Mumbai: School teachers will not be assigned booth level officer (BLO) duties during the exam period, said minister of state for school education Pankaj Bhoyar in the Legislative Council on Tuesday.The issue of teachers being used to count the number of stray dogs in Greater Mumbai was raised during Question Hour by NCP MLC Vikram Kale. He said teachers were already overburdened and were being pulled out of classes for non-teaching activities, from filing data on various apps and student numbers to updating electoral rolls, being assigned election duty, and now counting the number of stray dogs, which was adversely affecting students.
Bhoyar denied that teachers were being asked to count the number of stray dogs. Rather, in schools run by the zilla parishad and municipal authorities, they were asked to check sanitation within school premises and whether the fencing was proper. “Teachers are only required to inform civic authorities so corrective action can be taken,” he said.On the issue of the installation of CCTV cameras in schools, Bhoyar said that of the 65,000 govt-run schools, 18,000 have installed CCTV cameras. Of the 21,000 pvt govt-aided schools, 17,000 installed CCTV cameras, and of 16,407 self-financed schools, only 1,698 installed CCTV cameras. He said schools that did not install CCTV cameras will be directed to do so.
