Bihar secondary school teachers plan statewide protests over pay scale, transfers

Additional chief secretary (education) Dipak Kumar Singh said that the detailed service conditions for teachers were yet to be notified and will be done in due course

Bihar secondary teachers’ association, the oldest teachers’ body in state, along with primary teachers’ bodies have planned phase wide agitation against the Bihar state school teachers (appointment, transfer, disciplinary action, and service condition) rules, 2023.

On May Day, teachers’ bodies protested at the district level across the state and wore black badges. (Representative file image)

“On May Day, teachers’ bodies protested at the district level across the state and wore black badges. If the government does listen to our demands, there will be division-level protests from May 20 before the commissioners and after that it will be state-level. The pay-scale announced is yet another humiliation of teachers. We will also take legal recourse once it is vetted by the cabinet. Teachers have been humiliated constantly since 2006, when their pay-scale was destroyed. Did Bihar not have teachers before 2006? They were appointed through a uniform process, they were government employees and had a respectable salary structure to draw talented lot,” said former MP and president of the Bihar state secondary teachers’ Association, Shatrughan Prasad Singh.

He said the new rules are strangely prepared, as it does not even have the mandatory provision of promotion on completion of 10 years of service.

“In Bihar, teachers appointed since 2006 have completed 16 years of service, but there is no promotion. The new rules also don’t refer to it. The problem is that the government is itself trying to complicate things,” he added.

Additional chief secretary (education) Dipak Kumar Singh said that the detailed service conditions for teachers were yet to be notified and will be done in due course.

“The rule says detailed service conditions and pay-scale will be notified separately,” he added.

Singh said that all the teachers needed to be given the government employee status without the rider of examination, as they had already served for 10-16 years.

“Recruitment through Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) is just an excuse to delay the process and divide teachers. Many school teachers have cracked BPSC to go into better services, viz. as lecturers or in administration. If they don’t have quality, how are they clearing those exams. And if the government will not pay well, why will they remain in this profession,” he added.

Singh said that the government was not for quality education in schools.

“Even today, at the start of the academic session, schools are closed everywhere, as teachers are doing caste surveys. It is not an isolated case. The teachers are also deployed for animal survey, economic survey, preparation of electro list, revision of list and they are also deployed as booth level officers,“ he added.

Earlier this month, chief minister Nitish Kumar had said that all fresh appointments of school teachers will be done through the BPSC and have government employee status.

“The existing lot of teachers will also need to go through the process for upgrade as government employees,” he added.