327 teachers, staff of Kendriya Vidyalaya, JNV, CBSE died due to COVID-19: Govt

New Delhi: A total of 327 teaching and non-teaching staff members of Kendriya Vidyalayas, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and Central Board of Secondary Education expired due to COVID-19 but none of them died during Covid duty, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

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Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar gave the information in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha. "As per available data 327 teaching,non-teaching staff of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and Central Board of Secondary Education expired due to COVID-19. None of these teachers died during Covid duty," he said.

"Education is a subject in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and schools, other than those owned and funded by the Central government, are under the jurisdiction of the state governments," he added.

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The surge in COVID-19 cases in April and May saw hundreds of school, college and university teachers and educators die. Many school teachers have died of COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana after contracting the Covid-19 during election duty. Central universities including Aligarh Muslim University, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia University and Central University of Rajasthan also lost teachers.

Though NEET PG 2021 exams were postponed due to the second wave of Covid-19, the National Medical Commission (NMC) made COVID-duty by final-year MBBS students compulsory. However, the stress experienced by these medical students increased manifold.

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(With inputs from PTI)