Report by Correspondent of Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC)
On Thursday 9 July, thousands of teachers across Maharashtra staged a protest against their appointment as Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.
One of the largest protests of its kind took place at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan, where approximately 2,000 teachers, non-teaching staff, principals, and school management representatives from across the city gathered, despite warnings of salary cuts from the state education department. Protesters argued that teachers are forced to devote more time to election-related duties than to actual teaching, thereby adversely affecting students’ education. Unions maintained that this administrative work wastes valuable classroom time.
The state is already grappling with a shortage of over 37,000 teachers in Zilla Parishad schools. More than 9,200 schools are functioning with only a single teacher. A lone teacher often has to manage multiple classes simultaneously, which negatively impacts student learning. Vacancies are deliberately left unfilled, and teachers are hired on a contractual basis at very low wages. Consequently, there has been a sharp decline in admissions for teacher-training courses; only 24 percent of the seats for the Diploma in Education (D.Ed.) program have been filled. This indicates that fewer new teachers are being drawn to the profession.
The key demands put forward by the striking teachers were:
- Withdraw the mandatory Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) requirement for teachers already in service;
- Immediately quash the FIRs registered against teachers who refused election-related duties;
- Provide compensation of ₹1 crore to the families of teaching and non-teaching staff who lost their lives while performing BLO and SIR duties;
- Reinstate the regular full-day timetable in schools.
Kamgar Ekta Committee has always supported the struggles of teachers. All these demands are entirely legitimate. Without resolving the fundamental issues concerning teachers, the future of students will remain bleak. It is imperative that teachers be immediately relieved of all other additional tasks, ensuring that their primary duty is focused on the education and development of students.