Retired teachers will now be used to improve the quality of teaching in high school and 12th class in government secondary, higher secondary schools of Bihar. The Department of Education has decided to appoint retiree secondary-higher secondary teachers. The government has also got an in-principle agreement on this. The proposal prepared by the department will soon be approved first by finance and then by the state cabinet.
Significantly, there is a shortage of teachers in the secondary and higher secondary classes of the state. Although for this, the education department had started the sixth phase of planning for 30 thousand posts, but due to the lock down, the appointment has been stopped at present. After May, the proposal of Education Department has also been approved for the restoration of 33 thousand more teachers.
However the previous experience of the education department is not good. Because the qualified teachers are less in the appointment, especially in subjects like science, mathematics and the seat remains vacant. In view of these, the department has planned to hire retired teachers only to improve their studies in schools immediately.
According to the information, the biggest reason behind the decision to take the service of retired teachers is the beginning of class 9 studies in all the panchayats included in the government’s high priority.
There are 3305 such panchayats under this scheme, where the 9th grade is to be studied for the first time. According to the ideal situation, a school needs at least six teachers to conduct the 9th standard. One teacher each in Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Hindi, English and Second Language. However, the department has ordered districts to arrange at least 5 teachers for these 3305 newly created / developed high schools.
In this situation, only about 15 thousand teachers are needed for the study of 9th class. However, districts have also been ordered to identify Surplus Trend Graduate Teachers in Panchayat, Block, District and also post them in schools with 9th standard. After this, the shortfall will be met by retired teachers.
Term condition remains to be fixed-
Retired teachers will get honorarium, will they be employed or will they be employed like guest teachers. Opinion is yet to be made on all these points. When asked by a senior official of the education department, the term-condition is yet to be fixed for the service of retired teachers.