2.36 lakh jobs in state schools

PATNA: With the Bihar cabinet approving new rules for recruitment of teachers on Tuesday, decks have been cleared for the appointment of about 2.36 lakh teachers in the state's primary, middle, secondary and senior secondary schools. There would be no age bar for the aspirants during the first appointment of teachers under the new scheme. The post of shiksha mitra has been abolished. They will now be called panchayat shikshak and will get an enhanced salary. The cabinet sanctioned 60,000 new posts of primary teacher for equalling the state's teacher-pupil ratio to the national norm of 1:40. Presently, theteacher-pupil ratio in schools of Bihar is 1:62. At the secondary level, 10,000 posts of teacher have been created for upgrading 1000 middle schools. The cabinet also approved creation of 1200 posts of senior secondary teacher for upgrading 100 secondary schools to plus-two level. Initially, only the trained teachers would be appointed. In case of non-availability of trained teachers, untrained teachers would also be appointed. The untrained teachers, after their appointment, would be imparted training in their respective schools. An MoU has been signed between IGNOU and the state government for the training.
The existing system of the appointment of shiksha mitras on an 11-month contract basis at a monthly payment of Rs 1500 has been abolished. Now, the panchayats would appoint panchayat shikshaks on a monthly salary of Rs 4,000 with assured tenure up to 60 years of age. The services of around 70,000 existing shiksha mitras would be upgraded as those of panchayat shikshaks while 80,000 new panchayat shikshaks would be appointed under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Under the new process, the panchayati raj institutions have been empowered to appoint teachers. Primary teachers would be appointed at the panchayat, middle teachers at the block and secondary and senior secondary teachers at the district level by gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zila parishads respectively for the rural areas. The appointments in the urban areas will be made by the urban civic bodies.Fifty per cent of the new recruits at the primary level would be women and three per cent of the jobs would be reserved for physically- challenged persons. Urdu teachers would be appointed in those schools having at least ten Urdu-studying students.The state cabinet also approved setting up of the Bihar Secretariat Clerical Services and also the Bihar Secretariat Services Rules. Cabinet also decided to implement recommendations of the Shetty Commission in totality for the Bihar Judicial Services employees besides deciding to bring some amendment to VAT rules for the benefit of traders.