Thousands of teachers of Uttarakhand are caught into a proverbial Catch-22 situation over their duties in updating the National Population Register (NPR). While on one hand, the district administration is threatening to take action against them if they fail to perform the task assigned, the education department on the other hand has issued warning that teachers would face punitive action if they leave the schools and perform NPR duty. To sort out the issue and explain his stand the Director General (DG) of school education D Senthil Pandian is expected to meet the Additional Chief Secretary S Raju on Friday.
It is learnt that more than 6000 teachers are enrolled in the task in which the data of the population in NPR would be updated in a massive drive from November 17 to December 15. More than 900 teachers are listed for this exercise In Dehradun district alone. After the protest by the teacher associations the education department propounded that since the duty would adversely affect the academics in the schools they should not be enrolled for the task. However the administration of districts has tersely told the teachers that being government servants they are bound to do the work assigned to them.
When contacted the Primary Education Director Seema Jaunsari told The Pioneer that DG of school education took a meeting of senior education department officers on Thursday on the issue. “ As per the Right to Education (RTE) provisions teachers cannot be assigned the task of updating the NPR. However the 27 of RTE says that teachers can be given the task of census but not the NPR. It is up to the higher authorities to take a decision on the issue ,” she said. It is learnt that to find a middle path the education department has proposed that the teachers should be assigned the task of maintaining NPR only as last option and in case they are enrolled they should be given work of updating the data of the village they are posted in.
The teacher organisations are up in arms against these duties. The General Secretary of Prathemik Shikshak Sangh (PSS), Digvijay Singh Chauhan told The Pioneer that the teachers would boycott the work of NPR. He said that assigning this task to teachers violates the provisions of RTE and also the Supreme Court ruling that Mid Day Meal (MDM) should be cooked and served in all the schools.
The teachers are of the view that since the department has issued orders that the performance of the teachers would be reviewed on the basis of the results of the students the task of NPR should not be handed over to them. “This is the peak time (November - December) of studies. If we are enrolled in NPR work then studies are bound to be affected , further the winter vacations are scheduled in first fortnight of January leaving very little time for studies,’’ one of a teacher opined.