BJP targets Bihar govt for cutting down school holidays on festivals

The Bihar education department on Tuesday ordered schools to cut down holidays on festivals to make up for the loss of teaching days due to a host of factors around the year

The Bihar education department’s order to cut down school holidays on festivals to make up for the loss of teaching days due to a host of factors around the year has triggered a sharp reaction from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

BJP leaders Giriraj Singh (right) and Sushil Kumar Modi (left). (File Photos)

Union minister Giriraj Singh on Wednesday said that tomorrow the “Shariat law could be enforced in Bihar”.

“The education department of Bihar has cancelled holidays on Durga Puja, Chhath and Diwali. Tomorrow, it is quite possible Shariat could be enforced in the state and there could be ban on Hindu festivals,” he said on X (formerly Twitter).

The Bihar education department in its order on Tuesday cited Right to Education Act, 2009 to underline that as per the provisions, there must be a minimum of 200 days of teaching in a year in the primary schools and 220 days in the middle schools (Class 6-8).

“However, due to elections, law and order situation, exams, festivals, flood, natural disasters, different competitive and recruitment tests and important programmes, teaching gets affected in schools. Besides, there is no uniformity in closure of schools. If some schools remain open in some schools, others witness holidays,” said the order issued by director, secondary education.

In order to remove the ambiguity, the department revised the holiday calendar for the remaining five months of the year, cutting down the holidays from 22 days to eight days from September onwards.

Bihar Shikshak Manch said that the schools already have 253 working days in a year and the government should focus on allowing teaching on those days by cutting down non-academic work given to the teachers.

“Reducing holidays for important festivals like Durga Puja and Chhath is strange, as these are the occasions when the entire family gets fully engaged. Traditionally, the school calendars have had adequate holidays during important festivals. Festivals are not the problem. The problem lies in the government approach to engage teachers for everything under the Sun around the year with minimum facilities and then expect them to deliver,” said Bihar secondary teachers’ association president Shatrughan Prasad Singh.

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi said that the department of education should not be run by whims to selectively implement RTE Act and keep engaging teachers in all kinds of non-academic activities around the year, contrary to Section 27 of the Act that “prohibits deployment of teachers for non-educational purposes, other than decennial population census, disaster relief duties or duties relating to elections to local authority, state legislatures and parliament”.

“As per the RTE Act, teachers cannot be engaged in non-academic activities, as they are the only employees engaged in non-academic activity around the year. That should be stopped first. There are various court orders also in this regard. Opening the schools will not serve the purpose if the students remain absent during festivals. Through festivals, children learn about their culture and tradition and that in itself is education,” he said.

There was no immediate reaction from the ruling Grand Alliance parties.