The Aam Aadmi Party-led government’s decision to depute thousands of teachers as booth-level officers for verification of voter ID cards has disrupted classes in government schools here.

Delhi Assembly elections will be held in February next year and the electoral roll revision has to be completed before that.

On the direction of sub-divisional magistrates, teachers from schools of the Delhi government and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) have been sent as BLOs for one month from August 24.

Several parents claimed that classes were not being held in subjects whose teachers had been deputed as BLOs.

“I am a member of the management committee of a government school. I find many classes are not being held. Children are sitting idle. It is affecting their education,” said a parent who did not wish to be identified.

She said the children enrolled in government schools come from poor families and the government did not care about educating the poor.

The vacuum created by the absence of teachers comes ahead of the mid-term examination in the middle of September.

A school principal said that a single teacher handles six to seven classes a day. If he is sent for election-related work, it becomes difficult to manage his classes.

“The teachers have been deputed for a month. The government wants a 100 per cent pass rate in every class and the board exams. During the elections, the teachers will be deputed again. In addition, there are vacations and teachers also go on leave. Teaching activities will suffer heavily this year,” the principal said.

Ashok Agrawal, a member of the Delhi University court and president of the All India Parents Teachers Association, said he visited an MCD school this week and found that six teachers had been deputed as BLOs and three were on maternity and child-care leave.

“I saw a teacher who was handling students of three classes,” he said.

Agrawal said election-related work was an additional burden for teachers who have to maintain records on the number of children eating midday meals and share the data on a daily basis.

“The Right To Education (RTE) Act allows deployment of government school teachers for election and census activities. This is wrong,” he said.

An email was sent to Ashok Kumar, secretary of the education department, to understand his perspectives on deputing teachers for election work. His response is awaited.