CHENNAI: As the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2022, revealed an alarming reality wherein children being able to comprehend, read alphabets and numbers reducing drastically, questions are raised about the quality of teaching. However, experts said this was a result of teachers being burdened with other work.

According to multiple stakeholders to whom DT Next spoke to, teachers are being given non-teaching and clerical work to do. "This eats-up time that should be spent teaching. Also, the State Board syllabus is comprehensive and heavy; now is the time to reduce the portions," opined an activist. Echoing this, an educationalist said on condition of anonymity that teachers are tasked with everything other than teaching. "Teachers should be allowed to teach with limited yet vital syllabus. The department is trying to bite more than it can chew," the person added