Bihar education department detects 1,205 'duplicate' contractual teachers

PATNA: The Bihar education department has detected 1,205 "duplicate" contractual teachers, who share the same roll number with someone else but may be posted in different schools, an official said on Thursday. The department has ordered their physical verification to sort out the irregularities, he said.

In a recently held competency examination for contractual teachers, it came to light that "there are at least 1,205 instances of more than one person teaching at schools against a roll number", the official said. "After their appointments as contractual teachers in government schools, they were allotted roll numbers.

The department has detected 1200-odd duplicate teachers during the verification of their documents which they had submitted with their roll numbers for appearing in the competency test," he said. At least 2.21 lakh contractual teachers appeared in the first competency examination.

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Around 3.5 lakh contractual teachers in Bihar, who have been teaching in government schools across the state for the last several years, will enjoy the government employee status after clearing the competency test. Five chances (three online and two offline) are being given to each teacher to clear the test, and those, who will fail, will be removed from the service.

The issue of the detection of 1,205 "duplicate teachers" was on March 5 discussed at a meeting chaired by K K Pathak, Additional Chief Secretary of the Education Department. According to minutes of the meeting, Nawada district with 79 such instances tops the list, followed by Muzaffarpur (58), Gaya & Darbhanga (56 each).

"Duplicate" teachers were also found in Patna (55), Samastipur (53) Banka (52), Jehanabad (51), Siwan (41), Nalanda (40), Begusarai (39), Araria (38) and Jamui (35). "These contractual teachers will soon be called for physical verification, and the action will be initiated against those who would be found indulging in illegal practices," the official of the education department said. Despite several attempts, Bihar Education Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary could not be reached for comment on the issue.