The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Teachers deputed to revise electoral rolls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 17, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Teachers deputed to revise electoral rolls

Bageshree S. and Chitra V. Ramani

Students have been left to fend for themselves

Education Department has launched it ambitious Kalika Andolana programme
Under the programme, teachers have to take remedial classes for slow learners

Bangalore: The Yelahanka Girls’ Model Primary School has 13 teachers. While one of them is on maternity leave, six others have been away from school for the past 15 days, deputed to revise electoral rolls. The remaining six teachers can do no more than “mind” the 630 children, considering that they have more than 100 children each under their care.

Kalika Andolana

Even as the Education Department has launched the ambitious Kalika Andolana programme and asked teachers to take remedial classes for slow learners, the longstanding promise that teachers would not be pulled out of school for non-academic work during the academic year has been broken.

According to Basavaraj Gurikar, president of the Karnataka State Government Teachers’ Association, over 50 per cent of teachers in Bangalore city have been deputed for electoral roll revision work, affecting academic activities.

‘Waste of money’

Ramadevi, a teacher at the Yelahanka school and president of another teachers’ association, told The Hindu, “Crores of rupees are being spent on education initiatives by the department. They will serve no purpose if teachers themselves are out of schools.”

Mr. Gurikar alleged that even the usual norm that only one in four teachers would be recruited for special duties had been flouted this time. There had even been instances in Bangalore North One Range, he claimed, where teachers who refused to go on verification work had been threatened by revenue officials with the help of the police. The orders had come directly from the Deputy Commissioner and not from the Education Department, he added.

Memos given

C.K. Channabasappa, Deputy Director of Public Instruction (Bangalore North), said that Block Education Officers had been “intimated” following the direction from the Deputy Commissioner. “The officials of the Revenue Department have gone around to schools and handed over the memos. We had requested the department to only depute one teacher for election duty if that particular school had four teachers,” he said. He acknowledged, though, that there “may be” cases where more than two teachers had been asked to report for election duty.

M.A. Sadiq, District Election Officer and Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore Urban district, said several officials from various departments had been deployed for electoral roll verification. “It is not just teachers from government schools who are involved in the verification process. To the extent possible, we have avoided asking teachers from single-teacher schools.”

Asked if the Revenue Department had informed the Department of Public Instruction about the deployment of teachers, Mr. Sadiq said the Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer had the “astute power” to ask anyone to come for election duty. “However, we had sent a direction to the Commissioner of Public Instruction in this regard,” he said, adding that the allegations made by teachers about being threatened were “false and baseless”.

Panel recommendation

In one of its recommendation, the Karnataka State Education Perspective Plan Committee had said that activities such as census of children, revision of electoral rolls, elections and such other work should be undertaken only during school holidays. “Strict instructions should be issued to the deputy commissioners and other revenue officers who indiscriminately use the services of teachers for various purposes and threaten them with action if the teachers do not obey,” it said.

‘Has been minimised’

G. Kumar Naik, Commissioner of Public Instruction, said the use of teachers for non-teaching purposes had been reduced to a great extent. “We have tried to minimise it as much as possible, so that teachers can concentrate on just the students.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka