Public school teachers in Delhi are mismanaged: Study

The study exposed how public school teachers were overburdened with tasks such as keeping records and responding to official mails and circulars, among others.

Teachers in Delhi’s government and municipal corporation-run schools spend less time teaching and more time in “school management” duties, according to a study by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR).

There are 1,024 government-run schools in the city, offering education up to class 12. (Vinay Santosh Kumar/HT File Photo)

The study exposed how public school teachers were overburdened with tasks such as keeping records and responding to official mails and circulars, among others. Academic activities include classroom management, sports and extracurricular activities.

While Directorate of Education (DoE) schools fared better in all aspects including, resources and filling of non-teaching vacancies, schools under the three municipal corporations —South, North and East — were found to be lacking in terms of facilities such as staff, playgrounds, cleanliness and students safety, among others.

The survey commissioned by the panel was conducted by the Centre for Policy Research, a think-tank, to assess the time spent by teachers in various activities, available infrastructure and how it affects the quality of academics. The 200 teachers sampled were those bearing additional charges. The study was conducted by Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research (CPR)

“Teachers in both types of schools were found to be juggling multiple activities in settings with low capacity and resources. ...it is affecting the quality and time spent on academic tasks, as well as teacher morale,” the study stated.

“One of the most crucial findings was that teachers were overburdened with record keeping work, in particular, corporation schools, which do not have data entry operators,” said Anurag Kundu, member, DCPCR.

There are 1,024 government-run schools in the city, offering education up to class 12. The north, east and south corporations run 765, 365 and 580 schools, respectively, and they have children up to class 5.

Binay Bhushan, DoE director, disagreed with the findings of the study. “We have provided enough staff to all schools to manage their non-academic activities. We have allowed principals to hire clerks in case they have shortage of staff. We have been making efforts to make sure teachers are not engaged in clerical work and have sufficient time to focus on teaching,” he said.

Education departments of the three MCDs said they were yet to receive a copy of the report. While officials at the east and north MCDs declined to comment, Shirish Sharma, director of the south MCD department said that there was no diversion of teachers to non-teaching activities. “We have initiated the process of hiring day guards in 580 schools and also started the procedure of hiring staff members for data entry,” he said.

Amita Wattal, principal of Springdales School, said that the teachers, both in private and public schools, are actively participating in other school related activities these days. “This is how our education system works nowadays. But it doesn’t mean that teachers can be diverted from their actual work which is teaching,” she said.