Fri, 20 Jan 2017-07:45am , New Delhi , DNA
An education panel appointed by the Prime Minister has submitted a report to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in which they have said that teachers should not do any non-academic work.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), too, in October last year had directed all the schools affiliated to it, and asked teachers not to engage in any non-academic work. Teachers should only be involved in tasks related to teaching, examination, skill enhancement of students and evaluation, the board had said.
“The primary function of teachers lies in facilitating the educational process of children, which is becoming a challenge in modern times. While the students acquire knowledge from multiple sources including internet, the role and importance of teachers cannot be underestimated,” the CBSE had said.
Teachers in government schools, specially in rural areas are engaged in non-academic works like election duty, surveys, doubling up as accountants and human resource manager, which takes away a lot of time from their academic work. Some also take advantage of the fact and not report to schools, marking their absence because of works like these.
The Prime Minister appointed-panel now has suggested that all this takes a toll on the academic output of teachers and hence they should not be used in anything other than academic duties. “If teachers are not able to give their best academic output, quality of education suffers,” the panel, according to sources in the ministry, has suggested.
The panel consisting of secretaries has given a slew of other suggestions minister as well to the ministry, including — teaching of English in government schools, favouring detention policy in various classes and making yoga or sports a part of education curriculum for better physical development of children, sources said.
The Ministry officials are now working on the suggestions given by the panel to bring out changes in the policy.
