Don't use teachers for non-academic work: Assam State Primary Teachers' Association (ASPTA)

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Assam State Primary Teachers' Association (ASPTA) has urged the State's Education Minister Ranoj Pegu to ensure that teachers of primary schools are not engaged in non-academic work by the Government because such work serves as an impediment in the way of imparting all lessons as per the annual academic calendar.

In a recent letter to the Education Minister, the ASPTA stated that as per the academic calendar published by the authority concerned, the tenure of each academic year is from April to November, with 140 days of imparting lessons to students. These 140 days, however, include 23 days wherein various occasions are to be celebrated.

The ASPTA further stated that teachers are not being able to conduct classes properly in primary schools as per norms in the ongoing academic year. The association said that as a consequence of the Gunotsav 2022 and floods, classes could not be conducted till the first week of June this year. Seven days were wasted in the name of preparations and training for Guntosav 2022, it said, adding that similar waste of teaching days occurred due to the 'National Awareness Day on Power Conservation' and programmes related to 'Swachh Fortnight'. Moreover, the period between August 3 and August 15 was spent for 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', raising of the National Flag in each household. There were also 'Poshan Maah', the birth anniversary celebrations of Lachit Barphukan etc. In all, around 50 teaching days were wasted due to such events, the ASPTA stated in its letter, pointing out that the total number of wasted days would come to 75 days or so if the scheduled 23 days of celebrating other occasions are taken into account.

The letter stated that valuable teaching days are also wasted because teachers have to participate in various online training on banking activity, 'Gurushala', FLN, U-DISE, school management, evaluation of Gunotsav results etc.

The ASPTA further stated in the letter that the teachers also have to spend hours on end to upload various data on official websites of the Education Department.

The ASPTA stated that in such a scenario, regardless of steps for appraisal of teachers' performance, the fact remains that the system is no longer conducive for both imparting and learning academic lessons.

As such, the primary teachers should be allowed to concentrate on discharging their academic work, rather than being engaged in non-academic work, the ASPTA stated.

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