January 19, 2021
TED NewsDesk, New Delhi: Manish Sisodia the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi govt, ordered not to appoint government school teachers of Delhi for administrative work other than Covid-19 duty. The government gave its consent to reopen schools for classes 10 and 12 following which the Minister gave an order on Monday.
“Teachers of Delhi government have been at the forefront of COVID-19 related duties ever since the first lockdown in March 2020. They have rendered their services whenever the district administration asked them to do so,” said Mr Sisodia
“In fact, as late as the current month, they have also been involved in the door-to-door survey, enforcement of COVID-19 protocol, screening at the airport, and many of them have also been engaged in activities related to Coronavirus vaccination trials,” he said in official order.
“Due to the unprecedented, once in a lifetime nature of the pandemic, it was a collective responsibility of every official of Delhi government, including teachers, to perform emergency COVID-19 related duties. However, considering the upcoming board examinations, the Delhi government has decided to commence special classes, including practical examinations, pre-board examinations for class 10 and 12 students from January 18,” the Minister said.
The Delhi education minister also considered discretion a mandatory aspect to assign duties to the educators, to avoid the disruption of educational activities. Originally, the teachers have to discharge these education activities.
“Our teachers are providing online support to the students of all classes–KG to class 12– and engaging with their parents on regular basis. Therefore, going forward, discretion is necessary for summoning the services of the teachers so that education activities, which the teachers are originally mandated to discharge, are not seriously disrupted,” he added.
“It has been seen that the district authorities are summoning the services of specific Teachers, Vice-Principals and Principals of the Directorate of Education (DoE) directly without any consultation with the Directorate. Considering the importance of education as well as the emergency-related Covid duties, the district officials are directed not to summon the services of any teacher for any other administrative or field related work, other than COVID-19 related duties,” he said.
In case of emergency, the district authorities can station teachers only after seeking permission from the Minister, as he informed.
“For COVID-19 related duties, the DoE also understands the collective responsibility, and the services of teachers can be utilised by the district authorities. However, they shall not summon any teacher by name. They shall submit their requirement to the Directorate, which will further provide a required number of teaching personnel keeping a balance between academic requirement and COVID-19 duties,” he added.
“It has been brought to my notice that about 20000-25000 teachers are currently posted with district authorities for COVID-19 related duties. Considering the importance of education and the present status of COVID-19 situation in Delhi, district authorities to substantially scale down the present level of deployment and direct the teachers to report back to schools for their regular duties,” the order mentioned.
After 10 months of closure due to COVID-19, the schools finally reopened on Monday in the national capital. Currently, it is conducting classes only for 10th and 12th.
Source: Times of India
