Taking a deviation from its earlier stand of not allowing the teachers for National Population Register (NPR) updation works, the education department has now asked for rational deployment of teachers in this exercise.
After holding a meeting with top officials of his department the Director General (DG) of school education, D Senthil Pandian dispatched a letter to the Secretary Census, C S Napalchiyal on Friday and requested for rational deployment of the teachers.
The department now wants that the schools should not get closed by the exercise of NPR. Pandian told The Pioneer that teachers can be deployed in works like census and elections as they are government employees.
"I have requested the census secretary to ensure that teachers are assigned the task of updating the NPR of the area of their posting. The deployment of teachers should not affect the functioning of the schools so we have requested that teachers from only those schools should be deployed where two or more than two teachers are posted," he said.
The issue of deployment of more than 6000 teachers for the NPR work had created a standoff between the education department and the administration as both of them took a divergent view on it.
The administration of different districts had issued a warning that those absconding from the NPR work would be punished while the education department was reluctant to release teachers on the plea that sending teachers would affect the academic environment of the schools.
NPR updating drive is being held on a massive scale from November 17 to December 15. More than 900 teachers are listed for this exercise In Dehradun district alone. The teacher organisations are not amused by the idea of deployment of teachers in NPR duty. They are of the view that the Government should either relieve the teachers of duties other than teaching or take back the order of making adverse entries in the C R of teachers in case of poor result.
The General Secretary of Prathemik Shikshak Sangh (PSS), Digvijay Singh Chauhan 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. Some of the leaders of the teacher organisation are even threatening to move to the court seeking its opinion on the issue.