Education could snowball into a major poll issue in Bihar

Patna: Sushila Devi, 72, is a widow. She lives with her only son in Patna and does not keep well. Her one son died during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her husband Yogendra Narayan, a Botany teacher in Magadh University College, passed away in 2008. Pension is the only source of sustenance for her. But that money not reached her since January.

Bishwanath Agrawal, 90, lives with his wife. He retired as professor and head of the Political Science department in at a college in 1994. “At this age, I survive on care and medicines and everything requires money, but for January, February and March there has been no pension payment. When I tried to find out, I was surprised to know that even salary has not been paid in colleges and universities,” he said.

These cases are not isolated. There are thousands of teachers and retired employees of universities and colleges across the state who have not been paid their dues. This is so when the overall strength of working teachers has shrunk to around 35% of the sanctioned number due to lack of timely appointment.

Also Read: In Bihar, a silent battle is being waged between the Raj Bhavan and the education department

“The anarchy is being encouraged in all the universities and the teachers and employees are being denied their salary, pension and arrears due to a war of attrition between the department of education and the Raj Bhavan, while chief minister Nitish Kumar maintains a strange silence. This seems to be an attempt to kill public universities and all this will have an impact in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections,” said Professor A Kumar, general secretary of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation (AIFUCTO).

But non-payment of salaries and pensions in higher educational institutions is not the only factor threatening to snowball Into a major poll issue in Bihar this time. Several issues are simmering in the school education system, and pose a formidable challenge for the state government and political parties on election eve.

Some of the issues include old teachers’ service condition, school timings, credit war over recruitments, leak of question papers, and termination of guest teachers have often brought the government and the Opposition face to face over the last six months.

Also Read: Bihar education department sounds alert after detecting 20 lakh ‘ghost students’

On Monday, guest teachers teaching at secondary and higher secondary schools faced a police baton charge while protesting against the education department’s order terminating their services from March 31 due to adequate available strength after recent recruitments. Just a day later, college and university teachers’ body on Tuesday demanded immediate intervention of the CM to resolve the standoff between the Raj Bhavan and the department.

“The problems of the universities have been confounded due to the arbitrary actions of the department of education. The department has gone against the established norms and its jurisdiction to freeze accounts of the universities despite the Raj Bhavan quashing the earlier order. Even for important festivals like Holi and Eid, salary and pension remain held up for three months and nobody seems bothered and yet they talk about quality education,” said KB Sinha, working president, Federation of University Teachers’ Association of Bihar (FUTAB).

The Rashtriya Janata Dal is already trying to take credit for the recruitment of over 1.5-lakh school teachers through the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC); the issue of nearly four lakh teachers appointed through urban local bodies and Panchayati Raj institutions is already a big challenge for the government.

On Tuesday, the Patna High court order came as another big shot in the arm of the teachers, who were opposing the competency test due to the termination clause after having put in 15-20 years of service and having cleared such tests earlier. Soon after, the government, which was hitherto silent on the termination clause despite protests by teachers, issued a statement that it was never for termination of teachers. The department also issued a communique, maintaining that the court had upheld the competency test.

“It is a fact that the educational Issues and autocratic style of functioning of ACS (education) KK Pathak have been a major cause of concern for the youth and the government will have to face the consequences. The teachers and students are a strong community spread across every ward. They not only suffer, their families also suffer. The people have also realised that whimsical bureaucratic orders have caused more damage to education, but they continue. GA government took TRE-1 & 2 and everything was smooth, but TRE-3 question leaked during NDA government and the exam had to be cancelled,” said CPI-ML legislator Sandip Sourav, who is the GA Lok Sabha candidate from Nalanda.

Sourav, who has been vocal on education issues, said that the government would not be able to convince the masses why schools, colleges and universities have all suffered, and why salaries and pensions are not being paid and why lakhs of fake enrolments are detected every few years in schools.

“Actions like opening schools for teachers during summer vacations, threat to terminate services, stopping budgets of universities et al are sending wrong signals. Removal of thousands of guest teachers and increasing focus on centralised outsourcing are not creating right vibes and we will raise them. Even caste survey data showed just 6% youth able to complete graduation,” he added.

Neeraj Kumar, JD-U spokesperson, said the people of Bihar were aware of who took the state forward and who pushed it behind. “RJD cannot take credit for anything good in the state. Nitish Kumar had to spend a lot of time and energy undoing the wrongs of the RJD regime. The change in the educational sector with growing enrolments, gender parity and better institutions were unheard of earlier,” he added.

However, the stand off in higher education ahead of election has now started taking its toll. The registrars of Magadh University (Bodh Gaya) and LN Mithila University (Darbhanga) wrote to the principal secretary to the Governor, apprising him of the sudden decision of the department to call off the meeting scheduled on March 28-29 without any prior information.

In a separate letter to the Raj Bhavan, the MU registrar has written that as per the provisions in the Act, the government has the power to approve the university budget prepared in consultation with the VC. “The estimated demand on the higher education head is provisioned through the Bihar Appropriation Bill, which is passed by both the Houses and upon approval by the Governor it is notified in the gazette as an Act. No education department official is empowered to slash that grant approved through an Act,” the MU registrar wrote.

He wrote that the order to freeze all accounts of the universities is an attempt to cripple universities and is beyond the jurisdiction of any official. “The Supreme a court has also clearly laid down that any action of an officer beyond jurisdiction is automatically void. Besides, righ to dignified living is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution. The SC has also categorically observed that salary and pension are fundamental rights of employees and they cannot be denied through an executive order,” he wrote.

Maintaining that due to the “unwarranted freeze order of the department, the universities could not even carry out income tax deductions and deposit employees’ contribution for provident fund in March”, he wrote the universities might have to face financial penalty due to this.

“Besides, all examination-related work, viz. purchase of answer books through GEM portal, printing of question papers etc. have also come to a grinding half, which could further affect the academic sessions,” he wrote.

The registrar has also written that despite request to the department to withdraw the freeze order, there has been no response. “Instead, the department has deputed auditors to ensure compliance of its freeze order. Therefore, the Chancellor is requested to use his powers to direct banks to allow operation of university bank accounts,” he added.

But for the likes of Sushila Devi and Bishwanath Agrawal, the wait continues with myriad emotions as they prepare to vote for one more time. “As a teacher who taught for nearly four decades, the slide is painful. Elections will come and go, but the slide must stop, else generations will be lost,” said Agrawal.