Teachers to be engaged with BLO duty during Madhyamik unfortunate: Bratya slams EC
Telegraph | 21 December 2025
Education minister Bratya Basu has criticised the Election Commission’s decision to keep teachers engaged as booth-level officers (BLOs) for the special intensive revision (SIR) of Bengal’s electoral rolls during Madhyamik.
“This is likely to come in the way of conducting the examinations. The Election Commission’s decision to keep the teachers engaged during SIR is unfortunate,” said Basu on Friday.
Madhyamik examinations are scheduled to start from February 2 and continue till 12.
The new schedule announced by the state government, following an instruction of the Election Commission on December 12, says the BLOs, following the publication of the draft electoral roll on December 16, will remain engaged with various exercises under SIR till February 14.
The various tasks include issuance, hearing and verification, checking of health parameters of the electoral roll and obtaining the commission’s permission for final publication and final publication of the electoral roll.
The final publication of the electoral roll will happen on February 14.
The state secondary education board had written to the district magistrates, appealing that the teachers be exempted from the SIR-related duties during the conduct of the Class X board examinations.
The board president, Ramanuj Ganguly, informed that 10.80 lakh candidates will write the examinations in 2,682 centres and the board will have to engage one lakh teachers as invigilators.
The president wrote to the district magistrates of 23 districts across Bengal.
When the fresh schedule announcing the continuous full-time engagement of head teachers/assistant teachers during the entire period of SIR was announced, this coincided with the schedule of Madhyamik.
“The teachers have been engaged as BLOs without consulting the state government and the education department. This is unfair,” said the education minister.
An education department official said there is a shortage of teachers, as the school service commission (SSC), which conducted the selection tests after nine years for the appointment of teachers at the secondary and higher secondary levels, has yet to finish the recruitment process.
The commission, which was mandated by the Supreme Court to recruit teachers by December 31 through a fresh selection test, could not do so owing to a barrage of litigations challenging the recruitment rules of SSC.
The commission appealed for an extension of the deadline. The apex court extended the deadline till August 31, 2026, on Thursday.
“We are short of teachers. Fresh teachers couldn’t be appointed by December 31. If the existing pool of teachers is kept engaged in SIR duties during the board examinations, how will the work of invigilation be carried out? Which is why the education minister has expressed his concerns,” the official said.
“If any untoward incident happens owing to the shortage of the invigilators during Madhyamik, which will be held months before the Assembly elections, everybody will be unsparing on the state government,” the official said.