In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, hundreds of zilla parishad (ZP) teachers staged a protest by leaving district, taluka, and cluster-level administrative WhatsApp groups at 10 am on Friday. This coordinated action was in response to an increasing non-academic workload that they claim is impacting their primary teaching responsibilities.
A minimum of around 3,000 ZP teachers simultaneously exited from official WhatsApp groups, according to the union. District president of the union Rajesh Hiwale, who led by example by exiting eight administrative groups despite holding additional charge as Central Head Teacher, said, “Core teaching work of teachers is suffering due to excessive non-academic work.
In addition, frequent demands for online information, the increasing flow of administrative messages, recording of teachers by agencies outside the school system, and unilateral actions without prior notice or an opportunity to respond have become a norm,” he said. With the slogan “Let us just teach, let Zilla Parishad schools survive”, the teachers have demanded reduction in non-academic burden and a teaching-focused environment to protect Marathi-medium schools and students’ interests. A ZP teacher serving as BLO, said the recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) badly affected the classroom teaching, impacting many students. We feel guilty to witness injustice meted out to our students,” he said requesting anonymity Teachers’ unions have demanded that non-academic work of teachers be reduced, adequate time be made available for core educational responsibilities and administrative information outside official working hours must not be sought.
Responding to a call by the Maharashtra State Primary Teachers’ Union and other organisations, teachers across the district simultaneously left official WhatsApp groups, turning a symbolic appeal into direct action. “A significant amount of time of the teachers is being spent on various online data collection exercises, generating reports, carrying out surveys and administrative assignments instead of their primary responsibility of teaching. “Besides door-to-door visits, there were multiple camps held involving BLOs. Even locals used to surround us in schools to get things done.
Stay updated with the latest Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar news. Education officer Sanghratna Sarode did not respond to multiple requests for his comments. CEO of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Zilla Parishad, Minnu PM also did not respond to a call and text message. Download the TOI App.