NEW DELHI: Over four lakh contractual teachers in Bihar have been protesting from February 17 and have brought the state’s school system to a virtual standstill.

They are seeking an increase in salary to match what permanent teachers get. As per their unions’ own estimate, this has brought school attendance down to under 50 percent.

The teachers have an eight-point charter of demands. Their biggest demands are “equal pay for equal work” and an increase of retirement age to 65 years. Currently, the retirement age is 60 for government employees.

Schools in a fix

The ongoing protests have severely impacted the functioning of government schools.

“There are more than 70,000 schools in Bihar. Every one of them has been affected. Attendance has reduced drastically, by at least 60 percent,” said Mahender Prasad Sahi, a school teacher in Patna. “If there are no teachers in the school then what will the students do there?”

But government officials have repeatedly said that the teachers’ demands cannot be met.

As quoted in The Indian Express, Bihar’s education minister, Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma said: “Contract teachers have been trying to blackmail us. Since the Supreme Court has made it clear that they cannot be given equal pay, they should rest the matter.”

Verma also conceded that evaluation, teaching and mid-day meals have all been affected by the protests.

Depending on contract teachers

The teachers allege that the government officials are not willing to meet them.

“No government official has talked to us yet. They talk in the Legislative Assembly and to the media but not to us,” Brinjanandan Sharma, President of Bihar Rajya Shikshak Sangharsh Samnvay Samiti. The Samiti is an umbrella organisation comprising various teachers’ associations.

The teachers said that they will be intensifying the protests in the coming weeks.

As per an analysis by Accountability Initiative of the Centre for Policy Research, Bihar has a teaching vacancy of 34 percent at the primary level. The state’s school system is heavily dependent on contractual teachers for its day-to-day functioning.

The build-up

The friction between the government and the teachers has been building up for months. However, the protest began with just seven months to go for State Assembly elections.

In October, the Nitish Kumar-led government released a circular saying that all untrained teachers at the elementary level who failed to get teacher training under the National Institute of Open Schooling will lose their jobs.

Following an amendment to the Right to Education Act 2009, in 2017, all untrained teachers were required to complete a two-year diploma in elementary education by March 2019.

The teachers demand that those still without the diploma should be given another opportunity rather than removing them from service. “If untrained teachers should not be in the service then give them training rather than sending them away,” said Sahi.

The notification of training of untrained teachers was issued in 2017. Around 2.84 lakh elementary teachers in Bihar were reported to be untrained at the time.

Since January 7 more than two lakh cooks in schools were protesting demanding greater job security and increased wages. The government pays Rs 1,250 a month to cooks which is Rs 250 more than the central government norm.

The cooks have pointed to other states like Tamil Nadu which offers Rs 10,000 honorarium to cooks as justification for their demands. After more than a month of protests, the honorarium for cooks was increased to Rs 1,500.

Also read:

• Claim that Jharkhand schools have no teaching vacancies is absurd: Activists

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