Gujarat SIR: Teachers protest BLO duties, schools left short-staffed

Teacher associations across Gujarat have raised strong objections to the Election Commission’s voter list improvement program (SIR), which assigns BLO (Booth Level Officer) duties to government and corporation school teachers.

The All Gujarat Primary Teachers’ Association submitted a memorandum to the Collector and wrote a complaint to the Chief Minister, while the Ahmedabad Municipal Teachers’ Association highlighted the impact on teaching and student learning.

Due to the SIR operations, about 40,000 teachers have been engaged in BLO duties, leaving many schools without teachers. In some schools, 50% of teaching staff are unavailable, causing serious disruption to students’ education.

Teachers have also raised concerns about personal mobile numbers being published on voter forms, leading to harassment, and have requested the use of a common helpline number. They are also burdened with tasks such as form distribution, collection, voter guidance, and scanning, further affecting classroom teaching.

Teacher associations are demanding the creation of a separate cadre for BLO duties to reduce disruption and ensure teachers can focus on education.