A number of non-academic tasks take teachers away from classrooms

For the last year, teachers and lecturers are assigned long-term non-teaching tasks, including caste survey and SIR. | Photo credit: File photo

“We are currently tasked with the work for the ‘objection and verification’ phase of SIR. Earlier, we were part of the pre-enumeration mapping and also the enumeration phase,” said a distressed high school teacher in Bengaluru. Furthermore, he and his colleagues will be part of the notification liquidation phase of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls.

“We have been warned of legal action if we refuse to participate until the SIR process is fully completed,” he said. “But in the meantime, the authorities are pressuring us to conduct classes and exams in schools as scheduled. How to do both at the same time?” he asked.

Since teachers and lecturers of government schools and PU colleges are assigned non-academic activities, the latest being SIR, their main focus is teaching.

Acts of a juggler

Some are desperately trying to juggle. A teacher in Bengaluru South district told The Hindu that she goes to school in the morning and does SIR work in the afternoon. “Lessons are not yet completed and students are not even able to do Summative Assessment-1,” she lamented.

For the last one year, teachers and lecturers have been assigned long-term non-teaching tasks, including caste survey and SIR, despite the requirement not to engage teachers in non-academic work in the interest of students. The Department of Education has the largest number of employees, who are routinely deployed for extracurricular activities, including elections, censuses, and surveys.

In May/June 2025, a commission headed by Justice Nagamohan Das conducted a comprehensive survey of scheduled castes/sub-castes to implement internal reservation in the state. Teachers and employees of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) have been deployed for this.

Later, in September/October 2025, the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes conducted a caste survey and again this task was assigned to teachers and lecturers.

Later, the door-to-door census 2027 was conducted in April 2026. After that, the Election Commission of India started the SIR from 30 June 2026, in which more than 65,000 teachers and lecturers across the state were represented, including the posts of Booth Level Officers (BLO). Liquidation of claims and objections will take place until October 22, 2026, and the final list of voters will be published on October 27. Until then, teachers will be part of the process.

But the non-pedagogical work does not end there. After the completion of the SIR, the state government intends to hold local body elections in December and January 2027. After that, census work will begin from February 2027. A large number of teachers will be deployed for all these tasks.

DDPU letter

The Deputy Director of Pre-University (DDPU), Department of School Education, Bengaluru Central Educational District wrote a letter to the Director of the Department on 24 August 2026 requesting them to take appropriate action to release at least 50% of the lecturers from SIR service.

“A total of 7858 students are studying in 20 government PU colleges in Bengaluru Central Educational District and 228 lecturers are working. Out of which 127 lecturers are assigned SIR. This hampers the day-to-day academic activities of the college and disrupts the teaching,” the DDPU letter said.

The PU college principal pointed out that a target has been set for PU results for this year, but it is proving difficult to meet as there are no lecturers in the colleges. “Despite requests to provide more visiting faculty, the government is not responding,” he said.

Speaking to The Hindu, Karnataka State Primary Teachers Association president Chandrashekar Nuggali said that teachers are tired of being caught between SIR and academic activities. “Despite repeated requests for teachers not to assign non-academic work, it still happens,” he said.

Published – 04 Sep 2026 22:45 IST