about ‘Zoom’, the teachers never refused to conduct online classes as claimed by the school.
“We told the management that we are ready to use any other application except Zoom. We even informed them that if we are conducting four classes with Zoom, we will conduct five using any other application,” the teacher said.
Many teachers, especially females, had actually written to the management about the same.
“They, however, made it a point to fire teachers during this crisis,” the teacher said.
(Kashmir Monitor)