Gurgaon: The secondary education department has withdrawn its order that forced teaching and non-teaching staff to secure the deputy commissioner’s approval before applying for childcare leave (CCL) — a move that had slowed approvals, triggered resentment and left many employees in limbo.The rollback came on June 19, when director-general of secondary education Jitendra Kumar issued a fresh directive scrapping the earlier order dated March 9.The order had made it mandatory for all CCL applications to first be routed through the district deputy commissioner before reaching the department headquarters — a departure from the usual internal process.Teachers said the rule was never meant to be permanent.“This was introduced only as a temporary arrangement for one month to support Census duties. It was supposed to lapse by May 31, but the department delayed withdrawing it by nearly 20 days,” said Saroj Yadav, a govt schoolteacher in Gurgaon.The delay came at a cost. Teachers said routing files through the DC’s office added 15 to 20 days to the process, creating a backlog and sharply reducing approvals. According to officials, only around 5% of CCL applications were cleared during this period.“The DC’s office often rejected applications without even checking whether the employee was on Census duty or not. And many personal or sensitive reasons behind such leaves are easier to discuss within the department than before outside officials,” Yadav said.The decision to revoke the order followed sustained pressure from teachers’ unions, including Haryana School Lecturer Association and Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh, which held several rounds of meetings with the department this month.Union representatives said they were assured in early June that the order would be withdrawn, but the formal notification kept getting delayed. It was only after the issue was raised again last week that the department finally acted.With the order now cancelled, the CCL process will return to its earlier system, with applications handled directly within the education department.Teachers said that while CCL remains a facility and not an absolute right, the earlier system was far more balanced — with nearly half of genuine applications usually getting approved without prolonged delays.
