‘Population, drug census, health cards, SIR…”: Students suffer as 70% govt teachers in Punjab assigned ‘non-academic’ duties

In the two letters widely shared in Punjab’s teacher groups on Tuesday, two headmasters from Bathinda district wrote to district education officers (DEOs) to explain the extent of the crisis.

In one letter, the headmaster wrote that of the 10 teachers in his school, three were performing BLO duty and six on Census duty. In another letter, also from Bathinda district, the headmistress wrote to the DEO that of the 11 teachers in her school, five were on census duty, three on BLO duty and one sent to another school on deputation.

Speaking to The Indian Express, both head teachers said the issue was “temporarily solved” after they wrote to the DEO. “They have asked us to divide teachers into two groups and send them for census training on separate days, but what about other duties. We are doing everything except teaching,” said the headmaster.

Punjab Democratic Teacher Front (DTF) president Vikram Dev said, “At least 70 per cent teachers in the entire state are currently on some non-academic duty. Those who are not on census duty are working as BLOs for the SIR voter exercise of the Election Commission. And those who are not doing both are registering beneficiaries for the Punjab government’s health insurance scheme.”

A teacher claimed that at least 400 teachers from his sub-division alone were on census duty. “This means at least 2,000-3,000 teachers from each district, depending on the number of subdivisions, are performing non-teaching duty,” the teacher added.

“If we raise the issue in the media, DEOs question us as to why we are disclosing such things publicly. But our work is to teach, not make health cards or register voters or count people or drug addicts,” a teacher on BLO duty said.

A senior officer of the Punjab Education Department said, “We had directed deputy commissioners to sort this out at their own level, as the situation varies from district to district. Once the training is completed for the Census 2027, the field work has to be done after school hours.”