The state education department has decided to fill as many as 4,156 posts lying vacant in various directorates on a contractual basis, education minister Mithilesh Tiwari said this on Saturday. The move aims to keep administrative and technical work running smoothly until regular recruitments are completed.
Posts of junior engineers and assistant engineers in the Bihar state educational infrastructure development corporation (BSEIDC), the body responsible for construction, repair and maintenance of school buildings, will also be filled with qualified candidates on contract. Education secretary Rajiv Roushan stressed the urgency of filling these engineering vacancies so that infrastructure work does not stall. A senior officer said that recruitments will be made on class four and class three grades, who include sweepers, cleaners, drivers, lower division clerks and engineers.
Tiwari made it clear that the department would rely on contractual appointments in the directorates for the time being. “We will manage with contractual staff until regular appointments are made. The department will assess the final number of vacancies and send requisitions to the concerned recruitment agencies in due course,” he said. Officials indicated the 4,156 vacancies are spread across different levels and directorates under the education department.
The department has allocated ₹275 crore to all districts under the Kayakalp (rejuvenation) campaign for renovation and repair of government schools. Primary schools are to receive ₹30,000-40,000 each and higher secondary schools ₹50,000. Officials have been directed to convene meetings of school management committees by October 30 and secure approval for the proposed works so that repairs can be completed by the end of the next month. Around 4,000 schools are reported to have suffered damage of varying degrees in the recent floods, making the timely release and utilisation of these funds critical.
On the academic side, Tiwari directed officials to ensure textbooks reach every school before the new session begins. “Books must be made available to all children before 1 April so that studies can start without any hitch,” he said. He also instructed that adequate subject-wise teachers be posted in all higher secondary schools so that students do not miss out on any subject.
The department has also decided to send a requisition to the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) to fill up 76 vacant posts of agriculture teachers. The officials have been told to expedite clearance of the pending cases related to retirement, pension, arrears and leave within the stipulated time frame and complete the tendering processes in time so that related works finish before 31 March.
In another important move, the minister said, the department would transfer grants for unaided teachers for the first time directly into their bank accounts through direct benefit transfer (DBT), instead of routing the money through school management committees.
At a departmental meeting on Friday, the officials also discussed proposed rules and amendments concerning the appointment of secondary school headmasters, municipal teachers, the education clerical cadre and the Sanskrit Education Board. Tiwari told officers to complete all departmental schemes and work within the fixed deadlines so that academic arrangements in schools improve and service-related issues of teachers and staff are resolved promptly.
The BPSC has already launched the process to appoint over 33,000 teachers of various classes, for which aspirants have started filling up the forms. The teachers recruitment examination (TRE-4) is likely to be held in March next year.
The meeting was attended by education secretary Rajiv Roushan, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Thiyagarajan SM, Bihar education project state project director Navdeep Shukla, Bihar textbook corporation MD Yatendra Kumar Pal, secondary education director Nitin Kumar Singh, primary education director Kumar Nishant Vivek, BSEIDC managing director Abhishek Palasia and mid-day meal director Vinayak Mishra and others.
