The stray-dog row that put school teachers on the hook; here's why they're pushing back
A Supreme Court safety order on stray dogs in institutional areas set off a chain of circulars: Ministry, CBSE, then Delhi DoE. Social media then twisted “nodal officer” coordination into a false “teachers counting dogs” claim, prompting police action and a teacher’s suspension. Mumbai teachers resisted similar nodal roles. The bigger fight isn’t dogs—it’s non-teaching duties and accountability.
It began, like most modern education controversies do, with a court order meant to protect children—and ended with teachers being told (online) that they had been asked to do something they were never officially asked to do.
On November 7, 2025, the Supreme Court, hearing Suo Motu WP(C) No. 5/2025 (“City Hounded by Strays, Kids Pay Price”), issued time-bound directions to secure institutional premises—schools, hospitals, sports complexes, bus depots and railway stations—from stray dog risks, and sought compliance from States/UTs. The administrative chain moved fast: A Ministry of Education (Department of Higher Education) letter asked educational institutions to appoint a nodal officer to coordinate upkeep, campus safety and municipal linkage, and to run awareness and first-aid preparedness. CBSE followed with a circular advising affiliated schools on preventing dog-bite incidents and managing strays in school premises.
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Delhi then added its implementation layer: A DoE Caretaking Branch circular dated December 5 sought nomination/details of nodal officers for coordination—triggering teacher bodies’ objections over non-teaching duties.And then came the real accelerant: Social media posts recast “nodal officer” paperwork into the headline-friendly fiction of “teachers counting stray dogs”, which the DoE called misinformation prompting police/cyber-cell action.
In the middle of all these, one Delhi teacher was suspended for allegedly spreading false information about the circular. Meanwhile, Mumbai teachers refused a similar “nodal officer” role, saying they’re educators, not a civic help desk.
From nodal officer to dog census: How a rumour ate the actual circular
The confusion did not stem from a complicated order; it stemmed from a story that was too neat to resist. An Instagram post claimed the Delhi government had “assigned school teachers” to assist in a city-wide count of stray dogs, framing it as an official deployment rather than an interpretation.
ID@undefined Caption not available.A second Instagram reel pushed the same narrative, implying teachers were being “deployed” for stray-dog counting—an upgrade from “coordination” to “census duty” in a single swipe. The hook worked because it was instantly legible: it turned a bureaucratic phrase—nodal officer—into a headline that writes itself.