Gurgaon: The schedule for Sewa Sankalp Abhiyan, being held from Sept 17-Oct 17 to mark PM Narendra Modi’s birthday and 25 years in public life, has drawn criticism from teachers, who say it will add to exam-season pressure because of the drawing, painting and speech competitions that schools have been directed to conduct. First-term/half-yearly exams begin Sept 25 — rescheduled from Sept 21, allegedly to accommodate the campaign.Objecting to the timing and the additional non-academic duties, Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh has announced a protest outside the education minister’s camp office in Panipat on Sept 23, saying substantial teaching time has already been lost to census and SIR-related duties. The union said the campaign has further compressed the time available for completing the syllabus and preparing students for examinations.“Students do need opportunities beyond textbooks, and these activities can be useful. The problem is that they are happening at a time when they are preparing for their first major exams and teachers are already trying to complete portions that were missed earlier,” said a govt school teacher.Another teacher listed the tasks that came with the events. “We’re expected to conduct the competitions during school hours, compile attendance, collect photos and videos and share them, sometimes at very short notice,” the teacher said.“We are getting calls even late at night to do this. It is not just holding the competition — there is follow-up reporting as well,” said a govt school teacher.A teacher said they had already lost weeks to survey-related work. “Now the syllabus has to be completed, revision has to be done, and exams have to be conducted, but the calendar is also packed with activities,” a teacher said.Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak, which is affiliated to Sarv Karmachari Sangh Haryana and School Teachers Federation of India, said teachers in some districts had been assigned duties in private schools for three days in connection with the official activities.The union also raised concerns over the absence of preliminary student assessment tests this academic session, saying schoolchildren were headed for their first major exam without the usual exercise. It further cited the postponement and eventual cancellation of a July exam for classes IX to XII over the non-availability of question papers.
