No reason to withhold Bihar teachers’ exam: BPSC chairman

The BPSC chairman said that the candidates should not be under any confusion due to the recent Supreme Court order making B.Ed degree holders ineligible for the post of primary teachers

Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) chairman Atul Prasad on Sunday said that the teachers’ recruitment exam (TRE), scheduled from August 24-26 across the state, would go ahead and the candidates should not be under any confusion due to the recent Supreme Court order making B.Ed (Bachelor of Education) degree holders ineligible for the post of primary teachers.

The BPSC chairman said there is no point withholding the exam, as it will be injustice with the candidates. (Representative Image)

“So far, there is no reason to withhold the exam for primary teachers. The government has to take a policy decision on the matter and we have got no communication so far, which means the exam is on. Education is in the concurrent list and the state can make its own rules, as can the Center. What rules the state government will make and at what stage is not known to us. In anticipation, there is no point withholding the exam, as it will be injustice with the candidates who have applied on the basis of D.El.Ed (Diploma in Elementary Education),” he added.

The Apex court earlier this week upheld the decision of the Rajasthan high court, which made B.Ed degree holders ineligible for appointment as primary teachers, as they did not pass the basic pedagogical threshold required for teaching primary classes.

This is against the 2018 National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) notification, which made B.Ed degree holders eligible for the post. Rajasthan’s board of secondary education had also denied eligibility to B.Ed degree holders in the state teacher eligibility test, which was challenged in the HC and the Rajasthan government supported it.

Citing Article 21-A of the Constitution and the Right to Education Act, Rajasthan HC quashed the NCTE notification, observing that “a good teacher is the first assurance of ‘quality’ education in a school. Any compromise on the qualification of teachers would necessarily mean a compromise on the ‘quality’ of education”.

As the order of the SC came just when Bihar was moving ahead to organise exam for recruitment of over 1.75 lakh teachers, including over 85,000 primary teachers, many candidates for the primary schools were in confusion, as many candidates with B.Ed degree and some with both B.Ed and D.El.Ed had applied for the posts.

The BPSC chairman said whatever decision the government takes could be implemented even after the exam, as screening would be done at the time of results or before interview.

“We are not verifying the documents at this stage, but that will be done in any case after the exam. Many candidates may have both B.Ed and D.El.Ed and applied on the basis of the latter. That will be filtered after the exam and when the merit list will be prepared. There is no point denying them the opportunity just because they may have shown just one document at the time of applying,” he added.

Maintaining that he had also received communications from the candidates, Prasad said that the policy decision in the light of the Apex court order was not to be taken at the level of the BPSC.

“Whatever decisions the government takes will be communicated to the candidates, but they should not unnecessarily be under any confusion at this stage. The exam is close and it is on at this stage. There should not be unwarranted panic. If there is any specific decision regarding any particular category of candidates, that can be applied even after exam,” he added.

The Bihar government had brought out an advertisement on June 30 inviting applications for appointment to more than 1.75 lakh posts in the primary, secondary and senior secondary schools within the state, which the working teachers appointed since 2006 through Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and those who applied under advertisement of 2019 for selection to the post of teacher had earlier challenged in the high court, but got no relief.

Now, the government is working on a different mechanism to accede to the demands of around four lakh working teachers and give them government employee status without the BPSC exam, but through some other mode of screening. However, many of the working teachers have also applied for the BPSC exam, while the government is yet to come out with any concrete mechanism.