'Teachers not to be deployed for non-educational purposes'

No teacher shall be deployed for non-educational purposes other than population census, disaster relief duties or work related to elections, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor has said.
"...No teacher shall be deployed for non-educational purposes other than the population census, disaster relief duties or duties relating to elections to the local authority or the state legislatures or Parliament, as per the Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009," an official release said today quoting Tharoor.
The minister also said the National Knowledge Commission has noted that the imposition of a wide range of non-teaching duties, such as that of manning poll booths and collecting data for surveys, cuts into the available teaching time and also undermines the professional status of teachers.

He said these activities should be shared among a wider range of public employees or even those hired specifically for the purpose, and the burden of such work on teachers must be reduced, the release said.