Teachers to get Census duty near respective schools to protect classes: Edu min

Jaipur: Education minister Madan Dilawar has directed that teachers assigned to Census 2027 duties be deployed only within the vicinity of their schools to minimise disruption to classroom teaching.He said teachers must continue academic work in the first half of the day and carry out census duties in the second half, citing learning losses observed during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. The minister also made it mandatory for booth-level officers (BLOs) to mark attendance in their respective schools.“Teachers assigned BLO duties should be posted within the immediate vicinity of their schools so that they can spend at least half the day teaching. The practice of securing convenient postings through recommendations will be curbed. All such teachers must mark attendance in schools,” Dilawar said Tuesday.He added that teachers currently deployed at sub-divisional and collectorate offices should be sent back to their schools. If deployment at such offices is unavoidable, only teachers from urban schools located at district headquarters should be assigned, instead of those from block-level institutions.Meanwhile, teacher bodies have raised concerns over census deployment, particularly during summer vacation. Rajasthan Shikshak Sangh (Ekikrit) state president Ranjeet Meena said teachers posted outside their home districts rely on the vacation period to spend time with families.“We have requested that teachers from outside districts not be assigned Census 2027 duties. Those already deployed should be replaced with local teachers,” he said. The union also demanded exemption for specially-abled teachers with restricted mobility from such assignments.