The studies of the students in government colleges of Jammu have been badly affected for the last over one month as government has, as usual, deployed the teaching faculty on the poll duties.
As per sources, in some colleges of the region, especially in Jammu, Samba, Udhampur and Kathua districts, government has assigned poll duties even to those teachers who have no alternative in their departments, while in others, even the school principals have been asked to assist the government in the conduct of panchayat elections.
“In some cases, it’s been a month since the only faculty member of the department has been assigned the poll duties. And, this is not happening for the first time…….Teachers also assisted the district polling authorities in the conduct of local body polls and performed duties as BLOs during census,” a college teacher from a Udhampur college said on condition of anonymity, adding, “This should stop or else the students will suffer.”
He said, “On the one hand, government wants the teachers to improve the standard of education in the schools and colleges and on the other, it is forcing on them the poll duties. How can we achieve the set goals then?”
Another faculty member from a Samba college said, “This is the time when NAAC teams are visiting the colleges. They need cooperation from the staff of the colleges on many accounts to rank the institutions on the basis of their assessments based on several parameters. But, how will they complete their surveys when most of the faculty members have been deployed on poll duties?”
According to sources, in GDC Majalta in Udhampur district, the faculty members of Economics and Urdu departments have been deployed on poll duties, while in GDC Samba, the principal of the institution is also on election duty.
In GDC Udhampur, the lone faculty of History department, 2 out of 2 teachers of the Mathematics department, one teacher each of Botany and Chemistry department have been assigned the poll duties.
In GDC Ramnagar, government has picked up the History, Sanskrit and Chemistry department faculties for the poll duties while in Government PG College for Boys (Udhampur), faculty member of Sericulture department has been assigned the poll duties.