Education activists urge CM Revanth to exempt Primary teachers from Household survey
Hyderabad: Education activists have appealed to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to exempt primary school teachers from participating in the state’s Comprehensive Household Survey, citing violations of the Right to Education Act.
According to the Right to Education Act, teachers can only be deployed for non-educational duties during census, disaster relief, and elections to Parliament, State Legislative Assembly and local governments. The appeal comes after the Principal Secretary of Education’s memo directing 36,559 SGT teachers and 3,414 principals to participate in a household survey.
Further, the memo also mandated schools to operate half days from 9 AM to 1 PM. The Act requires primary schools to maintain 200 working days and 800 teaching hours annually.The orders issued by the state government to use teachers for caste census violate the Right to Education Act, alleges activists.
It is pertinent to note that the National Achievement Survey (NAS) highlights Telangana’s educational challenges,showing lower academic performance compared to other states, particularly among SC, BC, and ST students in government schools. Deploying primary school teachers to other work might adversely impact the children.
Deploying primary school teachers for survey violates Right to Education: R Venkat Reddy
Further, R. Venkat Reddy, National Convener, M V Foundation, noted that reduced school hours particularly impact children from wage-earning families, mainly Dalits and Bahujans. With parents at work and shortened school days, many children are taken to work sites instead of attending classes.
“The recent recruitment of thousands of teachers raised hopes for improved education quality. However, deploying these teachers for survey work instead of teaching could increase dropout rates and impact student learning outcomes,” added Reddy.
Further Reddy emphasizes that the survey deployment contradicts both the letter and spirit of the Right to Education Act, urging immediate reconsideration of the government order.
