Govt teachers bound to perform Census work: Act

The teachers of government schools in Punjab may be making all kinds of excuses to get an exemption from the Census duty,but the Section 27 of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Primary Education Act,2009...

The teachers of government schools in Punjab may be making all kinds of excuses to get an exemption from the Census duty,but the Section 27 of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Primary Education Act,2009,says the services of teachers can be used for works of national importance,including Census.

According to the Act,No teacher can be deployed for any non-educational purpose other than the decennial population census,disaster relief duties or duties relating to elections to local authority,or state Legislatures or Parliament as the case may be. This Act overrides all existing judgements,whatsoever,on the subject matter of appointment of teachers for performing census-related duties. The Census is being conducted in two phases from May 1 to June 15,2010,and February 9 to February 28,2011. The teachers performing the duties will also be paid an honorarium of Rs 5,500

S K Joshi,officer at the Directorate Census Operation Punjab,Chandigarh,said not only school teachers but employees of anganwadi,municipal committees,mandi board and even nationalised banks have been put on the Census duty, he added.

He said the teachers require to put in only a couple of extra hours after school to complete this work. The teachers are required to fill 120-150 forms,which will cover 650-750 persons,in 46 days. A single form would take 15-30 minutes to be filled which will account for only 60-75 extra hours.

This work can be done after school hours,thus the students will also not have to suffer. Moreover,summer vacations will begin from June 1,giving ample time to teachers to complete the Census work,said a senior administrative officer. Many teachers do not want to spend extra time on this work and perform their duties during school hours. If they are pulled up by the education department,they approach us for help,he added. District Education Officer Joginder Das said teacher should perform Census duties after school hours.

Recently,Punjab Education Minister Bibi Upinderjit Kaur had also written to the chief minister asking for exemption to teachers.

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