55,000 teachers to be recruited in mega drive

PATNA: It will perhaps be the largest recruitment mela any state has witnessed so far. Bihar will soon set the ball rolling for hiring more than 55,000 teachers to bring back its decrepit educational system back to life. Never has the state hired so many persons at one go. And to ensure that the recruitment mela does not turn into a circus, the state government has decided to recruit through the Panchayati Raj system in a completely decentralised manner. "We have not been able to begin the recruitment process due to the model code of conduct that came into force before the panchayat elections. But soon we would announce our set of rules which have been specially framed for hiring teachers," state human resource and development minister Brishen Patel told TOI on Thursday.

"Since we would be hiring a large number of teachers for different categories of schools, panchayats and zila parishads would receive applications, scrutinise and shortlist candidates. All candidates would need to possess the basic educational qualifications and should be trained teachers."

The appointments would also be made at the district level and the process would have little to do with the state government's headquarters in Patna. A senior official said: "It would not have been possible to recruit such large numbers through our department in Patna. The crowds would have been difficult to handle and there would have been complete chaos." Patel said schools in the state badly need teachers. "If we are unable to fill all posts with trained teachers, as desired by the Supreme Court, we will then have to see what to do. We may hire untrained teachers and then conduct training for them." The Nitish Kumar government withdrew a Supreme Court petition in January this year, paving the way for the hiring of teachers. The petition, which had been filed by the previous RJD government, had put a stop to the recruitment of trained teachers, leaving vacancies of two lakh primary and middle school teachers. Bihar's government schools have about 2.15 lakh teachers which include 1.12 lakh Panchayat Shiksha Mitra (para-teachers). But the teacher and student ratio in classrooms is about 90:1. To bring the ratio down to 40:1, which is the nationally recommended ratio to ensure at least one teacher is available for 40 students, the state needs close to 1.15 lakh teachers. The schools also face severe shortage of classrooms. At present, about 100 students are expected to sit in one classrooms.

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RANJAN RITURAJ SINH