State schools stare at manpower crunch as teachers roped in for census duty
Times of India | 7 July 2026
Kolkata: Govt-run high and higher secondary schools across the state are facing a “fresh manpower crunch” after the appointment of headmasters/headmistress and teachers as census enumerators and supervisors, according to school authorities. The heads of these govt schools and senior teachers are seeking exemption from census duty, citing that many teachers from their institutions are already engaged in booth-level officer (BLO) duty and are yet ot be discharged from that work even after the Assembly elections.
The school heads and teachers, being deployed on census duty, have questioned that if all of them are engaged in work outside schools, who will take the classes. “Our school is already running with shortage of manpower since the vacant posts have not been filled up. To carry out the job of a census enumerator, I have to be outside the school and all school work will be hampered,” said the headmaster of a school, requesting anonymity.
Teachers pointed out that students have to be prepared for formative and summative assessments throughout the year, and their skipping of classes for “non-academic assignments” may result in pupils’ poor performance in the boards. “I am the only physics teacher of our school and I have to prepare the secondary and higher secondary students. In my absence the students will face problems,” said Subhojit Nandy, an assistant teacher from Andrew’s High School.
On Monday, a section of census workers made an appeal to Rashmi Kamal, director of census operations that senior teachers and heads of the schools be exempted from their census duty, otherwise classes would be hampered in schools.
Swapan Mondal, an assistant teacher of Narkeldanga High School and also general secretary of Census Workers’ Aikya Mancha, who sent the letter to Janaganana Bhavan at Salt Lake, said: “The appointment of census enumerators and supervisors has already started and from most of the schools, headmasters/headmistress are being made census supervisors along with senior teachers. In the past eight months schools faced trouble with many teachers being posted on BLO duty for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. Now many BLOs have not been released as they are engaged in verification of the applicants for various govt schemes. In addition to this, the appointment of teaching staff for census duty has created a fresh crisis in schools. We request the authority to look into the matter.”
According to officials, the census will be conducted by over 80,000 enumerators and supervisors. “One supervisor is being appointed for six booths. Over half of these supervisors and enumerators are being picked from schools,” said an official. In some cases, the teachers who are done with their BLO assignments are being pressed into the census work. Bablu Gomes, an assistant teacher of St Peter’s High School said, “This is mounting pressure on teachers like us as we have to make the students exam-ready and also check answer-scripts. Our school has nine teachers while teaching posts are 15. To tide over the crisis due to teachers being deputed on other assignments, we are merging sections to take classes.”
During the SIR around 80,681 booth-level officers (BLOs), mostly school teachers, had been appointed, and many of them are still busy verifying the beneficiaries of various govt schemes. “The election is over but we are yet to be released officially. Along with schemes, I am also having to do Form 7 and Form 6 tasks. Two of my colleagues have been given the task of census supervisors. This is affecting the school work,” said a BLO in the city.