To ensure productive engagement of teachers in teaching in schools, Section 27 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 stipulates that no teacher shall be deployed for any non-educational purposes other than the decennial population census, disaster relief duties or duties relating to elections to the local authority or the State Legislatures or Parliament, as the case may be. The school management committees have been assigned the duty under the RTE Act to monitor the working of the schools.
To provide academic support to teachers, State Governments/UTs administrations are financially supported by the Central Government to provide on-site academic support to teachers as well as to develop robust monitoring mechanisms through Block Resource Centres and Cluster Resource Centres, under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
School Education, being primarily in the domain of State Governments/UTs, mechanism of monitoring attendance of school teachers is the responsibility of States/UTs. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has commissioned studies through an independent agency in 2007 and 2013 on teachers’ attendance, and these have revealed that average teachers’ attendance has improved from 81.7% in 2006-07 to 84.8% in 2012-13 at primary level, and from 80.5% in 2006-07 to 83.1% in 2012-13 at upper primary level.
The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has developed Performance Indicators for Elementary Education (PINDICS) to track teacher performance and attendance in Government schools. PINDICS have been shared with State Governments/UTs to assess teacher’s performance.
This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha question.
Source : PIB
