TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Teachers in the State are caught in the cross fire between the Chief Electoral Office and the Goa Board, as both authorities are demanding their presence for election training and conduct of Board exams.
The issue appears to be serious in South Goa where a large number of teachers have been issued show cause notices for not attending election training even as the Goa Board had requested the election office to exempt teachers from training schedule until March 21.
The teaching community, which is already upset with the overload due to election duty have approached the Goa Board for help after several of them received show cause notices for failing to turn up for election training which clashed with conduct of the Goa Board Class X and XII public examinations.
A senior Board official said, “We understand that election duty is also important but right now conduct of the Goa Board exams are equally important.”
This official said, “The exam conductors and supervisors cannot be relieved from exam duty as it could result in a total collapse of a foolproof system put in place for conduct of exams.”
The Board had written to the election office in Goa to exempt teachers from attending election training for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls until March 21 when the Class X and XII exams conclude.
“We had also suggested that such training sessions be kept for the afternoon when the teachers would be free, after the exam,” said the official.
The Board has decided to approach the election office again to sort out the issue and request the election authorities to reschedule the election training for teachers until the exams conclude.
