Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia asked the Chief Secretary to ensure that all Delhi government schoolteachers are not summoned for any administrative/field duties other than COVID-19-related duties as classes commenced on Monday.
“It has been brought to my notice that about 20,000-25,000 teachers are currently posted with district authorities for COVID-19-related duties. Considering the importance of education and the present status of the virus situation in Delhi, district authorities are to substantially scale down the present level of deployment and direct the teachers to report back to schools for their regular duties,” he said.
Services rendered
Teachers have been at the forefront of virus-related duties ever since the first lockdown in March last year. They have rendered their services whenever the district administration asked them to do so such as door-to-door survey, enforcement of COVID-19 protocol, screening at airport, and many of them have also been engaged in activities related to vaccination trials. For non-COVID-19-related duties, Mr. Sisodia said that prior permission of the Education Minister will be mandatory before assigning any teacher.
“Our teachers are providing online support to students of all Classes — KG to Class 12 — and engaging with their parents on a regular basis. Therefore, going forward, discretion is necessary in summoning the services of the teachers so that education activities, which the teachers are originally mandated to discharge, are not seriously disrupted,” he said.
“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 the required number of teaching personnel keeping balance between academic requirement and COVID-19 duties,” Mr. Sisodia said.
