Now, woman guards not teachers in school buses, directs CBSE

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) directed its schools for mandatory deployment of at least one woman attendant or guard in the buses made available to students for daily transportation. This would essentially amend rules that required school teachers to take up this responsibility for the safety of children.

It also asked the schools to ensure that no teacher was engaged in non-academic activities other than decennial population census, disaster relief work and elections duties so that they can focus on their primary work of teaching and learning.

“Schools shall ensure that teachers will not be engaged in activities other than those related to direct teaching, professional upgradation, examination and evaluation, among others. For activities of ministerial nature, transport, canteen or related tasks, separate trained staff may be deployed by the schools,” the CBSE said in a circular. Board secretary Joseph Emmanuel wrote to all schools on Friday, seeking implementation of the changes made in guidelines on the “work profile of teachers in the CBSE-affiliated schools”.

A decision to bring changes in its rules to unburden CBSE school teachers from non-academic works was taken after the issue was raised at the meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education on October 25.