Nagpur: Private unaided schools in Nagpur started receiving letters from the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) asking them to submit staff lists for Census 2026 duty, triggering sharp pushback from school managements. Some schools told TOI that their teachers even threatened to quit now, and rejoin in the next academic session, rather than accept the deployment. A circular issued by NMC asks principals to submit, within two days, a complete list of subordinate staff available for census enumeration work. The letter cited directives from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Census Directorate, Maharashtra, with reference documents spanning August 2025 to February 2026, and a meeting chaired by the NMC deputy commissioner on February 11, 2026.Maharashtra English Schools Trustees Association (MESTA) founder-president Sanjay Tayde-Patil said, “Census duty has always been the responsibility of govt and aided school employees. Private unaided school teachers are not govt servants. Pulling them out of classrooms midway through the academic year is both legally questionable and educationally harmful.”School associations contended that census enumerator duty must be confined to govt and private-aided institutions, which function under govt service rules. Private unaided schools operate independently, and their staff cannot be treated on a par with state employees for the purpose of govt deployment, associations said.Tayde-Patil added, “If teachers decide to quit now, schools will be left without trained staff in the critical weeks of internal school examination, evaluation and result preparation.”The association said it planned to approach the govt with a formal representation, demanding that letters addressed to private unaided schools be withdrawn and the duty roster be limited to govt and aided institution employees.
