Darakhshan Qadeer Siddiqui, Lucknow. Should teachers teach or take responsibility for government schemes and administrative work? In Uttar Pradesh, questions are once again being raised regarding government teachers being employed in non-academic work. In Bareilly, the issue of teachers being given the responsibility of collecting straw for the cows during the scorching heat had just come out of the headlines when now an order has come out to involve teachers and headmasters in the process of making birth certificates of children studying in schools in Balrampur.
In the order issued from the level of District Magistrate cum District Registrar (Birth-Death), the headmasters-in-charge of primary and upper primary schools have been asked to prepare a list of students whose birth certificates have not been made yet. Along with this, the process of collecting the necessary documents related to the birth of the concerned children and making the applications available to the concerned Village Development Officer, Panchayat Officer or Registrar of Births and Deaths is also to be done through the schools. According to the order issued in Balrampur, between September 19 and 22, teachers have been ordered to collect all the necessary documents of the children and hand them over to the authorities.
Copy of DM and CDO order
CDO orders directly to BEO, the process from affidavit to village head's certificate is the responsibility of Guruji.
The surprising thing in the matter is that the order has been issued by District Magistrate Balrampur on 19th September, whereas earlier CDO Balrampur had issued an order in this regard on 14th September. The order issued by the CDO is addressed to section education officers. In this, it has been asked to take necessary action to get the birth certificate made for those students who do not have Aadhaar card available and the birth certificate has not been issued yet.
Prescribed formats are also given along with the order. These include school level certificate, affidavit addressed to the Sub-Collector, certificate of testimony and the process related to getting the certificate prepared by the village head. That is, the matter is not limited to just preparing the list of children for getting the birth certificate made, but the process of collecting different documents and certificates also has to be taken forward from the school level. A copy of the order of the CDO office has also been sent to the District Basic Education Officer, so that the said work can be monitored and completed.
These are the formats:-
Level certificate, affidavit addressed to Sub-Collector
Certificate of testimony and certificate by village head
AD Basic said, only BSA will tell in this matter
In order to fully investigate this matter, Read tried to talk to District Magistrate Balrampur and CDO Balrampur but could not be reached on their CUG numbers. Meanwhile, AD Basic, Devipatan Mandal Ram Sagarpati Tripathi was discussed in this regard. He said that only BSA will be able to give information in this matter.
Role of teachers from school to administrative office
In a letter issued from the Office of the Chief Development Officer on September 14, 2026, instructions have been given to collect details of those students studying in council primary, upper primary and composite schools, who do not have Aadhaar card available and whose birth certificate has not been issued yet. In the order, it has been asked to collect information and necessary records through the headmaster/in-charge headmaster of the schools and to ensure the action of issuing the birth certificate by coordinating with the concerned Block Development Officer and Sub-District Magistrate. For this, a format of certificate has also been given at the school level. In this, student's name, date of birth and details related to parents are to be entered. In this way, schools have been included at an early stage in the administrative process of issuing birth certificates. Schools have been given the responsibility of preparing the list, collecting documents and making the applications available further.
Teacher leaders said- harassment is happening due to arbitrary orders
Teachers organizations have raised questions on such orders. Teacher leaders say that teachers are constantly being given the responsibility of such work, which is not directly related to their basic teaching work. According to teacher leaders, such orders issued arbitrarily put additional workload on teachers and lead to their harassment. He says that it is necessary to get birth certificates of children made, but for this, coordination should be established between the concerned departments and the work should be done as per the prescribed procedure. There is a possibility that teaching work in schools may be affected due to frequent use of teachers for other work.
Such orders for teachers earlier also
The issue of government teachers being engaged in non-academic work in Uttar Pradesh is not new. In the year 2020, an order was issued in Siddharthnagar to give the duty of giving makeup to brides in the Chief Minister's mass marriage program to women teachers. After the matter came to light, the order was canceled and action was taken against the concerned officer. After this, in Bareilly too, an order related to collecting straw for cattle during the scorching heat of last May came out. Questions were raised on the duty of teachers regarding this matter also. Now, after the order to add schools in the process of making birth certificates of children in Balrampur came to light, teachers organizations have once again raised questions. The question is not on making birth certificates of children, but on why the responsibility of every new administrative work is reaching the schools and teachers. Teacher leaders say that the basic job of teachers is to teach children and due to continuous increase in non-academic responsibilities, it can directly impact the functioning of the school.
No such order has been issued from my level nor is this matter in our cognizance. We do not have any information regarding this. Yes, if children are studying in school and their parents want information for birth certificate, then whatever information related to the child is available with the school, the teacher can give that information. The main job of a teacher is to teach and he is doing his job. There is no need for the teacher to go anywhere or do any other work.
Vikas Chandra Srivastava, District Basic Education Officer, Balrampur
Vikas Chandra Srivastava,
District Basic Education Officer,
Balrampur
President of the Government Teachers Association said – the order is completely wrong…
National Teachers Association President Satya Shankar Mishra
President of Government Teachers Association, Satya Shankar Mishra says that Teachers are already tasked with managing about 54 mobile apps. Apart from this, his duty is also involved in elections. It is completely wrong to put the work of any other department on teachers. It is also wrong in the interest of children's education to make teachers do this work instead of studies. In such a situation, if they leave their original work and engage in such work, the future of the children will go into darkness. Due to excessive workload on teachers, teachers are continuously going into depression.
The work of issuing birth certificate is of Revenue Department – Vinay Kumar Singh
Vinay Kumar Singh, Provincial President of Primary Teacher Trained Graduate Association, Uttar Pradesh
Vinay Kumar Singh, provincial president of Primary Teachers Trained Graduate Association, Uttar Pradesh, says that the work of issuing birth certificates is mainly the responsibility of the Revenue Department. Teachers are already burdened with many non-academic tasks. In such a situation, it is completely unfair to impose another new task on them. Revenue Department employees are getting salary for this, hence they should also take up this responsibility. Moreover, even if the teachers collect the documents for the certificate, who will be responsible for their verification? The burden of such additional work should not be put on teachers but should be handed over to the concerned department.