PATNA: Chief minister Samrat Choudhary on Thursday said the teachers’ recruitment exam to be conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission next month will be held in a single phase, accepting a key demand of protesting job aspirants.The announcement on X came after a delegation of protesters met the chief minister.The decision comes days after a pitched clash between job aspirants and police in the state capital, when the demonstrators tried to march to the CM’s residence demanding a single-tier teacher recruitment exam and a transparent recruitment process.In a post on X on Thursday, Choudhary said, “The government has been serious about the demands of students from the very beginning.”“Now, a decision has been taken… that this year’s TRE-4 examination will be conducted in a single phase,” he wrote in the post.He also shared screenshots of an agreement reached between officials of the state education department and a delegation of student leaders who had met them earlier in the day.A leader of the All Bihar Students’ Union, which has been spearheading the nearly three-week-long agitation, said, “This is a historic victory for students of Bihar.”“We had submitted a charter of 15 demands. Holding a single-phase Teacher Recruitment Exam was one of them. The government has agreed to take action on all demands raised by us,” the leader said.Choudhary, in his social media post, also said his government had taken several other important decisions regarding competitive examinations in the state, which have recently been marred by allegations of question paper leaks and other irregularities.“The state government has constituted an expert committee on examination reforms to recommend improvements in various exams. The panel, chaired by a sitting judge of the Patna high court, will also hear the grievances of students related to various examinations,” he said.Further steps will be taken for recruitment of 1,799 sub-inspectors after the committee submits its report, according to an official statement.It stated that the Economic Offences Unit of Bihar Police was investigating alleged exam paper leaks, including those in the BPSC SDO and sanitary inspector tests.The government also ordered immediate initiation of the recruitment process for vacant librarian posts.It also said consensus had been reached to pursue steps to maximise domicile policy implementation in recruitments, place before the panel the issue of relaxing the upper age limit, and set up a high-level committee to evaluate granting marks, weightage or a separate quota to contractual employees.In his X post, Choudhary said his government had launched the Vidyaarthi Sahayata Portal and Vidyaarthi Sahayata Shivir programme for prompt resolution of students’ problems and complaints.The students’ protest, which began in the first week of August, received support from opposition leaders of various hues, including RJD working president Tejashwi Yadav and Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor.A flashpoint was reached earlier this week when a BPSC official used a Hindi adage and later offered an apology, prompting students to take to the streets alleging that they were “likened to dogs”.(With inputs from PTI)
