Poll duty during pandemic shocks teachers

As they juggle the pressures of online classes and evaluation, teachers ask: why not use the already available civic staff for such work?

At a time when teachers are extremely burdened with state board assessment work and online classes, some of them were shocked to receive notices for not being able to report for election duty. The Election Commission has roped in teachers as block-level officers to prepare voters’ lists for the civic elections, but they feel that they won’t be able to manage it along with assessment work. Some of them have even questioned why the civic staff were not being deployed for the work.

Officials on election duty arrange electronic voting machines as they wait to board a bus ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. File pic

Requesting anonymity, a teacher said, “We have always worked for the Election Commission but the current situation is different. Already we are struggling with the new form of teaching and assessments, and for the first time ever we are evaluating board students without exams. This work is extremely demanding and even travelling to our respective schools is a task.”

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Most did report

Another teacher said, “Even though teachers are very busy doing assessment work and conducting classes, still most have reported for election duty. It is a bigger problem for those doing assessment work as we are supposed to declare results within a deadline and the whole process is already delayed. Some teachers who could not report for election duty have received notices.”

‘Other duties to fulfil’

Shivnath Darade from Maharashtra Rajya Shikshak Parishad, said, “The civic body has a lot of staff, then why not deploy them for the work? Even though most of the Std X assessment work is complete, the results are being finalised. Not only are teachers busy with assessment work, there are constantly given new tasks with the government launching programmes like bridge course, WhatsApp assessment, among other things. Already students are missing out on academics with limited resources while teachers are trying their best to ensure all students attend classes. Amid this, if election duty is forced on them, then they will have to put the classes on hold.”

Even after repeated attempts to contact UPS Madan, commissioner of the Election Commission, he was unavailable for comment.

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