4.7 lakh aspirants for 4,257 teachers’ posts

PATNA: Sounds bizarre, but MTech and BTech degree holders may now teach secondary school students in Bihar. For, as many as 3.2 lakh of the 4.7 lakh job aspirants who have applied for the post of “guest” teachers in government plus-two schools in the state happen to be these technical degree holders.

It was with a view to ensuring regular academic activities in secondary schools that the state education department recently decided to appoint guest faculty on 4,257 sanctioned posts of teachers in English, physics, chemistry, mathematics, botany and zoology, and issued an advertisement accordingly.

The guest teachers were supposed to be appointed after their counselling before the reopening of schools after summer vacation on June 18, but such a large number of applications delayed the process of screening and counselling.

An education department official, however, said on Wednesday that candidates having PG degree in the subject concerned besides BEd degree would be given preference in selection. Altogether 7,880 candidates having degree in teachers’ training have also applied for the posts and they stand a fair chance, the official added.

The secondary schools imparting plus-two teaching are faced with scarcity of teachers. Even sanctioned posts are lying vacant in many schools for several years, said the principal of a Patna college which imparts plus-two education.

According to Patna Science College physics teacher S A Ansari, students of these schools skip classes due to lack of qualified teachers. In recent interviews held in the college for admission to the BCA course, almost all the applicants admitted they did not go to their schools or colleges even for a week in two years as they were attending private coaching institutions.

“They could not spell the name of the principal or any subject teacher of the institution where they were supposed to have studied for two years,” Ansari said.

Even Kalpana Kumari, who topped the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB)’s Class XII examination and also the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to medical colleges this year, candidly admitted in interviews that she was preoccupied with studies at a coaching institute and, therefore, did not attend her classes in a Sitamarhi institution.

BSEB chairman Anand Kishor later clarified that attendance was not compulsory in schools for being sent up for Class XII examination.