Mumbai: Why teachers are up in arms against state

Aruna Bhatt 40 has been a school teacher for two decades but election duty has kept her out of the classroom for six years Her situation is not unique many teachers across the state have been requisitioned for nonacademic duties without being relieved of their primary responsibilitiesTeachers across the state expressed concerns about the heavy workload related to numerous nonacademic responsibilities such as taking part in election duty household toilet surveys the Maratha census illiteracy census and even geomapping of madrassasWhile itrsquos not uncommon for teachers to be requisitioned for such tasks the neverending list of such duties imposed on teachers for the last five years is particularly daunting and Mumbairsquos school teachers have decided to take a stand against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporationrsquos decision to deploy them for nonacademic tasks particularly during the exam season The recent directive from the BMCrsquos education department has sparked widespread criticism from educatorsKhanderao Dhobaley teacher Junnarbased school Appa Sawant a teacher Bhorbased school Shitla Prasad Badgujar teacher Vikhrolibased collegeThe controversy revolves around the civic bodyrsquos order requiring teachers to serve as boothlevel officers BLO two days a week Tuesday and Saturday With nearly half of the teaching workforce redirected to election duties schools are grappling with chaos as a resultNonacademic jobsThey are involved in over 130 jobs not related to teaching in a single academic year including undertaking village construction surveys and filling out various Google forms Around 50 to 60 other tasks need to be done by the teachers on a daily or fortnightly basis such as filling midday meal scheme information updating student school and staff portals and updating information for the Swachh Vidyalaya AwardWhile these are online tasks offline ones include participating in census activities the belowpovertyline outofschool toilet awareness and economic surveys Gram Swachhta Mission and deworming campaign As BLOs teachers must attend meetings in the tehsil officeVarious voicesMahendra Ganpule state spokesperson Maharashtra School Principalsrsquo Association said ldquoAt times up to 50 to 60 per cent of staff in each school are occupied with nonacademic duties In rural areas teachers are often compelled to undertake tasks such as verifying studentsrsquo Aadhaar cards and managing their bank accounts Due to the necessity of maintaining and updating studentsrsquo records and data teachers find themselves compelled to perform these tasks The state is grappling with a 30 per cent teacher vacancyrdquoAruna BhattAnil Bornare a teacher and executive member of Mumbai BJP said the list of administrative and nonacademic tasks assigned to teachers seems neverending with new responsibilities being added each yearldquoTeachers are also required to undergo various training sessions Consequently they find themselves with limited or no time to enhance their teaching skills and methodologiesrdquo he saidShivnath Darade secretary Maharashtra Rajya Shikshak Parishad said ldquoWe have demanded that teachers be exempted from all nonacademic tasks The government should tie up with organisations which can provide manpower and get the work done Overburdening teachers is inhuman and willaffect studentsrdquoRajesh Pandya of Teacher Democratic Front said ldquoWith each new survey announced local civic bodies and collectors issue orders to requisition teachers a trend that has notably intensified over the past two to three yearsThis year the workload for examiners has risen significantly with the number of answer papers assigned for assessment to each increasing from a minimum of 200 to 250 or even more This added responsibility requires both time and attention However with teachers also obligated to spend two days fulfilling election duties as BLOs one wonders whether they will be able to maintain focusrdquoVijay Kombey state president Maharashtra State Primary Teachers Committee said many tasks are unrelated to teaching and consume valuable timeldquoTeachers are stretched thin carrying out responsibilities far removed from their expertiserdquo he saidAruna Bhatt a teacher at Goklibai School in Vile Parle West shared her disillusionment with her chosen profession Initially drawn to teaching for its promise of stabilityElection dutyBhattrsquos experience has taken an unexpected turn Since 2019 she has been assigned to election duty until 2024 She recounted a moment in 2018 when certain divisions within her school were shut down resulting in some teachers including herself being labelled surplusLater she received a letter from the state government instructing her to report to Mantralaya Upon arrival she discovered five other teachers facing the same requisition While she and three others objected two chose to comply Those who dissented were eventually relieved of their duties However six months later Bhatt found herself once again requisitioned this time for election duty This role involves extensive paperwork and fieldwork including housetohouse visits ldquoI am a teacher only in name I find myself working as a clerk or even a peon at times shuttling documents between departments This is not what I signed up forrdquo she saidSince 2019 Bhatt reports to the tehsildar office or election office in Malad West every morning There she has to acquire Form No 6 for new voters Form No 7 for deletion of names and complete other formalities for name corrections Most of the time she is required to go doortodoor She must maintain a log of her activities which is then verified by the tehsildar office and submit it to the school to receive her salaryldquoAs soon as you become a surplus teacher you lose your identity as a teacher According to me hundreds of teachers engaged in nonacademic tasks like election duty and surveysrdquo Bhatt saidAnother teacher Shitla Prasad Badgujar who works at Vikhrolirsquos Sandesh Junior College said ldquoWe are undergoing training for the National Education Policyrsquos implementation We will also be called for training for election duty The situation is even worse for primary and secondary teachersrdquoSurvey dutyIn the backdrop of demands for Maratha reservation the state government made teachers conduct a doortodoor survey in January this year Almost 50 per cent of teaching staff in some of the schools in the state were on the field for the survey Teachers even complained of facing insults and illtreatmentAppa Sawant a teacher at a Zilla Parishad school in Punersquos Bhor taluka said ldquoMany schools in the taluka are facing dearth of teachers the situation is similar in many districts of the state We fill in for each other so that students do not suffer On top of that we have to complete so many nonacademic tasks Every day we get new links from the education department to be filled and updatedrdquoDuring COVID19 Sawant and many of his colleagues were assigned nakabandi duty which comprised night patrolling and supervising people during quarantine He suggested that the government should pair teachers with revenue staff or personnel as people tend to disregard teachersrsquo authority ldquoIts inappropriate to assign road duty to teachersrdquo he saidIn October Last year teachers had to visit homes and identify illiterate individuals above the age of 15 as part of the Centrersquos New India Literacy Programme NILPKhanderao Dhobaley a teacher at ZP School Junnar said such work kept his colleagues occupied for almost two to three months ldquoThis diverted our attention from academic responsibilities The requirement to update various information every day also took a toll on my personal life During the pandemic we were tasked with conducting surveys of patients In Zilla Parishad schools where there is a lack of peons or clerks teachers are required to handle all the administrative workrdquo he saidMadrassa geomappingEarlier this month 126 surplus teachers from schools under the jurisdiction of the education inspector of Mumbai North were mandated to carry out the geomapping of madrassas What unsettled teachers was a warning of salary deductions for those who failed to attend a meetingldquoAs divisions in our school were reduced we were categorised as surplus teachers We have become mere tools for the government to utilise wherever they see fit Upon being designated as surplus teachers we are assigned various nonacademic tasks or are made regular temporary staff for electionrelated work We find ourselves unable to protest or even voice our concerns fearing salary deductionsrdquo said a teacherRecent studyAccording to a study published in The Empirical Economics Letters a monthly international journal in January 2024 extracurricular nonacademic activities had a considerable negative impact on Indiarsquos teaching standards The studys sample consisted of 112 teachers from universities and colleges in Mumbai and data was collected between June and August 2023The research revealed that the effects of excessive administrative work on teachers not only include anxiety depression overburden and difficulty juggling personal and professional obligations but also lead to lack of interest in teaching cancelling lectures not having enough time for subject preparation and no time for selfimprovement130No of nonacademic tasks teachers must undertake yearly