Poll duty triggers scare among Bengal teachers, who say they are already busy

Kolkata college teachers fear being assigned election duties, citing academic responsibilities and National Education Policy implementation as priorities.

College teachers in West Bengal are a worried lot at the moment as they fear being assigned election duties. According to them, they are already busy meeting academic deadlines — such as implementation of National Education Policy — and that their participation in the conduct of elections would derail that process.

The State administration has already started sending colleges lists of​ teachers who should be sent for training in election duties. This move has also triggered the parallel and usual process of teachers trying to pull their strings to get their names struck off the list.

On Saturday evening, a prominent teachers’ body in the State, the West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association or WBCUTA, wrote to the State Election Commission asking for exemption of teachers from poll duties, saying they were too busy with academic responsibilities.

“In connection with the ensuing Parliament Elections 2024 in West Bengal, we would like to draw your kind attention to the order of the Election Commission of India dated 16 February, 2010, where it was stated categorically that ‘Group A or equivalent Senior Officer, including the officers and teaching staff of universities, colleges etc. should not be drafted for polling duties in polling station premises without specific reason to be recorded in writing by the District Election Officer, where such appointments become unavoidable,” WBCUTA said in its letter.

“Further, it should be noted that the college and university teachers are all round the year engaged in classes and examination-related duties such as paper setting, evaluation of answer scripts and uploading of marks on university portals,” it said.

“Moreover, college and university teachers are presently extremely occupied with the implementation of a new system of teaching learning and evaluation as proposed in the National Education Policy 2020. Under the circumstances, we feel the teaching community of colleges and universities should be exempted from performing election duties in the forthcoming Parliamentary election in our State,” the letter further said.

Colleges have already started receiving letters from the administration naming teachers who must attend the first training required for poll duties. “With semester examinations going on, teachers are busy with invigilation. Also, evaluation of papers is in full swing and it will go on for the next couple of months, therefore requisitioning college teachers for elections will hamper the process. Also, with many colleges busy with last-minute preparations of submitting formalities for NAAC evaluation — to be done by May — poll duties will be a great impediment,” a professor at a Kolkata college said, asking not to be named.