Schoolteachers in the city look forward to working Sundays.

While others exorcise the weekly fatigue of a hectic professional life on Sunday, teachers of most schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) happily take on invigilation duty for competitive exams as it helps them earn a little extra.

Arun Kumar Jha, a teacher of DAV-BSEB, said: “Sustained inflation has made it very difficult to manage the family budget with only our salaries. A little extra income always helps. Invigilating competitive exams is a convenient way to earn more.”

The services of schoolteachers are often sought to invigilate competitive examinations like IIT-JEE (both Mains and Advanced) or banking that are scheduled on Sundays.

But sources said most teachers don’t take the weekend off. They prefer to work and take the remuneration for it instead.

The amounts on offer are not paltry either. A teacher of a city school, who did not want to be named, said: “Those who invigilate in State Bank of India recruitment exam get paid the highest. For other exams, we get paid between Rs 500 and Rs 1,300.”

But isn’t missing quality time with family on the weekends an irritant?

“It can be managed very easily,” said P.S. Ambastha, the vice-principal of May Flower School.

He said: “Usually, it does not bother my family if I’m out even on Sundays. If there is a family engagement, it can be also be managed. The exams are usually for two-three hours. We can perform both our professional and family duties through efficient time management. After all, the extra income helps run the family.”

Not everyone, however, agrees with him.

His colleague, A.K. Singh said at least one day in the week should be reserved for the family.

“All through the week, everyone is very busy. As almost everybody has a holiday on Sunday, one must take leave from one’s professional engagements on that day to be with one’s family,” said Singh, adding that one should work on Sunday only if one has to.