With the Election Commission announcing the Lok Sabha election dates, teaching and non-teaching staff of the School Education Department are anticipating tough months ahead since they have to attend the mandatory election duty apart from the examination duty.
The Plus Two public examinations, which are undergoing, will continue till March 25. Class X public examination will commence from March 26 and continue till April 9. The Lok Sabha election for the 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu will be held on April 24 and counting will be carried out on May 16. Most of the School Education Department staff will be involved in the election works. Apart from the work on polling and counting days, they have to attend to the preparatory works and undergo training for conducting an error-free election.
Since it is the duty of the department staff to carry out election work, they should not complain, Chief Educational Officer of Coimbatore A Gnanagowri told Express. “All School Education Department staff will be involved in the election process. We have already given a list of around 10,000 employees to the district administration.”
As far as the exam process is concerned, by increasing the number of evaluation centres and number of teachers involved in the evaluation work, the process can be completed before the election date, the official opined. Sources in the Directorate of Government Examination said that the evaluation of Class X public examination papers will commence from the end of March. The evaluation exercise will not be stopped on April 23 and 24. The evaluation work for the Plus Two public examination is expected to be completed by April 24.
“Ninety-five per cent of School Education Department staff are involved in the public examination-related works. Only those teachers who are handling Class X are relieved from the examination duty. We will even sacrifice a few holidays,” said the president of the Tamil Nadu Graduate Teachers’ Association, P Elangovan.
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