Noida: At a govt primary school in Tuglapur near Pari Chowk, Class 4 students have been taught little of the mathematics syllabus, even as half the academic session is over. Decimals, geometry, profit and loss, interest, perimeter and area, and data handling are among the topics still waiting to be covered.Nine of the school’s 11 teachers, including its lone mathematics teacher, have been deployed as booth-level officers (BLOs) for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) camps or as Census enumerators. The school has 333 students on its roll.This is the case with many schools. At the Upper Primary School in the village, all 10 teachers for its 369 students have been deployed on Census field duty. All seven teachers at Jhatta Composite School, including an academic resource person, and 13 teachers of Gharbara Composite School have also been pulled out for field surveys, house-listing and door-to-door verification drives.At Rauni Rampur Upper Primary School, all four teachers have been deployed, as have four of the five teachers, including the school in-charge, at Murshidpur Composite School. Teachers said Latipur Upper Primary School, Atai Muradpur Primary School and Silarpur Primary School have also seen staff pulled away.Teachers were first drafted for special camp duties linked to the SIR of electoral rolls from Oct 17 to 24. The camps were held to register new voters and correct irregularities that crept in during the exercise, which concluded in April. They will now be deployed for the field duty phase of the Census, expected to run from Dec 1 to Jan 9. With several schools already short of teachers, the off-campus duties will leave many with one or two teachers and others with none.The strain is cumulative. From the first week of Nov 2025 to mid-March 2026, over 1,500 of the nearly 2,400 primary teachers in Gautam Budh Nagar were assigned booth-level officer (BLO) duties as part of the SIR, affecting classes for around 96,000 students. Teachers said more than half the syllabus in several classes remained incomplete during those four months.“If we talk about class 4, several important topics in mathematics remained incomplete in the previous session. These are important concepts, particularly when these students are promoted to class 5, as the subject becomes more advanced at this stage. With teaching hours repeatedly lost to administrative duties, there is very little time left to complete the syllabus, revise chapters and address students’ doubts before they move to the next class,” Khusboo, a teacher at Tuglapur primary school, said.Ramesh, a parent at a primary school in Dankaur, said his child goes to school every day but often returns saying no proper classes were held and that the day was spent playing or sitting in the classroom. “As parents, we are not educated enough to teach them everything at home, and we cannot afford to send them to private schools either, so many of us have no choice but to hire private tutors,” he said.The impact is particularly severe on students in transition classes, such as those moving from Class 4 to 5 or from Class 8 to 9, when they need adequate time to consolidate their learning before moving to the next academic level. “Loss of teaching time at these crucial stages could leave learning gaps that students carry forward to higher classes,” said a senior teacher at Tuglapur Primary School.The first phase of the Census, covering house-listing and counting, took place in May-June, during the summer vacation. “Though classes were not hampered at the time, teachers were unable to take their summer break because of these assignments. Now, with another round of duties lined up, there is hardly any respite,” said a maths teacher at a govt primary school, without wishing to be named.Others question why teachers are called up at all. “If these works are so frequent and important, then why can’t there be a dedicated workforce for the same? Teachers are primarily recruited for teaching purposes, but we hardly can do that exercise. Every time such duties are assigned, it is the students who lose out,” said a senior teacher at a primary school in Bisrakh.A principal said schools were forced to use library and sports periods to keep students occupied because teachers were unavailable.Uttar Pradesh Primary Teachers’ Association district president Praveen Sharma said a Census door-to-door survey is important. “But arrangements must be made to ensure that children’s education is not disrupted. In many schools, all teachers are on duty. Who will manage classes there for the entire month of Dec?” Sharma said.District Basic Education Officer Rahul Panwar said focus will be given to digital classes, and the department would try to make arrangements so that students do not suffer.Chief development officer Bhalchandra Tripathi said Census is a serious and important exercise that must be carried out diligently. “However, the administration will ensure that teachers’ deployment does not result in complete closure of schools. Necessary arrangements will be made to balance Census duties with regular teaching responsibilities,” he said.
