New Delhi, Sept. 26 -- What does the management of crop stubble burning have to do with algebra? What do ration cards have to do with nouns and verbs? How is the census related to the Battle of Panipat? If at this point, you thought I am going to plunge you into some TED talk-style interdisciplinary exposition, you are going to be disappointed. (Or relieved, I don't judge). Stubble-burning management, census enumeration, ration cards are only three of the many complex non-academic tasks assigned to government school teachers in Punjab. And those teachers, they are done with all the extra homework.

In September, several teachers' unions in Punjab demanded that the government stop assigning them non-academic duties. "Stop giving us these j...