Move to keep teachers off poll duty in Andhra Pradesh kicks up a row

Soon after the state cabinet took the decision, school education commissioner S Suresh Kumar issued guidelines to regional joint directors and district education officers, asking them to withdraw school teachers from election-related duties

The latest decision of the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh to keep government school teachers away from election duties has triggered a controversy.

Andhra Pradesh United Teachers’ Federation said the government has a contempt towards teachers as they revolted against it and played a major role in the agitation for pay revision of the state government employees early this year. (HT Archives)

In a meeting on December 13, the state cabinet approved a government order issued on November 28 amending the AP Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010.

According to the amendment, a new rule No. 30 has been added, which refers to the deployment of teachers for non-educational purposes. It says teachers shall focus and dedicate their time to the core activity of teaching to improve the academic achievement levels of children relating to their class and age.

“As far as possible, teachers shall not be engaged in or drafted for any activity other than teaching and other academic related activities in schools,” the order, issued by the special chief secretary (education) B Rajasekhar, stated.

In the event of unavoidable circumstances, it shall be ensured that teachers are engaged in a non-academic activity only after all staff of other government departments are deployed and there is still a need for further staff to meet such purposes, it added.

State minister for information and public relations, Ch Srinivasa Venugopala Krishna, said the cabinet decided that teaching staff would be exempted from being assigned non-teaching activities such as conducting elections, enumerating census or others.

“Engaging teachers in non-academic services was a violation of Section 30 of the above rules. Even the Right to Education Act also calls for the same,” the minister said.

He said the cabinet approved a proposal to utilise the services of 134,000 village and ward secretaries who were recently absorbed into the village and ward secretariats in the state.

Soon after the state cabinet took the decision, school education commissioner S Suresh Kumar issued guidelines to regional joint directors (RJDs) and district education officers (DEOs), asking them to withdraw school teachers from election-related duties.

The government also asked district collectors, who are also district election authorities, to prepare a pool of government employees for election duties without taking teachers’ strengths into account.

The decision triggered uproar in the teaching community as well as opposition parties.

“The original central act – Right to Education Act, 2009, says school teachers should not be deputed for non-teaching staff except work related to general elections, local bodies’ elections, census and emergencies during natural calamities. But the Jagan Mohan Reddy government says teachers cannot be used for these works at all,” said Andhra Pradesh United Teachers’ Federation president Nakka Venkateshwarlu.

He said though the order appears to be meant to keep the teachers off all the non-teaching duties, it was essentially aimed at preventing them from taking part in the election duties.

“The reason is simple: the government has a contempt towards teachers as they revolted against it and played a major role in the agitation for pay revision of the state government employees early this year. It also fears teachers might not allow the electoral malpractices by the ruling YSR Congress party,” he said.

Another teachers’ union leader, who preferred anonymity, said it was surprising that the government, which had utilised the services of teachers for handling mobile applications to monitor toilets in schools till recently, decided against utilising their services for election duties.

“Since the first general election in 1952, teachers have been playing a major role in the election works as presiding officers and assistant presiding officers,” he reminded.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) official spokesman Kommareddy Pattabhi wondered why the Jagan government had taken this decision suddenly without any representation from the teaching community seeking exemption from election duties or any expert committee report.

“The chief minister is afraid that the teaching community might upset his plans of manipulating the elections or influence the polling against the ruling party. He might also be planning to draft village and ward volunteers, who are essentially YSRCP workers, into the election duties,” he said.

Election Commission authorities clarified that teachers do not fall into the category of essential services for being exempted from election duties. “Only certain categories of government employees, like doctors, paramedical staff, forest officials and armed forces cannot be drafted into the election duties,” Andhra Pradesh chief electoral officer Mukesh Kumar Meena said.

He, however, said at the time of elections, the EC will gain control over the state administration and would ask the government to keep the government employees at its disposal for deployment in election duties.

“But the EC will not specifically ask for department-wise staff. We shall assess the requirement of the number of employees depending on the number of polling stations and ask for their deployment for election duties. It is for the government to allot the required strength of employees,” Meena said.

The CEO made it clear that the government cannot use the services of village or ward volunteers for poll duties, as they were not regular government employees. “They are only temporary workers appointed on a monthly honorarium of ₹5,000. They will not be allowed to do election duties,” he asserted.