Punjab government asks officials to limit teacher deployment for non-academic duties as SIR ends

The Punjab government has directed the deputy commissioners across the state to make sure that the government school teachers are not assigned non-teaching duties so that they can focus on their academic responsibilities. The direction was given amid rising concerns over the teacher’s deployment for administrative work outside schools.

Punjab Education Secretary Sonali Giri issued the direction in a letter dated September 18. She said that teachers from the School Education Department were being officially called upon by district and sub-divisional authorities for administrative and other non-teaching work for ‘unjustified, longer periods’.

Giri has asked deputy commissioners to review these deployments and allow teachers to return to schools since the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls have almost completed and are scheduled to end on September 30.

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Punjab to limit teacher deployment

In her letter, Giri pointed out that many teachers had already been assigned responsibilities under the SIR exercise. She said that continued deployment should be reduced since the SIR exercise is almost over. This way teachers could get back to their primary teaching duties in schools.

Government school teachers had already been protesting and had raised objections over their duties involving non-academic work following which the latest directive has been announced.

Outside of their regular teaching responsibilities, teachers were also asked to help verify ration cards. The education department's latest directive issued that these non-academic work is hampering classroom teaching because it is consuming a large amount of the teachers' time.

Over the past year, government teachers in Punjab have been given duties linked to electoral roll revision and preparations for Census 2027. They have also been working with the state government survey related to drug use.

Teachers have also been previously deployed for work connected with government welfare programmes, including registration under schemes for women and the preparation of health-related records. Now the Punjab education department has instructed that teachers and lecturers should focus only on their core educational responsibilities.