New Delhi: Over 3.5 lakh school teachers in Bihar employed under a 21-year-old government initiative are planning to hold a protest at the assembly on 13 February to oppose a new competency test. Protests have also been planned across different districts on 10 February.
The Bihar government has decided to enrol ‘Niyojit (employed) teachers’ as state government employees. Their recruitment as state government employees, however, has been made incumbent on clearing a test.
According to government guidelines, the teachers taking the test — to be conducted online — will get three attempts. If they fail to clear it, they will lose their jobs.
“The government cannot make anyone unemployed just on the basis of an examination,” said Dhananjay Singh, president of the Bihar Pradesh Teacher Association. “The Niyojit teacher also has a responsibility towards his family. He has been doing this work for so many years. If a teacher cannot pass this examination, then firing them from the job is absolutely wrong. How will he run his family by being ‘unNiyojit’?”
Singh said “all the teachers of Bihar are standing with the Niyojit teachers”. “Injustice will not be allowed to happen to them,” he added.
There are also concerns about the fact that the exam is a computer-based test, with some teachers saying they weren’t tech-savvy enough to navigate such an exercise.
The exam will be held in four phases, and the application process began on 1 February. The last date to apply is 15 February, and the first phase of the exam is scheduled for 26 February.
Once they clear the exam, the government will offer Niyojit teachers a choice of three districts for their posting.
The details of the competency test were finalised by a committee under K.K. Pathak, the additional chief secretary of the education department. Members include Bihar School Examination Committee Chairman Anand Kishore, State Education Research and Training Council Director Sajjan R., and Bihar Secondary Education Director Kanhaiya Prasad Srivastava.
In view of the planned protest, Srivastava has written to all the district magistrates and directed them to take action against the Niyojit teachers who participate in the demonstration.
Pointing out that the days of the protest are also school days, he wrote, “In such a situation, if the teachers leave the school and join the protest, the teaching work will be disrupted. Therefore, you are requested to take strict disciplinary action by identifying the teachers who participate in such protests.”
ThePrint has a copy of the letter.
Efforts to reach Srivastava over the phone and by email didn’t elicit a response. ThePrint also tried contacting K.K. Pathak, who has been spearheading a campaign to reform education in the state, by email, but hadn’t received a response by the time of publishing this report.
A call to the office of Bihar Education Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary was answered, but disconnected after an aide said he would speak later.
However, Rajeev Ranjan, national spokesperson of Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United), said the planned exam was necessary to improve the quality of education in the state.
On 7 February, a delegation of Niyojit teachers spoke to Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha on the issue. According to media reports, the Deputy CM told them the government is serious about their problems and he would talk to the education minister in this regard.
‘What are teachers scared of?’
In 2003, amid a shortage of teachers in Bihar, the then government hired 10th- and 12th-pass youth to teach in schools as ‘Shiksha Mitra’. At that time, such teachers were given an honorarium of Rs 1,500 per month.
Three years later, the government recognised these teachers as ‘Niyojit’ and increased their monthly pay to Rs 4,000. In 2014, an efficiency test was conducted for the teachers, and a slight pay hike followed.
Akhilesh Kumar, who has been working as a teacher in Saharsa for over 18 years, said it was a good decision to give Niyojit teachers the status of state employees, but added that he was scared.
“I have been teaching children for the last 18-20 years. Have I not been able to teach children in so many days? And if I fail the exam, I will be fired from the job, so what will I do next?” he added. “I am in a state of great confusion. There is a lot of anger among the Niyojit teachers of Bihar due to this decision of the government.”
Mrityunjay Thakur, another Niyojit teacher, blamed the decision on “the dictatorship of the Bihar government”.
“We have been doing the work of teaching and learning for the last 20 years. Now, the government is asking us to prove our ability. If we were not qualified, why were we allowed to teach children for so many years?” he added. “If we are not able to pass the exam, we will be fired from the job. All the Niyojit teachers of the state oppose this decision. For this, we will protest in all the districts on 10 February and lay siege to the assembly on 13 February.”
A third Niyojit teacher, speaking on the condition of anonymity, pointed out that he was about to turn 50. “I have been teaching children for so long, but now I have to pass an examination at this age to save my job,” he added. “This is completely wrong. The medium of examination is also online. I don’t know how to use a smartphone properly, I have never used a computer. You can understand how difficult it is for me,” he added.
Another Niyojit teacher, Mrityunjay Kumar, said this “is a conspiracy happening with the Niyojit teachers of Bihar”.
“The government should have also given the option that the teachers who do not want the status of state employees can maintain status quo, but they have made the competency test mandatory for everyone. This is wrong,” he added.
JD(U) leader Ranjan made light of these protestations.
“What are the Niyojit teachers afraid of?” he said. “The government’s stand is clear — you pass the examination, become a state employee,” he added. “There are many teachers at the panchayat level who do not even know how to write. When a teacher has been teaching for so long, why is he afraid of taken the exam? He has been given three chances, what more do they need now? Mode of test, age etc. are just an excuse,” he said.
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