Govt's draft code bars govt school teachers from moving court

Somdatta Basu | TNN | Nov 26, 2017, KOLKATA: The Bengal government has come out with a draft code of conduct for teachers and non-teaching staff of state-aided and sponsored schools, which forbids them from going to court against the government and key officials without first seeking the government's permission.

The proposed code of conduct, which has 24 clauses and numerous sub-clauses, has been sent out to district school inspectors' offices for employees to study the proposal and come up with suggestions and objections, if any, within a month. The government will start the process of enacting the draft code into a law after going through these suggestions and objections.

More than 2 lakh teachers and about half the number of non-teaching staff, who work in government-aided or sponsored state board schools that teach students of classes V to XII, will have to abide by this fresh code of conduct.

Teachers and non-teaching staff, who fail to abide by the draft code, are liable to face disciplinary action, which includes dismissal, compulsory retirement, suspension and blocking of pay benefits.

"The draft code has been necessitated by several factors," a senior government official told TOI. "The school education department is embroiled in thousands of cases filed by employees. Many of them are absolutely flimsy but we still have to spend so much of time and money as we have to follow the legal process. We just want to get rid of this burden," he said. "Decision-making gets delayed if our officials spend hours in court. Teachers who bring these cases, too, spend more time in courtrooms than in classrooms, which means syllabi not being complete in time," he added.

"Anyway, we are not totally blocking teachers' right to legal recourse. We are only asking them to seek the government's permission and give it reasonable time to respond, after which teachers and non-teaching staff can move any court they want to," the official said.

Teachers and non-teaching staff of government-run schools, like Hindu or Hare, follow the same set of rules that govern other government employees. The West Bengal Service Rules, officials said, were very similar to the new code of coduct that the Bengal government was seeking to introduce in aided and sponsored state schools.

There are several other clauses and sub-clauses in the draft code that may not go down well with a section of teachers and non-teaching staff. One of them forbids them from giving "private tuition for personal gain". A related clause adds that they cannot leave the school campus during working hours without the head of the institution's permission.

"We have been forced to introduce these clauses to have some semblance of discipline in the functioning of schools. A section of teachers and non-teaching staff has taken advantage of the lax rules and the result has been an overall deterioration of academic discipline and standards," the official said.

The draft code of conduct also mentions that staff members will have to follow whatever rules on attendance and work the government may introduce in future; this includes invigilation duty and evaluating answer scripts, often a sore point for some teachers.