It was heartening to know that CM Pramod Sawant has asked the Director of Education to write to District Election Officers (DEOs) to exempt both the teaching and non-teaching staff from election duties.
Undoubtedly this is a step in the right direction.
After serving for 35 years in the field of education in various capacities, it's my experience that keeping a teacher away even for a single day from the classroom and children, causes serious problem not only to the school authorities, but has immense negative effect on the physique of young minds of the students.
Not only does the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process and discipline in the classroom suffer, but it gets even worse if the teacher remains absent for longer periods.
Besides, a teacher is judged by the performance of the students not only in the classroom, but even more on marks secured in the exams.
Hence taking a teacher away from the students is not at all advisable.
If technology is adopted it can be possible to reduce the number of personnel needed substantially.
