The district inspector of schools in Calcutta has told the heads of government-aided schools that many teachers should not be allowed “on-duty leave” at the same time so the teaching-learning process is not disrupted.
On-duty leave is granted to a teacher for reasons like receiving answer scripts
from head examiners, submitting evaluated board exam scripts, uploading board exam marks and various other duties.
An official of the district inspector’s office said it had come to their notice that at a time too many on-duty leaves were being granted and schools were struggling to complete the syllabus in the absence of teachers.
District inspector Sanjoy Chattopadhyay has written to the heads that: “The attendance of teachers must be ensured and on-duty leave of many teachers at a time should not be allowed in any circumstances”.
Heads of institutions should grant on-duty leave in a way that the teaching-learning process is not disturbed, the official said.
“There are schools that have 10 teachers. If six of them are given on-duty leave,
this will impact the teaching. So, the decision has to be made based on the situation
on the ground,” said the official.
Swapan Mandal, general secretary of the Bengal Teachers’ and Employees’ Association, said schools were suffering from inadequate teachers as the teacher recruitment process has remained stalled for several years following allegations of irregularities in hiring.
“In such a situation, granting on-duty leave to teachers who have been engaged as examiners seems to have aggravated the crisis. Schools are being forced to grant on-duty leave to teachers as evaluation of answer scripts Madhyamik (secondary) and Higher Secondary exams is underway,” said Mandal.
Ashim Nanda, headmaster of Dum Dum Shree Aurobindo Vidyamandir, said: “Classes in my school could not be held on some days as 15 teachers took on-duty leave. We have to prepare students for the first summative tests due in April. If the syllabus cannot be completed, how will the students write the tests?”
In government and government-aided schools, students are assessed through a combination of summative and formative tests.
Attendance of teachers has been a matter of concern for the state government in recent times.
Twice in the past three months, the state secondary education board has asked teachers in government-aided schools to comply with guidelines regarding their
attendance.
