Introducing a brand new switch coverage for lecturers within the state, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar mentioned final month it will apply to BPSC (Bihar Public Service Fee) lecturers and those that have handed sure necessary exams. Nevertheless, the Patna Excessive Courtroom stayed the coverage on Tuesday (November 19), following a plea from lecturers’ associations.
After the court docket’s order, Bihar’s training minister Sunil Kumar introduced that the federal government would deliver a brand new switch coverage. Here’s what it mentioned and what occurs now.
What was the Bihar authorities’s switch coverage for lecturers?
The switch coverage was launched in a bid to enhance the standard of training within the state, as most lecturers in recent times have been working of their residence districts. It utilized to all of the lecturers appointed by the BPSC or these recruited by Panchayati Raj Establishments (PRIs) and concrete native our bodies and having cleared the related competency (sakshamta) check, a PTI report mentioned.
Academics have been required to offer selections referring to their switch so as of choice by November 22, by the training division’s on-line portal. Of the state’s 5.25 lakh lecturers, about 1.75 lakh are “Vishistha” or unique lecturers who’ve the standing of “state worker” (thus entitled to gratuity, provident fund and pension advantages).
One other 1.8 lakh lecturers have been chosen by Academics Recruitment Examination-I (TRE-I) and TRE-II, performed by the BPSC.
The CM mentioned the coverage didn’t apply to lecturers appointed by native municipal our bodies, often called non-commissioned or “Niyojit” lecturers, who didn’t cross the competency check for employment as authorities college lecturers. Numbering round 1.5 lakh, CM Nitish Kumar mentioned that as a result of acute scarcity of lecturers on the time, these lecturers have been appointed by panchayat and municipal our bodies in 2006-07. They’d not been transferred since then and most have been posted of their residence districts.
Why did the lecturers’ associations problem the coverage?
Amongst different provisions, the coverage supplied that whereas a girl instructor may go for any panchayat aside from her residence panchayat, a male instructor needed to go for any sub-division in any district in Bihar aside from his residence sub-division. The lecturers’ associations discovered it “extremely discriminatory” and argued that since eight of Bihar’s 38 districts had just one sub-division, it may imply these lecturers transferring out of their residence districts.
Second, the dimensions of sub-divisions just isn’t uniform and therefore, lecturers of 1 large sub-division may not get the popular alternative. The court docket of Justice Prabhat Kunar Singh stayed the mass switch choice on the pleas of 13 lecturers and directed the state authorities to answer inside six weeks. The matter will likely be heard on January 21, 2025.
How did the state authorities react to the HC’s keep order?
Bihar training minister Sunil Kumar informed reporters on Tuesday that the coverage had a number of flaws. He mentioned the federal government would herald a brand new coverage after conducting all 5 capability exams (of which two have already been performed), passing which might give niyojit lecturers the standing of “state worker” as properly.
Earlier in 2023, Kumar mentioned they need to be handled on par with vishishtha lecturers after passing the exams. In the meanwhile, they don’t get pensions and shouldn’t have pay parity with BPSC and lecturers appointed earlier than 2006. The Bihar authorities distributed appointment letters to 1.14 lakh vishishtha lecturers who cleared the primary spherical of the check on Wednesday.
