SIR-hit Madhyamik centres get teachers from other schools
Times of India | 29 January 2026
Kolkata: With a majority of teachers on SIR duty, the education department has assigned teachers from neighbouring schools for invigilation duties during the Madhyamik examination as an alternative arrangement.
Recently, the District Inspector of Schools (DI) in Kolkata held a meeting with the headmasters of all secondary schools to discuss how to deal with the teacher shortage during the Madhyamik examination. Sources said schools that are exam venues were asked to arrange for backup teachers from neighbouring schools. An Excel sheet was also provided to schools in North 24 Parganas, asking school heads to provide detailed information on how many teachers and staff members were assigned for the Special Intensive Revision.
A headmaster of a central Kolkata school said: "We are already facing a teacher crunch due to the SIR exercise. In the meeting, we were asked to send teachers to the neighbouring school to be assigned as invigilators, but there are only three teachers, including me, running the school now. Whom do I send for this additional duty? Then how will our school function?"
Sources said that during the meeting, several heads requested a holiday to manage the situation. Another headmaster said: "Over 10 teachers from our school are on SIR duty while another 10 have been assigned invigilation duty in two neighbouring schools. In that case, there will be only a skeleton staff present during the Madhyamik examination. To address the situation, we approached some of our retired teachers and alumni to hold classes; otherwise, we will not be able to function during exam days."
A headmistress in North 24 Parganas said: "We were also asked to assign teachers for invigilation duties, but if we release some of our teachers, we would have to keep the school shut."
The state school education department has already written to the Election Commission to release teachers and officials for the Madhyamik and HS examinations, which are scheduled back-to-back starting Feb 2. While Madhyamik is scheduled from Feb 2 to Feb 12, HS exams will be held between Feb 12 and Feb 27. Over 80,000 booth-level officers are on SIR duty since Nov 4. Most of them are teachers in state schools.