Several civic and government schools in the city received letters from BMC’s education department on Saturday to send teachers for election duty immediately on Sunday. The letter also underlined that failure in doing so will lead to action against the teacher.
This new mandate has irked many schools who have no choice but to send their teachers for election duty ahead of board exams and school’s final exams.
Citing provisions of Right To Education (RTE) Act which recommends that teachers should not be given non-academic work, several teachers organisations have objected to the election duty order. Demanding that they be excused, teachers organisations have threatened to boycott election duty.
Pandurang Kengar from Mumbai School Principals’ Association, said, “RTE recommends against it, and teachers are already burdened with several non-academic tasks with many initiatives underway in schools. Election duty will be an addition to the list. Most schools are about to hold annual exams, and state board exams are around the corner. In the absence of a compassionate view toward our concerns, teachers have no choice but to boycott the work.”
Recently, teachers were also made part of Maharashtra government’s Maratha Survey wherein they went door-to-door collecting information. Anil Bornare, from BJP Teachers’ Association, said, “Schools are confused over who will teach and do other academic work, if teachers are to be sent for election duty. I am going to meet authorities concerned from the education department and Election Commission to request exclusion of teachers from election duty.”
However, an official from the school education department, said, “Election duty is generally a mandatory task for teachers in government-run schools. Teachers’ concerns will be discussed and a consensus will be reached on how election duty can be fulfilled without effect on academic work.”