Teachers of Punjab government schools, under the banner of the Democratic Teachers Front (DTF), burned an effigy of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and staged a protest outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Patiala on Wednesday. The protest was held against the alleged burden of non-educational duties being assigned to school teachers.
Addressing the gathering, DTF state president Vikramdev Singh and district president Harvinder Singh Rakhra alleged that the government had assigned large-scale census duties to teachers across Punjab, adversely affecting academic activities in schools.
They claimed that teachers had been undergoing continuous training for the past month, disrupting students’ studies and causing mental stress.
DTF activist Gagan Ranu said that the new academic session had just begun and schools were already occupied with admissions and other academic responsibilities, yet teachers were being diverted towards non-teaching assignments.
The protesters further alleged that despite the government’s claims of an “education revolution”, teachers were increasingly being engaged in duties such as booth-level officer work, drug surveys, census exercises, and health card-related tasks.
During the protest, ADC (Urban Development) Navreet Kaur Sekhon met representatives of the teachers’ union and discussed their concerns.
The teachers raised several demands, including exemption from census duties for pregnant women, mothers with children below two years of age, single parents, and teachers facing medical issues. They also sought a cap on teacher deployment and exemption from duties in remote areas or outside their designated blocks.
The ADC assured the protesters that a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner would be arranged within the next two days to address their genuine concerns.
DTF activists warned that they would intensify their agitation if their demands were not met by the government