Teachers’ recruitment exam: BPSC invites objections for 1st phase, applications for 2nd phase
Chief minister Nitish Kumar is scheduled to distribute appointment letters to around 25,000 newly recruited teachers at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna.
While the controversy surrounding the recruitment of teachers by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) refuses to die, the second phase of recruitment of an estimated one lakh more teachers has been announced ahead of November 2, when chief minister Nitish Kumar is scheduled to distribute appointment letters to around 25,000 newly recruited teachers at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna.
BPSC issued the notification on Friday, giving tentative schedule for next phase of examination for recruitment of more teachers for Class 6-12 and for schools run under the backward and extremely backward class welfare department from December 7-10. The online application can be submitted from November 3-14.
However, the commission is still grappling with the issues confronting the first phase of appointment despite its repeated clarifications through social media and announcement to publish supplementary results on vacant seats to convince the aspirants that “all is well”.
The government, according to people familiar with the matter, is also considering giving relaxation to already working teachers who cleared BPSC-TRE (Teacher recruitment examination) by exempting them from further screening test to avail the government employee status, which the old teachers have to take, and allowing them to continue in the schools they are currently deputed at. This is to convince them that the results would not affect them in any way, as many were reportedly fearing posting in new districts.
The BPSC has, meanwhile, issued notification seeking objections from candidates, who have been protesting and trending on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media platforms with their grievances and apprehensions, on their dashboard after login through their password on the BPSC website from October 29 to November 11.
The BJP and its alliance parties have already sought probe into the exercise, terming the first phase recruitment “a scam” and alleging gross violation of reservation norms. They have threatened to raise the issue in the state legislature during the forthcoming winter session.
“The government is playing a cruel joke with the state’s youth. A large number of teachers recruited this time will be re-employed, as they are already working. Many candidates have got appointed in more than one category. There is a good number from outside state. Many others are complaining that they have been left out despite meeting the cutoff. There are still others who did not go for counselling. Without sorting out the first recruitment, going in for a fresh one is diversionary tactics. The government just wants to paper over its failures and keep the youth involved,” said leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha.
In science subjects like physics and chemistry, despite very low qualifying marks, which shows the quality of the intake, the seats have remained vacant. Yet, a good number of successful candidates, including those already working, are not joining the counselling for fresh recruitment due to varied reasons. The commission has threatened action against them if they failed to give reasons for not reporting by November 7.
Through a notification, the commission has warned that those not reporting for counselling despite qualifying could be barred from future BPSC exams if they did not submit satisfactory reply through email.
The notification says the teacher aspirants had given undertaking regarding the bona fides of the supporting documents supplied at the time of applying, but many did not turn up for document verification during counselling despite being given enough opportunities.
“Due to this there was loss of time and manpower, disruption in the process and a mindset to procure jobs with wrong intention can also not be ruled out,”’ it added.
A woman candidate, who did not want to be named, said that with no time given for counselling, which started from the next day of results, and the period coinciding with Durga Puja, she decided to forego it. “I had thought appointment through state commission would mean a proper appointment letter first, but here they announced they would issue provisional appointment letter. Then, the document verification will continue. All this is scary. Now that I don’t want to join, they still want clarification - something unheard of anywhere,” she added.