Gurgaon: A teachers’ body has alleged that the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is severely disrupting classroom teaching across the state, describing the process as “unplanned and coercive”.While objecting to the growing pressure on govt school teachers to carry out the SIR, Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh (HVAS), in a letter to the state chief electoral officer, has said that directions issued around mid-June led to large-scale deployment of teachers for voter list verification work — often during school hours.The association claimed that teachers are being assigned extensive responsibilities such as door-to-door verification, data compilation and daily reporting through online formats, including Google sheets and booth-level submissions, leaving little time for academic duties.The union alleged that block-level and nodal officers are putting undue pressure on teachers to meet strict deadlines, sometimes forcing them to work beyond school hours and even on holidays. It said the burden has increased due to continuous monitoring and repeated data corrections, adding to teachers’ stress. The association pointed out that such non-teaching duties violate provisions under the Right to Education norms, which restrict deployment of teachers to limited roles such as Census, disaster relief and election duty only on polling days.Although schools are currently closed for summer vacation, this long-term deployment is scheduled to continue until July 15. The association expressed concerns that this will severely impact regular school operations and classroom teaching once schools reopen on July 1. HVAS state secretary Satyanarayan Yadav told TOI, “While the Election Commission guidelines suggest that the education department should ideally contribute only 10% to 12% of the total booth level officers, nearly 70% to 80% of teachers have been deployed for this duty, causing significant distress.”The union warned that prolonged engagement in such exercises could negatively impact the quality of education, especially in elementary classes where regular teaching is critical. With many schools already facing staff shortages, diverting teachers to non-academic work is likely to further strain the system.The letter urged authorities to immediately review the instructions, reduce unnecessary pressure and ensure that any election-related duty assigned to teachers remains within legal limits. While reiterating that teachers are committed to supporting democratic processes, the association stressed that it should not come at the cost of students’ learning, cautioning that if the situation does not improve, the matter may be escalated through administrative or legal channels.
