Teacher Shortage Hits Delhi Schools as Staff Deployed for Electoral Roll Revision

New Delhi: The deployment of thousands of government school teachers as Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has led to significant staff shortages in Delhi’s government schools, forcing administrators to merge classes and send students to libraries or playgrounds.

According to orders from the Election Commission, around 13,000 BLOs—including school teachers, anganwadi workers, and ASHA workers—are required to work full-time on the revision exercise until October or its completion. Schools have been asked to relieve these teachers of their regular duties, but principals say the sudden absence is disrupting academic schedules, particularly with mid-term exams approaching in September.

Ajay Veer Yadav, general secretary of the Government Schools Teachers’ Association (GSTA), wrote to Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood warning of “irreparable academic loss” affecting lakhs of students. “A substantial number of trained teachers have been deployed… Their absence is likely to adversely impact education,” Yadav noted.

A school principal speaking on condition of anonymity said, “Even class teachers have been assigned BLO duty. So we have to merge some classes or send students to the playground. This will affect their studies and make it difficult to complete the syllabus before exams.” Another principal added that while students cannot be left unattended, altered timetables and substitute teachers often fail to provide the same quality of instruction.

Teachers themselves are under pressure. One senior teacher engaged in BLO duty said that while his school assigned his classes to another teacher, substitutes do not put in the same effort. In schools where fewer teachers are deployed, those remaining try to manage both roles—attending school in the morning and conducting door-to-door verification in the afternoon and evening. “There is pressure from both sides. We are working all day, into the night,” said one teacher.

The SIR exercise is a constitutionally mandated process to update voter lists, and the Election Commission relies on government staff to ensure accuracy. However, the competing demands of electoral work and classroom teaching highlight a systemic tension between democratic processes and educational continuity.