Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said further recruitment of teachers would be made for schools and salary hike would also be ensured, but asked education minister Chandrashekhar to get those who did not teach out.
“Wherever I go, the aspirants demand recruitment. I have also asked the officials to speed up the process. How many teachers were there before 2005? We have carried out bulk appointments and more will be done. But I urge the professors and teachers to teach in schools and colleges. Those who teach should get more and but those who don’t should be out,” he said, while speaking at the Shiksha Diwas function, organised to commemorate the birth anniversary of India’s first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
On the occasion, the CM also released an app for monitoring of schools, distributed scholarships and incentives through direct benefit transfer (DBT) and announced a bag-less day for students of primary schools every Saturday.
Finance minister Vijay Kunar Choudhary, who earlier held the education portfolio, said Bihar was working on the ideals of Azad in the true sense by ensuring communal harmony and encouragement to education, especially girls’ education. Education minister Chandrashekhar chaired the function.
Meanwhile, candidates who have cleared TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) have been protesting in Bihar’s capital Patna for a week now, demanding that the state government start the seventh phase of recruitment for government school teachers. The first phase of recruitment began in 2006 and the sixth phase is currently underway.
“We will continue on our indefinite agitation till the notification is issued. We had hoped deputy chief minister Tejaswhi Prasad Yadav, who was in our support till last May, would be forthright and immediately announce the vacancies, but that has not happened. The education minister is also from his party RJD this time, unlike earlier when the department always remained with the JD-U,” says one of the teacher aspirants.
Education minister Chandrashekhar said the appointment of teachers was not a one-day affair. “It is an ongoing process. The process is on. Education department is the largest employer and candidates need to have patience. They should not fall into the trap of politics. The recruitment process goes on and it will continue. Agitations will not serve any purpose. The government is aware of their needs,” he said.
According to education department officials, the vacancies in primary schools could reach one lakh, as during the last sixth phase recruitment also, only less than half the advertised vacancies could be filled.
The government, earlier this year, had planned to carry out recruitment drive to appoint 165,000 teachers, but it got stuck after only 42,000 teachers could be appointed against around 91,000 vacancies in primary schools due to lack of eligible candidates in keeping with the reservation roster, which is meant to ensure that the castes enjoying quota in jobs are recruited accordingly.
However, the first priority of the department is to fill the vacancies in the secondary and higher secondary schools, say officials. Many of the secondary schools were upgraded to higher secondary schools in anticipation of teachers and infrastructure as part of the government policy to have a higher secondary school in every panchayat, but without adequate strength of subject teachers in higher classes, it is virtually left to the students to prepare by themselves or take private tuition.
The first-ever exam for the post of headmasters (HMs) in the government schools also turned out to be a big letdown, with barely 3.22% teachers qualifying. The exam was conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) earlier this year. Against 6,421 vacancies released for the post of HMs, only 421 could qualify. Now another exam is planned.
Bihar government schools have been running without school heads for years. The education department had last year decided to create separate cadres of head teachers in primary schools and headmasters in higher secondary schools, to be appointed through competitive examination to improve quality of education and administration.
“The government is working on a new centralised mechanism for teachers’ recruitment, which will give students the option of applying at one place with their prioritised options. The merit list will also be prepared through the centralised system and then given to the recruiting agencies for appointment. This will also limit the role of panchayat raj representatives at the panchayat-level recruiting agencies and usher in greater transparency to avoid the past controversies surrounding teachers’ recruitment,” said a senior official of the education department, adding it would require to be passed by the cabinet before the new process starts.
