Primary education in Bihar has collapsed as contractual teachers on strike locked the schools across the State. Over 3.5 lakh contractual primary teachers have gone on indefinite strike from Thursday demanding pay hike and better working conditions.
Supporting their demand, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party created pandemonium in the State Assembly alleging the school education has completely collapsed due to government’s failure to fulfil its assurances made to the contractual teachers.
The striking teachers on Friday locked the doors of classrooms in over 73,000 primary schools forcing them to close down. They even prevented the district and block education officers from entering into their offices.
With 63 per cent against the country’s average of 74 per cent, Bihar has the lowest literacy rate in India.
Following failure of their talks with State Education minister P. K. Shahi on Thursday, the primary contractual teachers went on indefinite strike demanding their salary at par with the regular teachers. “The teachers should first decide as to who would participate in talks with the government. They should submit a list of 15 members for the meeting,” said the minister.
“The government had earlier assured us to look into our demand positively but it has deliberately been deferring the issue,” Puran Kumar, leader of an association, told The Hindu .
Bihar has also a poor teacher-student ratio with one teacher for every 63 students against the recommended national average of one teacher for 40 students. The Nitish Kumar government earlier had appointed over 3.5 lakh primary teachers on contract with a fixed salary.
The agitating teachers on Friday even forced some government primary schools in Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura districts to close after evicting students and teachers from the classroom and locking the school gates.
Meanwhile, the Opposition BJP raised the issue in the Assembly and created pandemonium which later forced the Speaker to adjourn the House till 2 pm.
