Bathinda: With govt school teachers protesting non-academic duties, Punjab education secretary has written a letter to all deputy commissioners of the state, asking them to ensure teachers and lecturers are not deployed for non-teaching/non-educational duties.
Teachers started objecting to duties when they were recently asked to verify ration cards, even as they had been performing duties related to special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rollsand Census. Before these, they had been part of non-academic duties related to AAP govt’s cash assistance for women, health cards and a drug survey ordered by the state govt.
In a letter on Sept 18, education secretary Sonali Giri wrote that teachers of the school education department were being requisitioned at the district/sub-divisional level for administrative and other non-teaching duties for “unjustified, longer periods”. “The matter requires immediate attention. A large number of teachers have already been deployed for the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and have discharged substantial responsibilities in connection with the said exercise,” she said.
She added SIR was scheduled to end on Sept 30. “Accordingly, with the exercise now nearing completion, continued deployment of teachers beyond the requirement of SIR may be curtailed so that they can resume their primary academic responsibilities in schools,” reads the letter by Giri.
She wrote that continued deployment of teachers for multiple assignments outside schools was now affecting classroom teaching, academic continuity and learning outcomes of students. “The primary responsibility of a teacher is towards his/her students and repeated withdrawal of teachers from schools inevitably results in loss of instructional time which cannot be adequately compensated later,” stated the officer.
Referring to Section 27 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and the relevant judicial directions, it was reiterated that teachers are not to be deployed for non-educational purposes except for duties relating to elections, decennial census and disaster management.
The earlier instructions further emphasised that even election-related deployment of teaching staff should, as far as possible, be undertaken outside teaching hours or on non-teaching days so that the education of students is not adversely affected. “Teachers already undertaking substantial election-related responsibilities should not simultaneously be burdened with additional district-level assignments unrelated to these statutory duties,” Giri added in the letter.
Giri write that these directions be “strictly complied with in letter and spirit”.
