More than half of Chandigarh’s government school teachers have been absent from classrooms since April 18. Reason: Census 2027 training.
The city has roughly 37,000 teachers, including Samagra Shiksha teachers, out of which, 2,700 (58%) have been deputed as supervisors and enumerators for Census 2027, and put through an intensive three-day training programme, running in 60 batches.
For nearly two weeks, portions of government schools have been left without their regular teaching staff. The training will continue till April 30, with the actual Census set to begin from May 1.
A government school teacher, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, “During the three-day training sessions, schools have been entirely on adjustment, with no proper course of studies.”
Contract staff roped in, classes merged
Regardless, schools scrambled to manage. Seema Rani, principal of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 16, said the school pre-planned its response by deploying contractual staff and Samagra Shiksha teachers to fill in, combining sections in senior classes, merging four sections of Classes 11 and 12 into three and conducting online classes for students who needed academic support. “While it may have been tricky, we came up with ways to manage the process,” she said.
Census work after school hours
But the training was only the first wave. According to sources, teachers have been informed that the house-listing process of the Census, scheduled from May 1 to 30, will be conducted after school hours, a prospect that has already drawn complaints.
“At present, teachers are to do Census duties after school hours, but practically it is very difficult,” another teacher said. “After waking up at 5 am, reaching school at 8 am, and teaching for six hours until 2 pm, it is practically not possible to then do Census work with efficiency.”
The teacher called for a hybrid rotation model to be adopted for Census duty.
Show-cause served on teachers skipping training
The administration, meanwhile, has shown little tolerance for those stepping back from the obligation. Of the 2,700 teachers deputed for training, 59 who did not attend the scheduled sessions were issued show-cause notices by the department concerned, seeking an explanation for their absence.
While education secretary Prerna Puri remained unavailable for comments on the question of academic loss, director of school education (DSE) Nitish Singla said, “It’s under our consideration. The lost academic time will be compensated through extra effort by the teachers.”
Jatinder Grover, chairperson of the department of education, Panjab University, criticised the move, saying that the National Education Policy-2020 clearly discourages assigning non-academic duties to teachers except in exceptional circumstances. He said the large-scale deployment of teachers for Census work goes against the spirit of the policy and risks affecting classroom instruction.
Board results tell the story
UT’s government schools, meanwhile, have struggled with academic outcomes over the years. In this year’s Class 10 board results, the city’s lowest pass percentage stood at 32.65%, recorded in Government High School, Sector 47, while Government Model High School, Sector 38B, followed at 26.92%, a steep decline from 70% last year. Government Model High School, Sector 53, also continued to lag at 53.33%, underlining persistent performance concerns in the government school system.
