Education is of prime importance. Primary education, even more so. If there is any doubt in anyone’s mind regarding this, the Supreme Court’s statements should remove it.  In various judgments, the SC has said, “…we hold ….. that right to education is implicit in and flows from the right to life guaranteed by Article 21. That the right to education has been treated as one of transcendental importance in the life of an individual has been recognised not only in this country since thousands of years, but all over the world.”

To emphasise this, they quoted former Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, Earl Warren, who, speaking for the US Supreme Court, recognised the right to education in the following terms :

“Today, education is the most important function of the state and local governments. It is required in the performance of our most basic responsibility, even (more than) services in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today, it is the principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days it is doubtful any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.”

Yes, the right to education is an intrinsic part of the right to life. However, despite the above, in India we have the following situation:

Having a general election? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

Having a state election? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

Having a municipal election? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

Want to revise electoral rolls? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

A Voter Identity Card drive? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

Having a Pollution survey under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

Having a polio vaccination drive? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

Disaster relief work? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

A housing survey? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

Require an economic survey? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

An industrial survey? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

Is there an outbreak of malaria? Need people? Depute a government school teacher.

However, want to educate your child? Sorry, government schoolteachers are away on miscellaneous duties assigned to them by the government. Or, the vacancies have not been filled. Or the classroom has no furniture. Or the roof is leaking. Or there is no water or electricity. Or the prescribed books have not arrived. Or…

Yes, the above reflects the true state of the importance that successive governments have de facto assigned to education, beyond their sweet words. This has been so regardless of which party is ruling.

All Central and state governments and statutory bodies like the Election Commission have treated teachers like badli mazdoors – daily wage labourers – and have assigned them non-educational work at the drop of a hat.

This is despite the fact that there have been many court cases, in each one of which the government’s appeal for deploying teachers has been dismissed. There is even the Supreme Court’s ruling, in which, while dismissing the Election Commission’s appeal, the justices said,

“We, therefore, direct that all teaching staff shall be put on the duties of roll revisions and election works on holidays and non-teaching days. Teachers should not ordinarily be put on duty on teaching days and within teaching hours. Non-teaching staff, however, may be put on such duties on any day or at any time, if permissible in law.”

Sadly, even this order too left three loopholes, which the authorities tend to over-exploit. One is the term ‘ordinarily’. The second is that it permits teachers to be deployed for such work on holidays and the third is the definition of ‘non-teaching staff’.

For the government, all circumstances are out of the ordinary when it wants to invoke its will. Thus it is easy to effectively, circumvents this ruling.

Then, do teachers not deserve their holidays? If they are to be deployed for 90 days a year – the estimated number of days for miscellaneous non-teaching work – it is 90 days of their personal time which they have to sacrifice for doing work which is not theirs to do. Will their teaching work and family life not suffer then?

Non-teaching staff has been defined as physical education teachers, drawing teachers, librarians, lab assistants, yoga instructors etc. This is patently unfair. These teachers form an essential part of the holistic education environment. Why should government school libraries be closed for this period? Why should students not receive physical training? Why should school clerks stop doing school administrative work during these days?

The government earlier tried to requisition the staff of other government organisations for this. However, in 2004, the Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the Patna High Court, saying that the officers of the State Bank of India cannot be requisitioned in terms of Section 26 of the 1951 Act or otherwise. (CIVIL APPEAL NO. 5659 OF 2007[Arising out of S.L.P. (Civil) No. 21963 of 2004). A similar unequivocal pronouncement needs to be made by the Supreme Court in the case of all school staff, including the non-teaching staff as well.

The Election Commission needs its work done. The Pulse Polio drive still has to be conducted. Voter identity cards have to be made. Census data has to be confirmed. Anti-pollution drives are a must, too. If teachers and other school staff are not available for all this work, how will all this be completed?

The simple answer is, this is not the problem of schools. It is the problem for the Government of India to solve. The solution, too, is simple. Establish a cadre of educated, young people on a permanent basis, with the proviso that they can be deployed anywhere in India as and when the situation demands. Call the set-up the General Service of India and have proper systems and procedures to regulate this service. Designate the entry-level staff as General Government Assistants. Deploy the staff all over India. Funds for this service will be charged to different departments who utilise this manpower on the basis of a certain sum per man-hour used. This would be revised every year.

There are 29 states in India and 7 union territories. We have national elections, state elections and municipal elections. Then we have the census work, voter ID work, various other national surveys, Aadhaar card-related ground work, pulse polio and other health drives, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan work and so on. The manpower of the General Service of India can be determined after assessing the total all-India requirement for all this work.

For the purpose of this service, we can have different zones – maybe North, South, Far East, East, West and Central and can establish nodes in these, keeping in mind that assistants can be deployed from one node to another as per demands of the work.

I feel we have reached a stage where education has been ignored long enough. India cannot and should not waste precious educational resources on what is essentially legwork. We must remember, getting educated is a part of their right to life and it is our moral responsibility to do everything we can to help them in this quest. Diverting school staff for other duties is not the way to do this.

The first right on our resources, unlike what one of our Prime Ministers said, is for the young of India. If we give second priority to their education, we are committing an unpardonable fraud on our future generation.