Maharashtra teachers call statewide school shutdown on July 9; seek exemption from SIR, BLO duties

3 min readMumbaiJul 6, 2026 06:35 PM IST

The teachers have also sought complete exemption from Booth Level Officer (BLO) duties assigned to them under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll.

(Express Photo by Bhupendra Rana/ Representational)

Various teachers’ associations from across Maharashtra have called for a statewide school shutdown and protests on July 9 demanding immediate government intervention on several issues including Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) rules, promotion norms and non-academic duties assigned to teachers.

The teachers have also sought complete exemption from Booth Level Officer (BLO) duties assigned to them under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll.

According to teachers, due to these issues, they are unable to focus on their primary job, which is teaching, thereby adversely affecting the quality of education.

Apart from closing schools for the day, teachers are planning to hold demonstrations at district level, while a dharna protest will be held in Mumbai Azad Maidan on the day.

Among their key demands is exemption from mandatory TET for teachers appointed before 2013, since their recruitment was under the rules prevailing at that time.

While teachers have sought legislative correction, until then, they want government to provide relief to teachers by bringing teacher-friendly changes to the state TET framework.

“Instead of its current format which requires a candidate to be memorise the curriculum, the TET could be redesigned as more application oriented test which would be more practical for in-service teachers, allowing them to clear the test soon based on their years of teaching experience,” states the letter sent to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, by the Maharashtra Rajya Prathamik Shikshak Samiti, a state-wide primary teachers’ association.

Story continues below this ad

The teachers’ association also said that the BLO duty is an added load of non-academic work placed on them which is hampering the classroom teaching. There is growing opposition to BLO duties forced on teachers with multiple schools across the state raising concerns over teachers being away from class due to this work.

The teachers have also objected to new promotion and staffing norms.

While the teachers allege that the new promotion policy it is not based on seniority in experience, the revised staffing policy rules, according to them, will reduce the number of teachers in primary schools.