Nitish Kumar to discuss teachers’ issues with GA leaders on Saturday

The meeting is significant as it will take place in keeping with the promise made by parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kunar Choudhary. The minister had last month promised the chief minister will meet the agitating teachers, discuss and fulfil the justified demands of contractual teachers

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will meet the leaders of the Grand Alliance (GA) on Saturday to discuss the issues of protesting teachers who have been demanding government employee status for contractual teachers without any exam rider and requisite changes in the Bihar State School Teachers (appointment, transfer, disciplinary action and service condition) Rules, 2023, under which the government plans to carry out future appointments under a new cadre.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar (File Photo)

The meeting is significant as it will take place in keeping with the promise made by parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kunar Choudhary. The minister had last month promised the chief minister will meet the agitating teachers, discuss and fulfil the justified demands of contractual teachers.

“The meeting will take place on August 5. I have delivered on my promise. I will listen to the viewpoints of all GA leaders. Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, education minister Chandrashekhar, and the leaders of the Congress and left parties, besides officials from the education department, will be present. The discussion will try to resolve the matters, as these are our teachers,” said Nitish Kumar.

The teachers’ protest is against the new recruitment rules under which all future appointments of school teachers will be carried out by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) through an examination.

The new recruitment rules have already witnessed several changes, including the removal of the domicile policy, which was later described as “legally untenable”.

Under the new rules, the BPSC has already moved ahead with its exercise for conducting examinations scheduled from August 24-27 to recruit 1.70 -lakh teachers.

The government wants to complete the exercise by the end of the year, as secondary schools have been working without adequate strength despite their upgradation to higher secondary level for nearly a decade.

However, the number of applicants for higher secondary schools received by the BPSC is still lower than the number of seats available and the last date for submission has ended. The working teachers mostly stayed away from applying under the new rules.

Bihar secondary teachers’ association president Shatrughan Prasad Singh said the chief minister talking to GA leaders on teachers’ genuine issues was a positive indication.

“We hope the meeting will set the tone for agreement with teachers’ bodies to break the impasse. The demands of the teachers have got the backing of GA constituents also,” he added.