With teachers still out on Covid duty, city public schools flag staff shortage

NEW DELHI: With the Class 10 and 12 board examinations scheduled for November and authorities likely to deliberate on reopening schools for students of classes 6 to 8 next week, principals and teachers across government schools in Delhi are concerned about the shortage of staff, with many still engaged in Covid-19 duties.

Hundreds of Delhi government school teachers are working with district administrations in various capacities —at the airport, in vaccination centres at hospitals, as well as cracking down on Covid-norm violations across the city.

Sant Ram, the district secretary of the government schoolteachers’ association in west Delhi-a, which has over 58 schools in the area, said institutions need even more teachers than usual to ensure Covid-19 protocol are followed inside school premises.

“Due to Covid-19 protocol, classes have been split into two or three batches, which necessitates thrice the number of teachers. Instead of allocating more teachers, the sanctioned staff has been given other duties. We need staff to look over mid-day meal preparations or to ensure Covid-19 protocols on the premises. If we reopen for classes 6 to 8, where there are more students than secondary and senior secondary classes, the shortage of teaching staff will create a problem,” he said.

An education department official, however, said these considerations will be taken into account while the government decides to resume in-person lessons for more classes.

“This is going to be one of the factors while deciding whether to reopen schools for classes 6 to 8, and it will not be overlooked. When the decision is taken to reopen the schools, it will be ensured that the teachers are back to schools from the Covid-19 duties,” said the official.

Principals across several Delhi government schools echoed similar concerns.

Sukhbir Singh Yadav, president of the government principals’ association, said, “We are in touch with several schools where 20% of the staff are engaged in Covid-19 duties... Students’ preparations have been hit, even as the preboard exams start from October 21. Without allowing teachers to join schools, it is not possible to reopen classes 6 to 8, especially when an increased number of students from private schools have been admitted.”

Referring to an order released this week asking teachers to report back to school duties, Yadav said, “Teachers from classes 9 to 12 have been waiting for relieving letters from district administration to join schools. This will happen in a phased manner,” he said.

On Tuesday, education director Udit Prakash Rai also issued directives asking all district and zonal deputy directors of education (DDES) to ensure that teachers of classes 9 to 12 report back immediately “so that the students’ preparation with regards to preboard/mid-term/projects and board examination is started immediately.”

This came after the divisional commissioner issued a letter on September 3 asking district magistrates to deploy staff from other departments not teaching classes 9 to 12.