‘Utilise teachers’ services for caste survey only after class hours’: Bihar ACS

Bihar’s additional chief secretary (education) KK Pathak has written to all the district magistrates (DMs) in this regard

Bihar’s additional chief secretary (education) KK Pathak on Tuesday wrote to all the district magistrates (DMs) to utilise the services of school teachers for the remaining part of office work related to the caste survey only after the classroom hours.

The Patna high court upheld the caste survey in Bihar on August 1, and the state government immediately restarted the stalled exercise across the state. (Representative Image)

“As the work related to caste survey has been almost completed and only the data entry work remains to be done, it will be better to utilise the services of teachers after the school time. Therefore, you are requested to take appropriate steps for using the services of teachers after school time,” says the letter from Pathak.

On August 1, the Patna high court upheld the caste survey in Bihar and the state government immediately restarted the stalled exercise across the state. The burden of field work once again fell on the government school teachers despite Pathak’s directive just a day prior to the HC order to spare teachers from all non-academic work due to the department’s focus on streamlining the beleaguered school education.

“While making deployment of teachers to schools, it should be kept in mind that the schools were not left without any teacher. The teachers should be deployed only for caste survey work, and no other administrative work be taken from them. The schools should not be left without teachers,” he wrote after it became apparent there would be no escape for teachers from the responsibility of caste survey.

Soon after, the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) director Sajjan R also issued an order, cancelling all ongoing training programmes involving teachers with immediate effect till further orders and asking the trainees to report to their respective schools and work for completion of the caste survey at the earliest. Later, another order was issued to resume training from August 8.

The latest order of ACS is significant, as the schools are in mid-session and due to regular inspection of schools of all levels, there was some improvement starting to reflect in terms of school attendance.

As the teachers are usually roped in for a whole range of non-academic work, Pathak had earlier also written to all the DMs not to deploy teachers for any non-academic work, as it affected the functioning of schools.

“District education officers have informed that 4-10 teachers are being deployed for long-term training as booth level officers (BLOs) by the sub-divisional officers and block development officers. Therefore, you are requested to remove deployment of teachers for any non-academic work,” said the directive.

Bihar secondary teachers’ association president Shatrughan Prasad Singh said it was unfortunate that the teachers had to teach after completing all the other assignments the government wants them to do despite court orders and government’s promises to spare them from non-academic work. “Still, they have to take all the blame and wait for even their legitimate demands,” he added.

“Nearly 50% teachers were deployed for caste survey work. How can the teachers work after school hours and then return home? A large number of women have also been deployed. They don’t have any facility. Issuing directive is easier, implementation on the ground a different ball game due to practical problems. Therefore, all initiatives fizzle out after some time,” he added.