SWABI, Jan 9: The supervisors and enumerators deputed for preparation of electoral rolls from the education department have been asked to perform their school duty and the lists should be prepared after the schools’ closure, a government official told Dawn on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The electoral lists’ preparation work has started from Jan 1 and some of the teachers who were assigned the task were relieved of the school duty. However, their absence had badly hit the students, especially the matric class students, whose exams are due in March.

The situation forced the local education officials to ask the teachers to perform double duty so that the students could not suffer.

The official said a notification had been issued in this regard to all primary, middle and high schools and on telephones also the heads of the educational institutions had been asked to tell teachers concerned to resume their duty.

The parents of the students have lauded the government decision and said the presence of teachers was badly needed as in March the students would appear in the annual examinations.

When contacted, some of the officials concerned welcomed the government decision and said the deputed staff had only to verify and update the electoral rolls prepared in 1998 and there was nothing difficult involved in it. They (the teachers) could prepare the lists anytime and even on Sunday as all of them had been deputed in their respective local areas, they added.

“The big difference is that the teachers who prepared the electoral rolls in the past were paid for it by the Election Commission besides their monthly salary,” they said, adding that most of the teachers had resented the government decision but they had been left with no option but to attend their schools before taking up the work of electoral rolls’ verification.

Requesting anonymity some of the deputed teachers said they would not resume their duty as they had not received the letter in this regard and would only work for preparation of lists.