BLO Duties Stretch Gurugram Schools Before Exams

GURUGRAM: Government schools across the district are entering their examination schedule with a serious staffing squeeze after teachers were deployed as booth level officers and BLO assistants for electoral work. School staff say the shortage is affecting classroom teaching, supervision and the basic logistics required to conduct examinations from August 18.

Teachers estimate that nearly 90 per cent of government schools are facing some degree of shortage. The impact varies by campus, but the problem is particularly sharp in schools where several employees have received election assignments at the same time.

At Government Senior Secondary School in Fazilpur Jharsa, 15 teachers have been assigned BLO duties and four more are working as BLO assistants. The school has roughly 780 students. That leaves its head, Mukesh Kumar, carrying an unusually large share of teaching, supervision and administrative responsibility.

Staff at other schools with 600 to 700 students have reported that only one or two teachers are available on campus. Similar concerns have emerged from Bhondsi, where high enrolment already places considerable pressure on the available teaching workforce.

Exam work extends beyond the classroom

Conducting a school examination requires more than placing an invigilator in each room. Question papers must be distributed securely, attendance recorded, students supervised between papers, answer sheets collected and evaluation work completed. The same staff must also manage routine administration and respond to parents. When most teachers are away, each of these tasks becomes harder to organise without compromising regular academic work.

The District Primary Teachers' Association has raised the issue with the elementary education department. Its district president, Ashok Prajapati, said teachers were first called for training and then deployed in large numbers. The association has asked that staff be returned before examinations or that an alternative arrangement be made.

Election work is an essential public duty, and teachers have long been part of the administrative workforce used for it. The concern in Gurugram is about timing and concentration. Assigning several employees from the same school during examinations can produce a predictable gap, especially when Independence Day programmes and other academic duties have also occupied staff time.

A short-term response could include redistributing available teachers, bringing eligible reserve staff into the most affected campuses and staggering non-urgent BLO assignments around examination hours. The education and election authorities also need a school-wise deployment review so that no high-enrolment campus is left with only skeletal staff.

For students, the immediate requirement is a calm and orderly examination environment. They should not bear the cost of poor coordination between two arms of the administration. A clear district plan, shared with school heads before the first paper, would help restore confidence and ensure both electoral and educational duties are handled without one undermining the other.