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NEW DELHI: Should classrooms pay the price for election duty, ask educators. The entire regular teaching staff of two Delhi govt schools – one at Bhalswa and another near GTB Nagar – has been deployed for booth-level officer (BLO) duties during the peak period of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, citing manpower requirements for data handling, administrative work and BLO-related responsibilities, a school official said.According to the official, the Bhalswa school has around 1,200 students and approximately 20 regular teachers, all of whom have been assigned SIR work, leaving only 15 guest teachers to conduct classes across 22 sections.
‘Election duties important, but they shouldn’t come at cost of education’
In the school near GTB Nagar, the official said 22 teachers have been put on BLO duty and asked how the entire regular teaching staff can be picked up for non-academic work.”It will be very difficult to teach students till Oct. Academic loss is inevitable,” the school official said.TOI reached out to the principals of both schools but received no response.Educators said the large-scale deployment could significantly disrupt classroom teaching, forcing students to bear the brunt of the staff’s absence. They argued that election-related assignments should be distributed more evenly across schools so that no single institution loses a substantial portion of its teaching staff.”If teachers have to be deployed, authorities should take a maximum of two teachers from a school. Many schools have not been asked to send even one teacher. The deployment should be distributed equally so that both election work and school education can continue,” the official argued.TOI accessed an office order for manpower requirement pertaining to nine teachers of the Bhalswa school, signed by the sub-divisional magistrate/electoral registration officer (SDM/ERO) of Badli. It states that volunteers may be required to perform full-time election duties at Voter Centres or ERO offices, including data entry, form scrutiny, clerical work and BLO-related tasks under SIR, even after normal office hours or under specific instructions, if directed by the Election Commission. Their responsibilities include verifying Forms 6 and 8, assisting in the preparation of the draft electoral roll and any other election-related work assigned by the ERO or AERO.The order added that any negligence, delay, absence or non-compliance of instructions in connection with SIR 2026 shall be viewed seriously and action shall be taken as per applicable rules.On his part, Delhi education minister Ashish Sood said govt will ensure that neither the SIR exercise nor students’ education suffer. “If by chance such anomalies have come up in some schools, we will rectify them. We have stated that teachers will be paid for election work so that they get relief and the process goes on smoothly. Even after that, if we find any problems in the system, we will work towards improving these.”Calling the SIR exercise a national responsibility, he added, “We will also take into consideration the representation sent by the govt schoolteachers and address their concerns. Education will not suffer.”Earlier in the week, Govt School Teachers’ Association (GSTA) had written to the Delhi govt stating that the prolonged deployment of teachers for election work would leave schools short-staffed during a crucial academic period. “A substantial number of trained teachers have been deployed as BLOs and BLO supervisors for the SIR exercise. Consequently, the absence of thousands of teachers from schools is likely to adversely affect the education of lakhs of students. Such academic loss cannot be adequately compensated at a later stage,” general secretary Ajay Veer Yadav wrote in the letter.The association had urged the Delhi govt to immediately appoint guest teachers against vacancies created by SIR duties to ensure regular classes continue uninterrupted, particularly for students of Classes X and XII preparing for board examinations. According to the association, the election-related assignments are expected to continue till Oct 7, making it difficult for schools to make up for the resulting academic loss later.Education activist and lawyer Ashok Agarwal said the large-scale deployment of teachers for election work had been a long-standing concern and had previously been challenged in court, though existing rules continue to permit it. “Election duties are important but these should not come at the cost of children’s education. If teachers have to be deployed, the burden should be shared across schools,” he said.Teachers say lesson planning becomes difficult when schedules are unpredictable and many teachers admit to feeling a sense of guilt about the impact on their students, even when these decisions are beyond their control. Accountability, they argue, is often placed on teachers for academic outcomes, but institutional support remains limited. Go to Source
