Teachers engaged in election duties will also have to perform duties as superintendents and deputy superintendents at examination centers for the annual exams starting from Tuesday, conducted by the Punjab School Education Board. Many such teachers had written to the board, citing their election duties, to excuse them from examination duty, but the board has clearly refused to exempt such teachers from examination duty. After a raid signal from the board, the education department instructed such teachers to report to examination centers. According to information, the board has established 310 examination centers in the district, which were opened on Monday according to the rules.
However, some examination centers faced a shortage of superintendents and deputy superintendents, as several teachers assigned to these roles cited their election duties, expressing their inability to conduct examination duty, and did not show up at the examination centers. Consequently, the departmental authorities sent letters on behalf of such teachers to the board, but the board did not provide any instructions to exempt them from duty, indicating that such teachers would have to perform examination duty along with their election duties. According to information, nearly 30 superintendents and deputy superintendents cited various reasons for not performing duty, seeking leave. Among them, female teachers assigned superintendent duty cited maternity leave, while others informed the board about medical leave.
Many cases came to light where some staff members engaged in election duty cited the distance of the examination center, demanding exemption from duty, but the board ignored their demand. It is worth mentioning that lecturers and master cadre have been assigned examination duty for superintendent and deputy superintendent roles. It is noteworthy that most teachers in schools under the education department travel 20 to 30 kilometers to regular duty at schools.
Meanwhile, to prevent cheating in examinations, the Punjab School Education Board has deployed more than 10 flying teams in Ludhiana, and 17 examination centers in the district have been made sensitive. This means that apart from flying teams, special attention will also be paid to other teams of the board at these examination centers. Along with posting observers at all examination centers, videography may also be conducted. According to sources, among the sensitive examination centers, 11 centers have been set up in government schools, while 6 centers have been set up in private schools. According to the board, these centers usually have a higher number of candidates appearing for examinations under open school, so special vigilance is maintained at such centers by setting them up in government schools.
To quickly convey any information regarding the examinations to the department or the board, a control room has been set up. Deputy DEO Jaswinder Singh Virk informed that six teachers from the department have been deployed as managers and assistant managers in this control room, and the phone numbers of all controllers at examination centers have been sent to them.
