Bengaluru: In a move aimed at preventing disruption to classroom teaching, the department of school education and literacy is proposing a framework to insulate a section of teachers from mandatory deployment for election-related duties and surveys.
The proposal, which is being prepared, seeks to ensure that teachers are deployed for non-academic duties only after exhausting personnel from other govt departments. The education department is expected to circulate the proposal to various departments for their views before placing it before the cabinet.
Under the proposed framework, teachers from single-teacher schools will not be deployed for such duties. In schools with two teachers, neither teacher will be taken away. In primary schools with a larger number of teachers, not more than 50% of the teaching staff would be deployed for non-academic duties.
The department has proposed to completely insulate teachers handling classes 9 to 12 from such deployment, citing the importance of preparing students for public examinations. While classes 9 to 12 are outside the ambit of the Right to Education Act, the department believes that the critical nature of the responsibilities handled by teachers at these levels warrants their exclusion.
The deployment of teachers would be coordinated with the assistance of deputy directors of public instruction (DDPIs) and block-level education officers (BEOs), who would be given a separate charter for the purpose. The proposal also envisages obtaining a non-availability certificate from other govt departments before seeking teachers.
The proposal is being drawn up against the backdrop of concerns over learning loss caused by the deployment of teachers for the current Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The education department is also examining whether the proposed framework would withstand legal scrutiny, given the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the Disaster Management Act, under which govt employees, including teachers, can be requisitioned for specific duties.
“Teachers are mandatory to be taken like any other govt servant for election purposes under the Representation of the People Act and the Disaster Management Act. Nevertheless, we are proposing to insulate some teachers from mandatory deployment in the larger public interest,” said additional chief secretary Rashmi V Mahesh.
“The main concern for us now is whether an act like this will stand the test of law or scrutiny. But we are going with it in the larger public interest. It is the economically most vulnerable sections who access our schools. These activities could cause a huge learning loss,” she said.
The proposal comes at a time when the department is seeking to strengthen govt schools and improve enrolment. The repeated diversion of teachers for non-teaching duties could undermine efforts to rebuild parents’ confidence in govt schools, she noted.
“The entire conviction with which parents have come back to our schools has itself been hit by these activities. Teachers should be in classrooms and not continuously elsewhere. The department owes it to parents, teachers and children to make this effort,” she added.
