Cabinet gives nod, Bihar to recruit school heads through BPSC exam
Bihar will appoint 40,500 head teachers in primary schools and 5,300 head masters in the higher secondary schools.
VIJAY CHOUDHARY, Education minister
PATNA: The Bihar cabinet on Tuesday cleared a proposal to create separate cadres of head teachers in primary schools and head masters in the higher secondary schools of the state, two days after chief minister Nitish Kumar made an announcement to this effect in his Independence Day address in Patna.
So far, government school teachers appointed through panchayati raj institutions were promoted as school heads, who will now be recruited by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) through a competitive examination, education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said, adding that the decision reflected the government’s focus on improving quality of education in government schools.
“Bihar will appoint 40,500 head teachers in primary schools and 5,300 head masters in the higher secondary schools. For higher secondary schools, those out of the government school system could also apply, but they would require slightly higher experience than the eight years required for government school teachers. It is a great move as the schools lacked leadership. It would help improve the atmosphere on campuses,” he said, while thanking the chief minister.
Implementing the new process will require amending the regulations for school teachers that were announced just ahead of the assembly elections last year, which stipulated appointment of headmasters and head teachers through promotion of teachers fulfilling the required qualifications.
Sanjay Kumar, principal secretary at the department of education, said it was a major policy decision. “The guidelines for the appointment of headmasters will be framed first. Later, we will change the regulations announced last year, which were for teachers appointed through panchayati raj institutions since 2006. Now, the cadre of headmasters and head teachers will be of the state level. All teachers could participate in the competi
ment that it violated the right to privacy.
“In no way, the right to life and liberty as provided in Article 21 of the Constitution of India is being curtailed. Moreover, if a couple does not want to adopt the two-child norm, then he is free to do so but certain disincentives have been provided under the bill, which cannot be claimed as of right,” the commission said in the report.
The draft bill recommends various benefits to public servants and ordinary people who adopt the two-child policy, including financial incentives.
It also recommends special benefits to those who have one child and exemption to couples from the two-child policy in case of multiple births out of the second pregnancy and revocation of incentives in case of breach of the two-child norm.
Those in breach of the twochild norm may find their government promotions and increments blocked, their ration and other government benefits curtailed, and candidature and nomination to local elections and bodies cancelled — if the recommendations are accepted. Such people cannot apply for government jobs or receive government subsidies, the draft bill proposes. Exceptions have been carved out for people with disabled children, or in the case of the death of a child.
“It shall come into force on the appointed date as may be notified by the state government in the gazette and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of the act,” recommended the draft bill.
The commission rejected many suggestions received. Prominent among them were stopping people with more than two children from voting, fighting state and national elections and accessing reservation benefits.
It also dismissed a suggestion to allow a third child after two daughters.
“The commission has made recommendations for a third child in case there is disability of first or second child or there occurs death of child or any of the child is transgender. It shall be a never ending process to give birth to more children in quest of a male child,” said the commission.
The panel also accepted several suggestions, including more incentives for poor families and women from marginalised castes and tribes.
The commission expanded benefits for sterilisation from below-poverty-line families to anyone who underwent the procedure voluntarily, and said it was acceptable to link the policy to Aadhaar.
On a suggestion that in polygamous relationships, the two children should be counted per man, not woman, the commission said, “Taking into consideration, the large number of suggestions, this aspect shall be reconsidered.”
The commission said that if the draft bill becomes law, it should be implemented one year after its notification in the gazette.