Bihar: Left leaders meet GA leaders on teachers’ issue, call for meeting with CM

The Bihar cabinet had last month approved the new teachers’ recruitment rules, clearing the decks for the long-pending recruitment of teachers in the state. Under the new rules, the appointment of teachers will be through a commission

The leaders of the three Left parties, which are part of the grand alliance (GA) in Bihar, met the GA leaders and called for a meeting of a joint delegation with chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav to apprise them of the concerns about the new teachers’ recruitment rules in regards to the teachers appointed since 2006.

The new rules also led to several protests across the state over the modalities of appointment (File Photo)

The Bihar cabinet had last month approved the new teachers’ recruitment rules, clearing the decks for the long-pending recruitment of teachers in the state. Under the new rules, the appointment of teachers will be through a commission. However, the new rules led to several protests across the state over the modalities of appointment which are a clear departure from the current mechanism.

“It is important to collectively make the CM and the deputy CM aware of the growing resentment of teachers and the aspirants with the exam rider,” the leaders said after meeting Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) state president Jagdanand Singh, Congress state president Akhilesh Prasad Singh and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) state president Umesh Kushwaha on Sunday.

The Left party leaders included Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation state secretary Kunal and senior leader KD Yadav, Communist Party of India state secretary Ramnaresh Pandey and leader Janaki Paswan and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Arun Mishra.

They said that it was important to address the concerns of the teachers, who are around four lakh in number, and the best way forward was to talk to their representatives.

“At a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party is encouraging contractual appointments and restricting job opportunities in all fields, the Bihar government’s move to give teachers the status of a government employee is a welcome step. However, the exam rider should not be imposed on teachers already working for years. As per the 2000 announcement of the GA, all the teachers should get the status of government employees and the aspirants for the already announced seventh phase should be exempted from the exam,” they said.

The move of the left parties is significant as the Bihar Secondary Teachers’ Association, the oldest teachers’ body in the state, along with primary teachers’ bodies have announced phase-wide agitation at the divisional headquarters from May 20 against the Bihar state school teachers (appointment, transfer, disciplinary action, and service condition) rules, 2023.

“We have been also consistently writing to the chief minister and education minister since the notification of the new rules regarding talks to apprise them of the concerns of teachers. Our sole demand is that they should also be adjusted as government employees without exams, as they have put in up to 16 years of service since their appointments in 2016 by the Nitish-led government only and have cleared all exams conducted by the state government over the years,” said the left leaders.

They left leaders said that there has been a precedence of absorption of teachers in the state. “In 1980, privately-owned schools were also taken over by the government and the teachers absorbed without exams. Again in 2006, the Shiksha Mitra’s appointed by the RJD government were also absorbed as teachers by the Nitish-led government without exams. There is no justification for exams when the teachers have already worked for so long and cleared all tests,” they said.

So far, the government has been firm that as per the new rules, the teachers would have to clear the competitive test conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) for availing of the state government status.

The state government has approved the Bihar State School Teachers (Recruitment, transfer, disciplinary action and service conditions) rules, 2023, and decided to recruit a fresh lot of teachers through the BPSC, while phasing out the prevalent system of appointment through Panchayati Raj bodies and urban local bodies on a fixed pay. However, the teachers appointed through the previous process are up in arms and agitating against the new policy across the state.

The government has already announced the appointment of 1.78 lakh teachers, including 33,186 in secondary schools and 57,618 in higher secondary schools, which will cost the exchequer Rs.10,623 crore.

The rules state that all those having qualified teachers’ eligibility tests organised by the Centre and the state and conforming to provisions laid down by the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) and Rehabilitation Council of India (for teachers in special schools) would be eligible for appointment as teachers.

In the 2022-23 budget, the Bihar government announced to appoint 48,762 primary teachers, 5,886 physical education trainers, 44,193 teachers in secondary schools, 89,734 teachers in higher secondary schools and 7,360 computer teachers.