Must poll duty wears out teachers in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Complaining about their mandatory poll duty, teachers in Telangana rued how attending to this additional responsibility, over and above completing their academic work, has become stressful and burdensome for them.


As many as 95,000 government teachers have been roped in by the Election Commission (EC) for the Lok Sabha polls, scheduled to be held in Telangana on April 11. They are currently undergoing training organised by the EC. “Even before the elections some of us have been designated as booth level officers and made to attend training sessions. On election day, we will have to be at the polling booths. And all this is in addition to the academic work — especially, correction of answer sheets post exams,” said V Vanaja, a government teacher.

Teachers said they are feeling the pressure even more as they just finished two elections — assembly and panchayat — and are headed for the third. “Since the SSC exams in Telangana conclude on April 4, even Class 10 teachers are not exempted from election duty. And soon after wrapping up election work, they have to get on with spot evaluation from April 15. It’s an extremely busy schedule,” said Chava Ravi, general secretary of the Telangana State United Teachers Federation.

While Maharashtra has relieved its Class 10 and Class 12 teachers from poll work, it is not the case with those in Telangana. Here, all teachers except those who are pregnant, disabled or sick have to attend to election duty.

Failing to adhere by it can cost them their jobs considering close to 100 teachers were handed suspension orders following the assembly elections in November last year. During the LS polls too, the EC has decided to initiate action against those who fail to attend it. “Attending to election duty is mandatory for all government employees, including teachers. Before that they have to undergo training and do other election related work. Those who fail to attend training sessions or poll duty will be issued show cause notices,” said M Dana Kishore, district election officer, Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, in view of general polls, the education department on Tuesday decided to postpone the model school admission test. Announcing this through a release, T Vijaya Kumar, commissioner of school education department stated: “In view of the Parliament elections on April 11, the Telangana state model schools admission test for academic year 2019-20 which is scheduled to be held on April 13 is postponed to April 18.”