Teachers’ recruitment: Patna rocked by protests against new rules

A protest against new rules for teacher recruitment in Bihar turned unruly in capital Patna on Saturday, prompting police to use force to control the angry agitators that left several of them injured.

Aspirants having qualified teacher eligibility tests conducted by the Centre and the state have been opposing the new Bihar state school teachers (appointment, transfer, disciplinary action, and service condition) rules, 2023, according to which teachers in the state will be appointed henceforth through a written examination to be conducted by Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC). Teachers thus appointed will be treated as state government employees. The existing teachers have protested this and demanded that they too be given the same status without having to clear the exam.

However, matters came to a head when the state government, earlier this week, decided to withdraw the domicile requirement for fresh recruitment of school teachers and opened the teaching jobs in Bihar to all Indian citizens.

On Saturday, a huge demonstration was staged by young men and women at the Dak Bungalow crossing in the heart of Patna, creating traffic snarls, even as police took recourse to use of force for dispersal and rounded up quite a few.

The protesters demanded removal of education minister Chandrashekhar for his remarks that it was difficult to find adequate number of competent teachers for science subjects and English. They said they had gone to the minister’s house to show him their certificates, including that of Secondary Teachers Eligibility Test (STET), but he did not meet them.

“The demonstration is being staged without any permission from the administration. We are trying to explain to the protesters that what they are doing is illegal. Use of force has been a last resort,” Nurul Haq, deputy superintendent of police (law and order), Patna, told reporters.

Incidentally, on Friday evening , the education department had ordered action against teachers participating in agitation for violation of code of conduct.

“If the teachers demonstrate in violation of code of conduct and it comes to light, immediate action needs to be taken. If the teachers resort to demonstration before education department offices, its video recording should be done for identification of code violation,” says the letter from director (primary education) Pankaj Kumar to all regional deputy directors (RDDs) and district education officers (DEOs), which has been seen by HT.

In less than two months, this is the second warning to teachers.

Meanwhile, the existing lot of teachers, most of whom were recruited through panchayati raj institutions as per the 2006 policy, have planned a demonstration during the forthcoming monsoon session of the state legislature beginning July 10. The opposition BJP has already extended its support to them.

The CPI-ML, which supports the coalition government in the state from outside, has also expressed solidarity with the teachers. Its legislature party’s deputy leader Satyadev Ram hosted a meeting of representatives of agitators at his residence on Friday evening.

Chitranjan Gagan, spokesman of the ruling RJD, said he has made a personal request to chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to reconsider the removal of domicile policy from the new recruitment rules.

Leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha, of the BJP, attacked the government for action against teachers, saying people would never “forgive them for taking them for a ride”.

President of the Bihar Secondary Teachers’ Association Shatrughan Prasad Singh, who is a former MP, said the government should avoid confrontation with the teachers and accede to their genuine demands. “Protest is our right in democracy. Teachers are being forced to protest, as they are being subjected to humiliation on one pretext or the other. There are nearly four lakh teachers appointed by the same government under its own rules since 2006 and the vacancies are around 1.75 lakh. Why should the older ones be asked to take fresh exams after long service, during which they have cleared several exams,” he said.

For its part, the BPSC had already issued advertisement for recruitment of 1.75 lakh teachers, but barely 35,000 applications were received in the first 15 days, perhaps because working teachers have not applied.

The recruitment is being done for 33,186 teachers in secondary schools and 57,618 teachers in higher secondary schools, besides primary schools. The government plans to complete the recruitment this year.