Teachers recruitment: CM holds ‘positive’ talks with allies, decision awaited

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday met the leaders of the state’s ruling alliance, the Mahagathbandhan, at his residence to discuss the grievances of school teachers and reportedly assured to look into the demands, according to a few leaders who attended the meeting.

They, however, did not give any deadline and specifics about the outcome of the meeting.

Congress legislature party leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan said talks were positive, but working out modalities may take some time. “The CM was also positive, but how it has to be done cannot be announced without consultation with officials. But things are moving in the positive direction,” he said.

CPI-ML MLA Mehboob Alam, who was present at the meeting, also said the CM was “positive”.

The teachers have been demanding government employee status without any exam rider and requisite changes in the Bihar state school teachers (appointment, transfer, disciplinary action, and service condition) rules, 2023, under which the government plans to carry out future appointments under a new cadre.

“The CM called the education department officials also. A beginning for fulfilling the teachers’ demand, which is mainly government employee status to them, has been made, and after completing the necessary formalities, the proposal will go to the cabinet. There is no need for teachers to do any agitation anymore,” said Alam, whose party has backed agitating teachers.

Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, education minister Chandrashekhar, Congress leader Madan Mohan Jha and officials of the education department were also present at the meeting.

Nearly a dozen leaders drawn from different parts of the state and representing various associations waited anxiously outside the CM residence, and later expressed disappointment over the outcome. “Merely positive talks will not suffice now. We will wait till August 15 for the government to make some concrete announcement and after that plan our next course of statewide agitation. We expected some clarity today, which has not come,” said leaders and Pramod Yadav and Brajnandan Brajwasi.

Under the new rules, the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has already moved ahead with its exercise for conducting examinations scheduled from August 24-27 to recruit 1.70 lakh teachers. The government wants to complete the exercise by the end of the year. However, the number of applicants for higher secondary schools received by the BPSC is still lower than the number of seats available and the last date for submission has ended. The working teachers mostly stayed away from applying under the new rules.

Bihar secondary teachers’ association president Shatrughan Prasad Singh said, “We are waiting patiently. There is no concrete outcome of this meeting so far to be happy about, but if it is positive, it will reflect in actions in the next few days.”