Clarification regarding news item published on 08.01.2019 under the heading “70% Govt. teachers kept busy outside classes in 2018” on the first/front page of HT City Chandigarh

Chandigarh, 10^th January, 2019: Attention is invited to the news item which was published in HT City Chandigarh on 08.01.2019 bearing the title “70% Govt. teachers kept busy outside classes in 2018”. The said report has been published ostensibly on the basis of information collected under the RTI Act 2005.  The perusal of the report shows that information as claimed to have been collected under the RTI Act has been presented in such a manner as to present an extremely distorted picture with the mala-fide motive of maligning the image of School Education Department of Chandigarh.  This claim of the Education Department gets substantiated from the following facts:

Ø Each and every Govt. School in U.T., of Chandigarh has been provided with one Accountant and one Clerk for undertaking/doing accounting/budgetary jobs as well as routine clerical work.

Ø In addition to the above said staff one Data Entry Operator has been provided to each and every Senior Secondary School for assisting the school authorities in collection, compilation, analysis and transmission of data relating to various activities undertaken/performed by the schools.

Thus the allegation that the clerical and other activities are being performed by school teachers is absolutely wrong and misplaced.

Ø On an average total number of duty hours per week for a teacher are 38 hours.  Similarly, on an average a teacher has to devote 24 to 25 hours towards teaching.  Thus, there is a difference of 13 to 14 hours per week between the actual number of duty hours and actual number of teaching hours.  This spare time can be gainfully utilized for activities related to overall functioning of the school.

Performance of academic and non-academic activities which are connected with/related to the overall working/functioning of the school, which, inter-alia, include maintenance of different funds operated by school authorities, distribution of medicines (once a week) etc. cannot be assigned to outsiders. These duties have necessarily to be performed by the school authorities including teachers.

The detail of the activities and the manner in which these are performed by the school authorities is indicated as follows:-

1.     Fee Collection

There is no fee being charged from students of classes I-VIII in all government schools of UT Chandigarh.

Fee is deposited by the school Accountant for rest of the classes i.e. from Classes IX-XII. Moreover department has provided POS machines at each school for cash less transactions for depositing fee.

2.     Distribution of medicines

It is mandatory to give the medicines to children once a week on specific     day after meal as per the instructions of Health Department, UT   Chandigarh under SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAMME which is a WHO initiative. This activity has a direct bearing on the health of the school children and therefore this duty cannot be assigned to anyone else other than the class teacher.

3.     Disbursal of Scholarships of SC/ST/Minorities/OBC

Most of the scholarship schemes are operated through online mode and scholarship is paid twice a year.

It is the responsibility of an individual student to file online application.

Data Entry Operator or Clerk of the school provides the necessary assistance to an individual.

4.     Educational Survey in the neighborhood

Educational Survey in the neighborhood area is carried on by the school teachers as per the provisions of RTE Act-2009.

Out of school children survey is done by Special Training Teacher (STT) under the supervision of Cluster Resource Co-coordinator (CRC).

5.     Election/Census/Disaster Management Duty

Only few teachers are deployed on these duties occasionally as per the provisions of RTE Act-2009.

6.     Managing funds under SSA

All the funds are released online and are maintained by the school office staff (ministerial staff). 

Activities relating to utilization of funds such as setting up of Science & Knowledge Park, BALA Project, Excursion Trips, Celebration of Special Days are coordinated by the teachers concerned which is an academic activity because these activities/ developments are to be carried out under the supervision of the domain expert.

7.     Managing School Funds

There are few school funds for which different teachers have been designated as fund in-charges.  Most of the funds such as Club & Societies Funds, Magazine Funds, Excursion Funds, CWF Fund, Computer Science Fund, IT Fund, Work Experience Fund and Dilapidation Fund are having only 2 or 3 transactions in a year.  Accounting work relating to school funds is managed by the office staff whereas activities (academic and co-curricular) are undertaken by the concerned teachers.

8.     Newly added DBT Scheme

It is an online process and is managed by the office staff.

9.     Audit Duty

Audit is done once in five years and the teachers simply assist the Audit Team.

10.  Not out of place to mention that Section 27 of RTE Act permits performance of following duties by the teacher in case of need/emergency:

Decennial population census.

Disaster relief duty.

Duty related to election to the local authority or the state legislature or parliament as the case may be.

However, the department always endeavors to minimize deployment of teachers even on those duties which are permitted under Section 27 of RTE Act.

It is evident from the above facts that the blatantly misleading report was published on 08.01.2019 in HT City Chandigarh titled as “70% Govt. teachers kept busy outside classes in 2018”.  Such reports not only damage the reputation of the department and the school authorities but also have a detrimental effect on the morale of officers/officials of the Education Department.  The design behind the said report seems to be mischievous and mala-fide.