Page 12 - EW may 2026

Editorial

CARVE WOMEN’S QUOTA FROM EXISTING MPs tant to debate the opportunity cost of
adding another 300 MPs at the Centre
and additional members in state leg-
precondition of the passage incurred for the pay and maintenance islative assemblies. Curiously, despite
of the failed Women’s Res- of the Central government’s 4 million the lavish lifestyles of MPs, ministers
A ervation Bill which proposed employees (including MPs) translat- and MLAs, there is a blanket of si-
awarding them 33 percent of seats in ing into an impressive Rs.20.4 lakh lence on the subject of rising estab-
Parliament was that the number of per capita cf. the national per capita lishment expenses of the Central and
seats in the Lok Sabha would increase income of Rs.2.38 lakh per annum. state governments.
from the current 543 to 800-850 after Moreover, citizens should bear in According to a schema presented
completion of Census 2027 for which mind that the annual cost of every to the public by EducationWorld
enumeration commenced on April 1. Member of Parliament (MP) is esti- conterminously with the Union
Although legislation of the Wom- mated at Rs.4.30 crore when salary, Budget 2026-27 (see https://educa-
en’s Reservation, aka Nari Shakti allowances, rent-free accommoda- tionworld.in/resource-mobilisation-
Vandan Adhiniyam Bill, foundered tion, secretarial allowance and un- schema-for-public-education/), if the
on these preconditions, a broader limited air and rail travel for family Union government’s establishment
issue that needs to be addressed is members is computed. For the cur- expenditure is reduced by a mere
cost-benefit analysis of a substantially rent batch of 543 Lok Sabha and 245 3.40 percent, the Centre could save
larger number of MPs at the Centre Rajya Sabha members the aggregate and allocate an additional Rs.1.83
and in state legislative assemblies. annual expense is Rs.3,388 crore, a lakh crore for public education al-
In the Union Budget 2026-27, a sum which would rise to Rs.4,708 most doubling the Rs.1.48 lakh crore
sum of Rs.8.17 lakh crore — equivalent crore if another 307 are added to their budgeted. Given the situation, in-
to 15.42 percent of total revenue of the number after delimitation/expansion. stead of increasing the number of
Government of India — is budgeted And for 10 percent of MPs awarded non-performing MPs and ballooning
under the head of ‘establishment ex- ministerial status, the annual expense establishment expenses, carving out
penditure’. This substantial amount is borne by the public would rise ten- the women’s quota from the existing
expended towards salaries, rent, trav- fold to Rs.43 crore per capita. 543 is the preferable, even if inconve-
el, furbishing and other expenditure In the circumstances, it is impor- nient, option.

ALLOW TEACHERS TO FOCUS ON TEACHING grammes. Several court verdicts have
also ruled in favour of teachers being
deployed for the Census exercise, de-
ight now, 3 million government election duty, government surveys, scribing it “a national duty”.
school teachers are fanning and school administrative work in- The solution to freeing up teach-
Rout countrywide to begin enu- cluding monitoring mid-day meal ers from non-teaching work to en-
meration work for the massive 16th implementation, maintaining student able them to focus on their core job
India Census 2027. Earlier this year, enrolment data, etc. Unsurprisingly, of teaching, is neither novel nor com-
teachers were deployed to conduct the 66 percent of teachers identified non- plex. A unified field statistics cadre,
Systematic Intensive Revision (SIR) teaching duties as the biggest hurdle trained and maintained by the Union
to revise electoral rolls. In India, to teaching. Ministry of Statistics and Programme
there’s routine deployment of school Yet, perhaps the greatest casualty Implementation, deployable for cen-
teachers for non-teaching tasks such of teachers being pulled out of class- sus, agricultural, and health surveys,
as census enumeration, election duty, rooms for non-teaching duties is poor would break government dependen-
cattle census, tree counting, and for student learning outcomes. According cy on teachers for out-of-classroom
sundry government schemes and to the Annual Status of Education Re- work. The US federal government,
surveys. The latest deployment of port 2024, published by the highly re- for instance, employs 4,000 full-
teachers — including some from pri- spected, independent Pratham Edu- time staff for its census bureau which
vate schools — for the India Census cation Foundation, which field-tested swells with the induction of university
2027, which is expected to continue 649,491 rural students in the 3-16 age students during decennial counts. For
until end September, has belatedly group, 51 percent of class V children election duty, the Election Commis-
provoked a debate on the linkage be- can’t read class II texts and 69 percent sion can also draw personnel from
tween children’s poor learning out- of class V pupils can’t solve simple di- other government departments.
comes and deployment of teachers vision sums. At a time when India faces a
for out-of-classroom tasks. Yet, despite overwhelming evi- foundational learning crisis, contin-
According to a 2019 study con- dence of children’s learning outcomes ued diversion of government school
ducted by the Delhi-based National plunging because teachers are over- teachers for out-of-classroom duties
Institute of Educational Planning and burdened with non-teaching tasks, is self-defeating. Teachers present in
Administration (NIEPA), government the Right of Children to Free and classrooms and teaching is integral
school teachers spent only 19 percent Compulsory Education Act (RTE), to improving children’s learning out-
of their time actually teaching, with 2009, permits the government to comes and restoring the credibility
42.6 percent of their time taken up deploy teachers for decadal census, and effectiveness of the public edu-
by non-teaching activities such as election duty and disaster relief pro- cation system.

12 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2026