SWABI, Jan 4: The assignment of the Education Department staff, including teachers, to help Election Commission of Pakistan prepare electoral rolls for the October General Election, has badly affected school students here as well as in all parts of the province.

The Education Department staff, along with the Election Commission of Pakistan staff, has started a house-to-house campaign to verify the electoral rolls.

The campaign will continue till Jan 30, depriving the students of their teachers for the whole month of January. It will badly hit the students as the month is very crucial because the annual examinations are held in March.

During visits to a number of schools and interviews with the heads on the institutions, teachers and students, they all complained that they were facing a lot of difficulties but had no option.

In contrast, the deputed teachers were quite happy and expecting to be paid handsomely for their duty besides their monthly salary.

“I was deputed for preparation of electoral rolls by the Election Commission. There was no option with the principal except to relieve me of the school duty for January,” a schoolteacher told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

He said the story of other deputed staff from the Education Department was no different.

When asked to comment on the situation, an official of the Education Department said that the deputed staff could not be stopped by the heads of institutions because of the lack of time as the elections were only 10 months away.

The voters’ lists will be released on Feb 11 for inviting objections and the process will continue till May 29 and a final list will be displayed on Aug 8.

Some of the school principals were of the view that there was a need to depute teachers from those schools who were not experiencing staff shortage but the institutions already short of staff, should have been spared of the electoral campaign.

In the Government Primary School, Bamkhel, only two teachers have been left for the teaching assignment. If one of them goes on leave, the other teacher has to look after eight classes.

In various middle and high schools the shortage of the teachers was being extremely felt. The teachers who attend the vacant periods don’t teach the students but only keep them under control.