Delhi: Covid to pollution, teachers push for relief from non-teaching role

Since the onset of the pandemic, teachers have been deputed to various Covid-related duties — including at the airport, vaccination centres, oxygen centres, and in tracing work.

On October 5, the Director of Education wrote to all education officials and heads of schools to direct all teachers of classes IX to XII to report back to school. Pre-board examinations in Delhi government schools are scheduled to begin on October 21 and the first-term board examinations from mid-November.

“There are 14 regular teachers from my school, including Post Graduate Teachers who teach senior secondary students and Trained Graduate Teachers, who teach secondary students, who are yet to be relieved of their duty by the district administration. It is difficult because we need hands on board when classes IX to XII students come to school… We also have three vaccination sites at the school so there are additional teachers who have to be placed on duty there,” said a head of a school in Northwest Delhi.

In schools functioning as vaccination centres, teachers need to be assigned duty every day. “We need to depute 10 teachers every day, which also has to include PGT and TGT teachers because all the pressure can’t be exerted on a few primary teachers. So every teacher is deputed there two to three times a week,” said a teacher in a school in East Delhi.

There has been a pushback from the Government Schools Teachers’ Association against all non-teaching duties, especially after an order from the office of SDM Rohini for constituting five teams of two teachers each to “carry out inspections/drives to ensure adherence to dust control measures specially in construction activities and pollution caused by burning of garbage, plastic, rubber, firecrackers”.

In response to this, the association has threatened a “strong protest” if all teachers are not relieved from such duties soon.