Many Bihar school teachers set to lose jobs due to ineligibility, fake documents

Bihar has been carrying out large scale recruitment of teachers in the government schools, but now it may have to axe thousands, who did not have the desired qualification or forged documents, but managed to sneak through the process of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) in the initial phases of recruitment.
A department official said the scrutiny of documents of a large number of school teachers form outside state appointed through Teachers’ Recruitment Exam (TRE) – 1 & 2 despite not fulfilling the criteria of at least 60% marks in Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) has revealed that the number could be very high, as reports against such teachers are coming in from most of the districts.
“It is clearly laid down in the rules that only the inhabitants of the state would be eligible for benefits under the state reservation formula, not those applying from other states,” said an order issued by primary education director Pankaj Kumar on Monday in the case of a teacher Kumari Chandani, who had moved the Patna High Court to avail 5% relaxation benefit for woman candidates.
The HC had on March 18 this year directed the education department to take a call on the teacher’s contention. With a reasoned order, the department rejected her claim, making it clear that being an applicant from outside state (Uttar Prasesh) she could not avail the benefit.
The teacher had presented her case before the primary education director, claiming 5% relaxation in the CTET results being a woman. She has scored less than that, but had cleared the TRE and was posted at Arwal. However, when the discrepancies surfaced, her counselling was stopped.
This is, however, not the case with one teacher, but hundreds of such teachers have been identified across the state by the eduaction department who cleared the test despite not having 60% marks in the CTET. This is apart from those who forged documents. The district education officers have been seeking clarification from suspect teachers with regard to lack of CTET eligibility or forged documents frequently.
While the department is dealing with this new challenge in the midst of its efforts to improve schools’ condition, the vigilance probe involving teachers appointed between 2006 and 2015 through panchayat-Raj institutions and urban local bodies is yet to be completed and many teachers with fake documents have been spotted in course of ongoing counselling before carrying out transfer and posting.
Nearly 1.87 lakh of teachers appointed through panchayat-Raj institutions and urban local bodies have also cleared the competency test to avail the government employee status, while the results of the rest are awaited and for some subjects retest in due. “Having evaded scrutiny for a long time, they are now being caught during counselling as all the documents need to be verified,”’said an official.
The HC bench of the then chief justice L Narasimha Reddy and Justice Sudhir Singh had on May 18, 2015 ordered probe and directed the state vigilance investigation bureau to collect all the folders containing documents of teachers three weeks. While hundreds of FIRs were lodged and some teachers also removed, the probe is still on and the search for the missing folders continues, while several teachers also retired during the period.