Chandigarh, April 29: Classroom instruction across Chandigarh has faced significant disruptions as 58% of the city’s government teaching staff—approximately 2,700 educators—have been pulled from their schools for Census 2027 training. Since April 18, these teachers, including those under the Samagra Shiksha program, have been attending intensive sessions to prepare for their roles as supervisors and enumerators.
The administration’s decision has forced schools to operate on an “adjustment” basis for nearly two weeks, with regular coursework largely suspended in many institutions. To mitigate the impact, some principals have merged senior class sections and utilized contractual staff to supervise students. Director of School Education Nitish Singla stated that the department is considering the academic loss and affirmed that the lost time would be compensated through additional efforts by teachers in the future.
However, the move has drawn sharp criticism from academic experts. Jatinder Grover, chairperson of the Department of Education at Panjab University, maintained that assigning non-academic duties to teachers contradicts the National Education Policy 2020. He asserted that such large-scale deployment risks further damaging classroom instruction, especially following a year where some government schools reported pass percentages as low as 26%.
Teachers have also expressed concern over the upcoming house-listing phase, scheduled to begin May 1, which they are expected to perform after standard school hours. Educators stated that the physical and mental demands of a full school day make it nearly impossible to conduct census work with the required efficiency. Meanwhile, the administration has maintained a strict stance, issuing show-cause notices to 59 teachers who failed to attend the mandatory training sessions.
