The academic environment in the schools of the State is getting hampered by the Assembly elections as most of the teachers are enrolled for election duties.
The education department with 1.20 lakh employees and 75000 teachers is the biggest contributor to the election commission for conducting elections. The teachers are drawn in various capacities as per their grade for election duties.
The election commission has deployed more than 50000 teachers from the government schools due to which the studies of more than 3.5 lakh students in the state are being adversely affected. Incidentally the female teachers are mostly exempted from the election duties. The election commission conducts regular training sessions for the employees before sending them to the election duties. To attend these trainings which are held at least four times before the actual elections the teachers usually seek one day of travel time from the department.
Besides the teachers which are assigned the election duties are also not in right mental frame to teach the students as they are engrossed in their preparation for election duties. Interestingly immediately after the election duties the teachers would be deployed in the invigilation duties of board examinations.
The elections are scheduled in the state on February 15. “It is true that the election duties affect the academic environment in the schools. This is the peak time of the studies and election duties do hinder the activities in the school. But the election duty is also part of our job and teachers are considered best for conducting such assignments,’’ said K K Dimri, a teacher posted in the Pipalkoti block of Chamoli district.
“The teachers being more educated are considered best by the administration and it deploys them in all types of non teaching activities. Teachers are first to be drawn for election duty, preparation of electoral rolls, census related works, immunization, survey works and lot of other activities which drastically reduces time available for the students. However we are held accountable when the board examination result is not good or the students are not performing well,’’ rued one of a teacher posted in Raipur block of Dehradun.