Administrative work should be handled by dedicated staff or trained youth. Protecting classroom time should be a priority, not an afterthought.
Rayees Yaseen
In every society, teachers are regarded as nation builders. They shape young minds, guide future leaders, and lay the foundation of a country’s progress. But what happens when these nation builders are constantly pulled away from classrooms and assigned duties that have little to do with education?
Across India, government school teachers are repeatedly assigned non-academic responsibilities—election duty, Aadhaar data collection, voter ID verification, surveys for government schemes, census work, and supervision of competitive exams. While each of these tasks may be important for administration, the cumulative burden on teachers is deeply affecting the education system.
During election periods, classrooms often fall silent. Teachers are deployed for days or even weeks, leaving students without proper guidance. Similarly, duties related to exams like NEET, JKSSB, and other competitive tests further disrupt regular teaching schedules. The situation doesn’t end there—new surveys and government assignments continue to emerge, pulling teachers away again and again.
The result is clear: students suffer the most.
Missed classes, incomplete syllabi, lack of revision, and reduced interaction with teachers create learning gaps that are hard to recover. For students in government schools—many of whom already face limited resources—this becomes an even bigger challenge. Education is not just about textbooks; it requires consistency, mentorship, and continuity. When that continuity is broken, the quality of learning declines.
If a nation truly wants to grow and compete globally, it must prioritise its education system. Strong education cannot exist without fully available and focused teachers. Assigning them excessive administrative duties undermines the very purpose they serve.
A practical alternative exists. Instead of burdening teachers, these responsibilities—especially large-scale exercises like the upcoming census, surveys, and data collection—can be assigned to educated unemployed youth. This approach would serve a dual purpose: it would provide young people with opportunities to learn and earn, while ensuring that classroom teaching continues uninterrupted. Engaging youth in such roles can also build skills, responsibility, and a sense of participation in nation-building—without compromising students’ education.
Unfortunately, this perspective is often overlooked. The system continues to rely on teachers for every administrative need, as if their primary role in the classroom is secondary. This raises a difficult question: who is truly listening to the concerns of the education sector?
This issue is not limited to one region like Kashmir—it is happening across states and Union Territories in India. It reflects a systemic problem where teachers are treated as a readily available workforce for all kinds of government tasks.
It is time to rethink this approach.
Administrative work should be handled by dedicated staff or trained youth, allowing teachers to focus on what they do best—teaching. Protecting classroom time should be a priority, not an afterthought.
Because in the end, when teachers are taken away from classrooms, it is not just time that is lost—it is the future of students that is compromised. And if such practices continue unchecked, the damage to our education system may become too deep to repair.
The writer is a teacher, PhD scholar, and socio-political analyst specialising in education
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