Haryana: Government school teachers threaten strike, say ‘pressured’ to take up non-academic work

GURUGRAM: Government school teachers have decided to launch a protest over alleged pressure from the education department to take up the non-academic assignments. Teachers have argued that the protest will be a symbolic gesture to unanimously say ‘NO’ to any work that is outside their line of duty — that is to teach and ensure seamless functioning of the schools.
The protest will be held in various districts across the state on September 14.
“We have been requesting senior officials to not appoint us to any duty related to tasks of the district administration as it impacts our teaching hours. But the government and officials have been pressurising us to take these tasks and even threatening that if we do not cooperate we’ll have to face the music. This is totally unacceptable and we will launch a full-fledged protest on September 14,” said Dushyant Thakran, the district head of the Haryana Prathmik Shikshak Sangh. Teachers have claimed that the year that was meant to bridge the learning gap should have been kept strictly for teaching and not losing out time on works that can be done by paid volunteers or other staff of different government departments.
They further alleged that the department is forcing them to verify income of the applicants of the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) and not accommodating their requests of unavailability of time to juggle between teaching and administrative tasks.
“Few months ago we had taken up the issue with the chief minister and he had assured us that teachers will not be burdened with any administrative task against their will. However, these directions have never been implemented in reality. Moreover, certain officials put pressure on teachers who refuse to take up these assignments,” said Satyanarayan Yadav, the district president of Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh.
Reiterating Yadav’s argument, Thakran added, “This year was supposed to be for bridging the learning gap. Half of the academic session is over and we haven’t found enough momentum to do that. First, there were multiple training sessions. Then, surveys to find out the extent of learning gaps. Thereafter, teachers’ transfer drive and now these assignments are stopping us from effectively carrying out tasks of an educator. If the results are poor because of all this, we will be pulled up and blamed for not doing our job properly.”
The education department officials, however, expressed their helplessness in the case and maintained that no pressure is being built on the teachers. “We are not pleased to assign all this. If the learning gap is an issue bothering teachers, it is a concern for us too. Before them, we’ll be pulled up if results don’t improve. But we are helpless. If the government and administration direct us to get the work done, we can’t do anything about it. We too are working late nights because if the government wants a job done, we have to abide by it,” said a district education official on the condition of anonymity.
“Some union leaders are turning this into an issue because they don’t want to spend even an hour more after the classes are over. Most of the work has to be done online and rarely do they have to go door-to-door for verification,” the official added.