Election duty first, mandates edu dept, teachers, educationists irked

Adding to the teachers’ pressure is the strict action being taken against those who refuse to perform BLO duty. So far, FIRs have been registered against 30 teachers while 35 others have received show-cause notices.

MUMBAI: On July 7, the state’s director of secondary and higher secondary education Mahesh Palkar sent a directive to school principals to reduce the workload of teachers who had been appointed Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise so that they could exit the classroom early and concentrate on voter verification. Teachers are already handling census work along with SIR.

Election duty first, mandates edu dept, teachers, educationists irked

Adding to the teachers’ pressure is the strict action being taken against those who refuse to perform BLO duty. So far, FIRs have been registered against 30 teachers while 35 others have received show-cause notices. The action has created fear among many teachers, who say they are being forced to choose between teaching students and avoiding legal action. Several teachers’ organisations have now announced a statewide school closure and protest on July 9.

As teachers, unions and educationists seethe, a school management in Mumbai is preparing to challenge the appointment of teachers as BLOs before the Bombay high court. When similar cases were filed in the high courts of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal, the courts observed that the preparation of electoral rolls was part of teachers’ mandated election duty under the Right to Education (RTE). The Mumbai school is nevertheless planning to go ahead on the grounds that it has additional points to buttress its case.

A government school teacher, who requested anonymity, said that balancing both responsibilities had become almost impossible. “I teach my classes every morning and then immediately leave for my BLO area where I have to cover nearly 1,200 houses,” he said. “It is impossible to finish quickly because every family has to provide details, and the forms take time to complete. On most days, I can cover only eight to ten houses. After returning home late at night, I still have to prepare lesson plans for the next day. It is exhausting, and I feel guilty because my students are not getting the attention they deserve.”

Subhash More, working president of Shikshak Bharti, pointed out that many schools already had fewer teachers because of the 2024 staffing policy which mandated that teachers be appointed depending on the number of students. “In such a situation, adjusting teaching periods is practically impossible, and students will ultimately suffer,” he said. Parent activist Prasad Tulaskar, who fought a legal battle for the implementation of RTE in the state, added that if teachers were out of class for a month, it would impact students’ education. “Educating students is the primary duty of a teacher,” he said. “The government must rethink teachers’ appointments for SIR and appoint government employees instead.”

Jalinder Sarode, working president of Shikshak Sena, Maharashtra, added a new perspective by stating that almost 80% of teachers in the state were women. “They manage household responsibilities, teach in schools and now spend hours visiting homes for SIR work,” he said. “The government should appoint retired teachers, unemployed graduates or NSS volunteers for this work instead of taking teachers away from classrooms.”

Leaders of the Maharashtra State Primary Teachers Committee (MSPTC) said that teachers were continuously burdened with non-academic work while important educational issues were ignored. “If the government does not respond immediately, teachers will take collective leave and schools across the state will remain closed on July 9,” said MSPTC member Vijay Kombe.

The Election Commission launched SIR across the state after nearly 24 years to prepare updated and error-free electoral rolls. Since June 30, teachers working as BLOs have been carrying out door-to-door verification, distributing and collecting enumeration forms and updating voter records. Each BLO has been assigned nearly 1,200 to 1,300 households, making the exercise both time-consuming and physically demanding.