Thousands of Delhi government school teachers put on election duty despite approaching exams

NEW DELHI: Government schools across Delhi are in panic as thousands of school teachers have been deployed for election duty from August 28 to September 28, even as mid-term school exams are scheduled to start from September 25. The sudden order has schools worried about finishing their syllabus on time and ahead of the exams.

According to orders, issued by the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) of different districts on August 28, teachers are to report as Booth Level Officer (BLO) ahead of the Delhi assembly elections in February 2025. The teachers are to be deployed full time, even on weekends and national holidays, to verify and cross-verify the electoral roll in each booth ahead of the upcoming elections. Moreover, the AERO has threatened to take “necessary action” if the orders are not followed.

School principals, however, said that the orders have caused complete chaos to the academic cycle, especially ahead of the mid-term examinations. One school has had as many as 19 teachers deployed. Plus, teachers from across levels have been pulled in. As one principal pointed out, a nursery teacher being away would leave their entire class virtually unattended for the whole day.

“Most schools have 5-10% teachers deployed for BLO work. Some schools even have 25% of the teachers deployed. In my school, there are only 30 teachers and eight or nine of them are on election duty. They will be involved in all sorts of election work, studies will become second priority,” said Sukhbir Singh Yadav, president of Vice and Principal’s association of Delhi.

According to estimates from principals, around 500 teachers each have been deputed just from South West Delhi and East Delhi. Schools bemoan that instead of deputing non-subject teachers such as lab assistants and physical education teachers, the AEROs and sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) have put core subject teachers on duty.

The deployment of teachers was an issue that cropped up last year, prior to the parliamentary elections, when the Director of Education had to intervene to stop the deployment. This year, however, no such intervention has come yet.

Govt school teachers on ‘full-time’ duty

Some schools have seen even 30% of the teachers being deputed for election work, most of whom are important subject teachers. The Election Commission has also deployed teachers on full-time duty and not part-time, as was the case earlier.

“Nineteen out of 55 teachers are deployed for BLO duty in my school. Earlier it used to be part-time, but now it has become full-time. They are deploying teachers for 20-25 days which overlaps with the mid-term exams. The admissions are just finishing up so if a student joins the school today he will be immediately writing the exam. If 20 teachers from a school – it may even be more in other schools – suddenly leave for duty, the whole rhythm will be affected,” said a school principal from East Delhi.

“Usually the mainstream teachers are never sent for BLO duty. Physical education teachers, lab assistants, are sent for this job. These are the staff whose absence may not affect the academic atmosphere significantly. But now, teachers, irrespective of the subjects they teach, are deployed for the job,” said the same principal.

Even nursery teachers have been deployed on election duty. "From my school, eight teachers have been deployed, including nursery and PGT teachers. In the nursery, one teacher stays with the children the full day. If that teacher is gone, the children will have no teacher at all," said the principal of an East Delhi school.

Delhi govt school admission, results: ‘Lack of care’

Principals pointed out that August 31 is the final day of Delhi Government school admission. If a student joins at the last moment, it becomes very hard to get them up to speed before exams.

“If a student joins on August 31, they will have to write the exams in 20-25 days. For that, no matter how the teachers manage, whether through special classes, getting them up to speed will not happen if teachers themselves are not there. Then, there is a high possibility of a learning gap developing for that student,” said another East Delhi school principal.

Delhi government school principals are the first ones to be pulled up when exam results fall short of expectations, but government officials never take into account how the academic cycle gets impacted by such orders. "If we raise this issue as a cause of poor results, they ask us not to mention it. They want results without teachers," said a principal.

Principals said that the Election Commission should have issued the order a few months ago when the summer vacations were on and school timings wouldn’t be affected. The sudden order shows the “lack of care” towards the underprivileged children who study in these schools, they said.

“Had the order come two months ago, this work could have started after school time. Now, they have given only a month's notice. Voter’s list was also prepared in advance so that this work could have been started before,” said another principal from an East Delhi school.

“The SDM, the AERO – they all have come from schools themselves. But I don’t understand why education is not given importance. No one cares about the underprivileged children; they only care about their post and getting their work done quickly,” said the principal.

As elections approach, principals are also called for election duty. “When elections start, the principals will be deputed for one or two months at the sectoral office. You can imagine the situation in a school if a principal is not around for two months. But no one cares,” the principal said.

“They did not depute principals during the parliamentary elections. That means this work can be done even without principals. But they think people from the education department can be picked anytime and deputed wherever necessary, and then there’s no impact,” said the principal.

Delhi Government Teachers: Previous orders

This is not the first time that such orders have been passed. In September 2023, a similar order was passed prior to the parliamentary elections. Eventually, the director of education, Delhi, wrote to the divisional commissioner asking them to “cancel all orders deploying teachers for election duty”.

The director had cited a Supreme Court judgment in 2007 which termed it “unlawful” for states to send teachers for verification of electoral rolls. The director also cited Section 27 of the Right to Education (RTE) Act which prohibits deployment of teachers for any non-educational work.

This time, the Directorate of Education is yet to make any comments on the recent orders. According to some principals, the matter has been brought to the notice of the director of education by the district collector of East Delhi.

“There are many orders, even court interventions, that say that teachers should not be deployed for election duty for a long duration. But I don’t understand why this still happens even with all these rules,” said Yadav.

“There are many rules but everyone ignores them. Sometimes there is a court decision but no one follows that. Unless SC or someone comes up with a strict rule that teachers cannot be deployed, nothing will change,” said a principal.