No census work for pvt school teachers in school-hours: HC

Mumbai, Feb 3 (PTI) The Bombay High Court today directedthe government to use teachers from private unaided schoolsfor census duty only before or after the school hours, and toexempt teachers of standards 10th and 12th altogether from theduty.

The Court was hearing a petition challenging the stategovernment''s directive to all schools, including privateunaided ones, to keep their teachers free from January 1 toMarch 15 for the census duty.

"Census work can happen in the evening also. Summon theteachers either before or after school hours and it is up tothe school head to decide which teachers are to be sent. Butthe teachers should be competent enough to handle the work,"the division bench of Justices P B Majmudar and Amjad Sayedtoday observed.

But this will not apply to the teachers of schools run byBrihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Court said.

"This is only an interim arrangement. For the nextcensus, why don''t you (government) appoint people and trainthem beforehand. There are so many unemployed teachers.

Problem in our country is that everyone wakes up at the lasthour," Justice Majmudar remarked.

The court further directed private unaided schools toco-operate with the government for five days from March 1to 5, when the teachers would be required to work for thewhole day as all the enumerators would be required.

The first phase of the 15th national Census started fromMay 1 last year; the second phase is to start from February 9.