For the first time, the Maharashtra government has issued a new resolution that outlines the responsibilities of teachers in government and aided schools. The resolution separates their duties into academic and non-academic tasks. The goal is to make sure that teachers are only responsible for activities directly related to education.
This comes after many teachers complained that the quality of education was affected because they were burdened with non-educational responsibilities. In response, the state’s education department released the Government Resolution (GR) on Friday, August 16.
The GR lists 20 academic responsibilities, which include teaching, creating report cards, continuous student assessment, contributing to curriculum development, maintaining student records, and monitoring children who are not attending school.
In addition to these, the GR also lists 12 non-academic tasks that teachers have been involved in, such as organising exams for other departments, participating in surveys, engaging in cleanliness drives, and working to prevent open defecation.
Teachers are no longer required to do non-academic activities. But they will still be required to participate in specific tasks, such as those related to the census, election day, and disaster management. Section 27 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act makes sure that teachers will continue to work on the decennial census, election day duties, and disaster relief activities.
The GR also makes it clear that teachers cannot be forced to take part in non-educational activities such as government-organised cleanliness drives or departmental surveys. According to the GR, teachers are required to devote 200 days each year to elementary education (classes 1–5) and 220 days to upper primary education (classes 6–8).
This decision was made following a discussion in the state assembly on September 9, 2023, which led to the formation of a committee tasked with classifying work into educational and non-educational categories. The committee, chaired by Ranjeet Singh Deol, principal secretary of the school education department, provided recommendations that led to the issuance of this GR.
The release of this GR has resulted in mixed reactions. Recently, more than 2,000 teachers from aided and civic schools were directed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to report for election-related work.