Now, non-academic tasks not mandatory for Maharashtra school teachers

In a first, the Maharashtra government has issued a detailed list of duties for teachers in government and aided schools by categorising them as academic and non-academic tasks, while adding that non-academic activities will not be mandatory for teachers. However, activities pertaining to disaster relief, census and election will continue to remain mandatory for teachers.

The state’s school education department issued a Government Resolution (GR) in this regard on Friday. It lists 20 academic tasks, which include those directly and indirectly related to the education of children and their development such as teaching, continuous evaluation, preparing holistic report cards, contributing to curriculum formation, maintaining students’ data, and tracking out-of-school children among others. Further, 12 non-academic activities enlisted include participating in cleanliness drives, campaigns against open defecation, working for various surveys, and organising exams by other departments among other duties.

According to teachers who have been complaining about the overload of non-academic tasks not allowing them enough time to focus on academic work, this categorisation of responsibilities is a good move along with the clarification that all non-academic tasks are not mandatory for teachers.

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Principal of one of the schools in the city said, “There were so many orders from different departments of the government asking teachers to participate in non-academic works, with a rider that failure to do so will lead to consequences. But the GR puts an end to this stress by categorically defining mandatory and non-mandatory non-academic tasks.”

Spokesperson for Maharashtra School Principals Association, Mahendra Ganpule, said, “With the GR, the government has finally recognised that teachers are involved in several non-academic works. As per this GR, teachers working on various non-academic deputations should now be released.”