New Delhi, Oct 29: Teachers in government-run schools get to spend mere 19.1 per cent of their working hours in teaching owing to their engagement in other government works including poll duties, pulse polio campaigns, reveals a government survey.
IN the startling revealtion, the report, released by the National Institute of Education and Administration (NUEPA) recently, said that 42.6 per cent of a teacher’s working hours is spent on non-teaching core activities, 31.8 per cent in non-teaching school-related activities and 6.5 per cent on other department activities.
Teachers remain busy in poll duties, pulse polio campaigns, maintaining MDM registers
According to the report titled ‘Involvement of Teachers in Non-teaching Activities and its Effect on Education’, only 19.1 per cent of a teacher’s annual school hours is spent on teaching activities. During the rest of the time, they are either engaged in election duties, pulse polio campaigns and maintaining mid-day meal registers.
The study was conducted in Karnataka, Orissa, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra.
In 2017, the Centre had appointed a committee to ensure that teachers are not assigned any non-academic work and should only concentrate on teaching. The move came in the wake of criticism from various quarters, which pointed out that from conducting cattle census, election duties, pulse polio work to ration card verification, teachers across the country were roped in to do several non-teaching activities. Also, the Right to Education Act 2009 allows only three duties — census, disaster and election (only on polling and counting days).
‘Need to look at teachers in govt schools as agents of social change’
Commenting on the survey, Right to Education (RTE) activist Chaitanya MRSK said, “The drawback is that the government looks at these teachers as government employees. This attitude needs to change. We need to look at teachers in government schools as agents of social change. Yes, it is true that there is a lot of burden on the teachers to take up administrative work besides teaching. This does hamper their quality of teaching.”
“We need to look at the teachers as assets in nation building and invest in teacher training and improving the quality of teaching and not involve them in administrative work. I personally know of a lot of teachers who prefer working in private schools and not as Vidya volunteers because in the private sector the teachers are not involved in administrative work. Their sole focus is to improve their delivery and focus on the child’s growth,” he was quoted as saying by a news website.
