Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
In municipal, Zilla Parishad, and aided schools, student and teacher attendance now has to be recorded in three different ways. Teachers must mark attendance once on the traditional register, once under the school nutrition programme, and a third time using the online Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK) system. Filling out information across multiple portals consumes 2–3 hours daily, increasing workload and stress for teachers.
After arriving at school, most of the teachers’ work is online. According to the School Education Department’s orders, attendance must be submitted in multiple formats, leaving teachers frustrated and questioning when they will have time to teach students.
In addition to teaching, teachers are being tasked with several non-academic duties. They are effectively functioning as data entry operators, updating information in multiple systems daily. This process alone takes at least two hours, often before 2 pm.
Network and server issues compound the problem, particularly in remote Zilla Parishad schools where reliable internet is unavailable. Frequent network downtime and server hangs make online submissions difficult. Multiple government apps for different tasks also cause mobile devices to hang, further slowing the process.
Teachers say that the continuous burden of online and non-academic work leaves them with little time for actual teaching, raising serious concerns about the quality of classroom learning.
Let teachers teach
“The online and other non-academic workload on teachers has become excessive. Teachers need relief from this burden, otherwise, they may be forced to protest. The state government must ensure: ‘Let teachers teach, and let students learn.’”
— Vijay Salkar, district president, Teachers’ Committee
(Salkar’s photo)