Teachers’ recruitment: After Nitish’s nudge to end public spat, chiefs of BPSC, edu dept meet for a chat

Top officials of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), department of education and the Bihar School Examination board (BEEB) on Tuesday held deliberations to work out the modalities for publication of results of the teachers’ recruitment test (TRE) held last month for recruitment of 1.70 lakh teachers in the primary, secondary and senior secondary schools in the state, said a senior official aware of the matter.

The meeting took place a day after chief minister Nitish Kumar met the three top officials and made it clear he would like everyone to work together in the larger interest of the state and its people and there should be “no room for ego clashes or personal differences”.

BPSC chairman Atul Prasad and additional chief secretary (education) KK Pathak, who were into a spat questioning each other’s authority and wisdom over verification of documents before recommendation of successful candidates to be appointed as teachers, and chief secretary Amir Subhani had met CM Kumar at his residence Monday evening.

After the meeting, Prasad tweeted: “Appearing (CTET, B.Ed etc) candidates in TRE will be provided adequate time, as much as possible, to furnish results of their exams to prove their eligibility”.

An official aware of the meeting, who didn’t wish to be named, said that in the light of the recent Supreme Court order, making B.Ed (Bachelor of Education) degree holders ineligible for the post of primary school teachers, the results for primary teachers would not include over 3.5 lakh candidates who had applied on the basis of B.Ed degree. It means nearly half the total number of candidates for primary teachers would be out of contention and that would also reduce the load of verification.

The BPSC chairman had last month categorically said that all the candidates, including those having applied with B.Ed degree for the post of primary teachers, should take the TRE, as it is the government that has to take a call requiring policy decision. There was always a question mark over their fate following the apex court order, though debarring candidates would have led to rescheduling of TRE and refund of their exam fee.

The apex court had last month upheld the decision of the Rajasthan High Court, which made B.Ed degree holders ineligible for appointment as primary teachers. Rajasthan’s board of secondary education had earlier denied eligibility to B.Ed degree holders in the state teacher eligibility test, which was challenged in the HC, which upheld the government decision.

The BPSC is set to announce the results later this month, but for those awaiting results of D.El.Ed (Diploma in elementary education) and STET (Secondary teacher eligibility test), the wait could be longer. The BSEB has assured to publish both the results at the earliest, as the fate of a large number of candidates would depend on that.

The Bihar government had brought out an advertisement on June 30 inviting applications for appointment to more than 1.70 lakh posts in the primary, secondary and senior secondary schools within the state.

The official quoted above, however, said all of them might not be filled despite lowering the cut-off, but another round of recruitment combining the existing vacancies in class 6-8 and backlog vacancies would be announced together within a couple of months.