Overview
- Education Minister V. Sivankutty warned that assigning students to SIR duties would disrupt learning and violate their right to education with exams approaching.
- Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U. Kelkar said any involvement through Electoral Literacy Clubs, NSS or other volunteers is optional, supervised, requires teacher consent and will not affect academic schedules.
- Electoral Registration Officers sent letters to institutions in Kozhikode and Thrissur seeking student volunteers through November 30, while an Elathur request was later described as a misunderstanding about voluntary participation.
- Officials reported that 5,623 Education Department personnel, including 2,938 teachers and 2,104 non-teaching staff, are working as Booth Level Officers for the SIR drive.
- Teachers flagged inconvenience during examinations and BLOs cited heavy workloads, and one BLO in Malappuram was removed after an alleged incident with the public.