Capital Delhi Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign is underway, under which the voter list is being finalised. A massive campaign is underway to re-check the names deleted from the electoral roll under the SIR. In this series, the services of teachers teaching in government schools of Delhi, who serve as BLOs, have been engaged. Meanwhile, the difficulties of teachers engaged in BLO duty have increased due to the proposed UPSC Acharya recruitment exam on 1st November. Keeping this in mind, the Government School Teachers’ Association (GSTA) has written to UPSC seeking extension of the date of the Acharya recruitment exam.

828 posts are to be recruited

UPSC has invited applications to fill the vacancies of Principal and Vice Principal in Delhi Government Schools under which total 828 posts are to be filled. Teachers having service experience can apply for recruitment to these posts. In such a situation, a large number of teachers have applied from Delhi. The recruitment exam is proposed on 1st November.

Exam date should be extended by 6 weeks

Recruitment exam for Principal and Vice Principal is proposed on 1st November, but a large number of teachers are doing BLO duty in Delhi. In such a situation, their preparations are getting affected. Government School Teachers Association (GSTA) has written to UPSC in this regard. GSTA General Secretary Ajayveer Yadav, in a letter to the UPSC, has sought an extension of the recruitment exam to be held on November 1 by four to six weeks. According to Yadav, Delhi teachers have been holding the responsibility of BLO and BLO supervisor continuously since April.

Yadav said that this exam is for 124 posts of Principal and 704 posts of Vice Principal in Delhi Education Department and a large number of PGT and TGT teachers from Delhi are eligible candidates for it. For this reason, teachers performing mandatory election work by the government should not be harmed in competitive examinations.

GSTA General Secretary Ajay Veer Yadav said that along with regular teaching work in schools, teachers have to do door-to-door verification of voter list, verification of documents, form filling, online entry of details and timely reporting. This requires working before and after school and on holidays. In such a situation, it has become difficult to get enough time to prepare for the November 1 exam.

He clarified that GSTA does not demand exemption of teachers from election or BLO duty. The union’s only demand is that teachers holding public responsibilities should be given a fair opportunity to prepare for the examination.