With the Lok Sabha elections, public examination paper valuation, and annual examinations all being held at the same time, Government school teachers have complained of being overloaded with work this year.
As an example, a senior government teacher here told The Hindu on Monday that an election-related training programme had been scheduled on April 15 and 16 for Government school teachers.
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The last two examinations for Standards VI to IX too have been scheduled for these two days.
And further, the valuation camps for the Standard X public examination answer scripts, which began on April 10, was expected to be completed by April 19.
A senior official in the Department of Schools said: “Already, Tamil New Year (April 14) and Good Friday (April 18) are holidays. And now, with most of our teachers likely to go for the election training camp, completing the valuation on time is going to be a tough task.”
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Around 3,000 government school teachers have been deputed for the valuation camps.
Each one was expected to valuate 30 papers a day.
CircularAnother official said that the Directorate of School Education had issued a circular asking government school teachers to accord priority to election duty.
Accordingly, the valuation camps would be slowed down on April 15 and 16.
During these days, the camps would proceed with the few teachers who do not have election duty.
As for the annual examinations, a teacher said that it would be run with teachers from other classes.
FavourableOne thing going in the teachers’ favour was the introduction of new measures this year such as bar-coded answer sheets in public examinations.
This had reduced the workload, streamlined the process, and saved considerable time, a teacher said.
When contacted, a senior School Education Department official said that elections were among the foremost of exercises in a democracy and teachers were expected to make their contribution.