Teachers in Mumbai's municipal schools are exhausted by the work of the Maratha Reservation Survey, which is being conducted ahead of the 10th-grade exams. Currently, the pre-examination of 10th grade is going on, keeping teachers invested. Therefore, after finishing the school work in the morning, teachers are getting busy with the survey work in the evenings.
The exams are scheduled to begin on February 14, and teachers are required to complete the surveys of about 150 families each between January 23 and 31. The surveys include 154 questions about the families, as well as personal information about each member. The questionnaires are a total of 40 pages long. Teachers must enter all of the information into an app and then show it to the people they interviewed before submitting it with their consent.
"The timing of the survey is wrong," said a teacher from Malad. "If the survey had been held in April, it wouldn't have disrupted the students' studies or caused us so much stress." Shivanath Darade said, "The survey is not being conducted by volunteers, but by teachers who are already busy with other work. Why can't the survey be conducted by volunteers in each area?" Darade is the general secretary of the Maharashtra State Teachers' Council.
Time is not the only challenge teachers are facing while conducting the survey. A teacher sharing her experience pointed out that people are getting tired of answering the long questionnaire. A member of a Maratha family answered the first few questions, but then said, "I can't answer any more questions. Delete the information I already gave. I don't want a reservation," and refused to answer any more questions.The questionnaire has five modules with 154 questions covering from basic family information to socio-cultural details about the individuals. The teachers have complained that the process of completing the 40-page survey is time-consuming.