Day 3, teachers stay away from exam duty

BAREILLY: In spite of complaints from examination centre coordinators across the district, education officials have still not been able to force primary teachers to perform board exam duties. However, students appearing at their own schools for the board are not complaining as “in house” teachers as well as Class IV employees have turned invigilators in the absence of appointed primary teachers.So far, no incident of cheating has been reported across the district.
According to sources, on third day of board examinations, a majority of primary teachers continued to skip their board duties at the allotted examination centres. A majority of examination centres have been forced to rope in employee their own staff, including class IV staff, to invigilate.
Several examination centre coordinators, including presidents of primary teachers association and Madhaymik Principal Association and others presented a memorandum, asking the district inspector of schools (DIOS) and basic shiksa adhikari (BSA) to act promptly.
Talking to TOI, Suresh Rastogi, president of the primary teachers association, said, “It is a serious situation where a large number of teachers are unable to perform their scheduled duties after the basic education officials ordered primary teachers to take up classes at appointed schools when they are not discharging duties at examination centres.”
Questioning the directive, Rastogi said, “Conducting board examinations in itself is a Herculean task and asking teachers to join back schools to undertake classes and again asking them to be relieved for board duties again and again is unnecessary. Moreover examination centre coordinators too have to take extra efforts in maintaining records, putting added pressure on them.”
The board examinations started on February 19 and since then, examination centres have complaint about marginal presence of teachers who were supposed to be on duty at the examination.
As per district education officials, more than 5,000 teachers have been asked to perform board examination duties. However as Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad lacks required number of teachers to undertake board examinations, more than 2,500 primary teachers were asked to join hands in order to conduct free and fair examinations at 126 examination centres in the district.
Confirming reports of meeting with examination centre coordinators and group of teachers association, DIOS Ashutosh Bhardwaj said, “We had a conversation with BSA who had assured us of a better show on Monday. BSA had assured us that teachers will be relieved from schools so that they can undertake their scheduled duties at the examination centres.”
On other hand, a basic education official confirmed reports of joint meeting with all block level education officials (BLE) and asked them to prepare list of teachers absconding from board duties.
Talking to TOI, Akila Adeel, BEO, Bithri Chainpur said, “BSA had asked all BEOs to prepare a list of teachers from their respective blocks chosen to participate in board duties. We are also seeking reports from examination centres on a daily basis so that we can cross check how many teachers performed board duties and who gave a skip. Accordingly departmental action will be taken against those found guilty of not taking their duties seriously.”