Govt teachers protest mandatory update of diary on MIS portal

Scores of teachers of various government schools under the banner of the Haryana School Lecturer Association (HSLA) staged a protest at the Mini Secretariat in Karnal city on Thursday, expressing opposition to a recent directive by the Directorate School Education mandating government school teachers to update their teacher diaries on the Management Information System (MIS) portal.

They gathered to voice their concerns and submitted a memorandum to an official of the Education Department, demanding the withdrawal of the order. The protesting teachers warned that if the directive was not rolled back, they would be compelled to launch a statewide agitation.

Ramesh Kumar, district president of HSLA, argued that maintaining a digital teacher diary on the MIS portal was an impractical and time-consuming task. “The time required to update the online diary can instead be used to conduct two full teaching periods. The new requirement not only hampers our teaching hours but also affects students’ learning time,” the district president said.

He along with other protesting teachers emphasised that while the teachers already maintained handwritten diaries as part of their routine, shifting to an online format adds an unnecessary burden. They also pointed out that not all teachers were well-versed in digital processes, making implementation of the direction even more difficult.

“The Education Department has issued an arbitrary and impractical directive without consulting the teachers or considering the ground realities. The department should have discussed this with the teacher associations before making such decisions that impact classroom teaching,” the district president asserted.

The protesting teachers further highlighted that while the education policies claimed to reduce non-teaching duties for the teachers, the directive added to their administrative workload. “This contradicts the goal of allowing the teachers to focus more on academic activities,” the association said in its memorandum.

Haryana Tribune