Mangaluru: The Dakshina Kannada district administration has written to the Election Commission seeking exemption for high school teachers from booth-level officer (BLO) duties, citing the need for teachers to focus on preparing students for the SSLC examinations scheduled in March.Additional deputy commissioner K Raju disclosed this during a grievance redressal meeting of teachers from schools and pre-university colleges, chaired by MLCs SL Bhoje Gowda and Dhananjaya Sarji, held on Friday.
Raju said the district had already exempted teachers who produced medical reasons and replaced them with other staff, and the administration was awaiting a revised list of BLOs. “We have sought exemption for high school teachers from BLO duty. We have exempted teachers who have cited medical reasons and replaced them with other teachers. We are expecting a revised list of BLOs,” he said, adding that the administration hoped the Election Commission would accept the request.Explaining the staffing shift, Raju said anganwadi and ASHA workers had earlier been used for BLO work, but the Election Commission had now sought government teachers for the role. Dakshina Kannada ZP CEO Narwade Vinayak Karbhari said care had been taken to exclude subject teachers while recommending names for BLO duty.Teacher organisations and school management representatives flagged staff shortages and warned that election-related assignments could disrupt classroom teaching. A representative of the Government Drawing Teachers’ Association said drawing teachers were already being used to supplement teaching in several primary and government high schools due to vacancies, and assigning them BLO duty would further affect students, particularly SSLC candidates. An aided school management representative said the institution was struggling to spare even one subject teacher for BLO work because of inadequate staffing.Bhoje Gowda said education and health were priority sectors, and argued that teachers and healthcare workers should be exempted from election duty, suggesting personnel from other departments be used instead. He also stressed the need for cooperation during election work. Physical education teacher Tyagam Harikala said physical education teachers were also being deployed as BLOs, and urged that they be used locally, as transfers between places created additional difficulties.Teachers also raised health insurance concerns under the Jyothi Sanjeevini Scheme, with one government teacher reporting difficulty accessing treatment at empanelled private hospitals. Sarji said the Centre had revised Central Government Health Scheme rates in Oct last year, and a similar revision by the state was expected, which could improve service access.Other issues included a complaint about non-issuance of attendance certificates for participation in the SC/ST survey, with Bhoje Gowda directing the administration to act. Separately, lecturers and principals criticised the non-notification of vacancies in government PU colleges with student strength of 40 or below, saying it undermined teaching quality for rural and poor students. Bhoje Gowda said the government would address the recruitment issue.
