Bihar Education dept asks district authorities to ramp up inspections of schools, colleges

Patna: The Bihar Education Department has asked district authorities to ramp up inspections of schools and colleges and also ensure that no teachers are engaged in non-teaching assignments.

The department on Wednesday suspended all ongoing training sessions of teachers (including new recruits) in view of restarting of caste survey exercise in the state. It has now announced that training will continue for those staff who are not engaged in the survey from August 7.

Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Education Department, K K Pathak in a letter dated August 1, 2023, to DMs urged them to make sure that no schools in their respective districts remained without teachers while engaging them in caste survey exercise.

"DMs are also requested to ensure that except caste survey exercise, teachers are not engaged in any other administrative work", he wrote in his letter maintaining that the quality of education in government schools should also not be affected.

In another letter, dated August 2, 2023, to all senior officials of the education department, the Director Administration of the department has requested them to conduct inspections of at least ten schools/degree colleges in a week.

"Inspection reports must be sent to the headquarters by the officials concerned on a regular basis”, the letter said.

Meanwhile, the department which on Wednesday suspended all ongoing training sessions of teachers (including new recruits) in view of restarting of caste survey exercise in the state, has now announced that training will continue for those staff who are not engaged in the survey from August 7.

State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Director Sajjan R in a letter dated August 3 to heads of all College of Teacher Education (CTE), District Institute for Education and Training (DIET), Primary Teacher Education College (PTEC), Block Institute for Education and Training (BIET) has urged them to resume the residential training of fresh batches of teachers (including new recruits) from August 7.

As the Patna High Court held the caste survey in Bihar as "valid and legal", the state government on Wednesday swung into action and suspended all ongoing training programmes for teachers so that they can also be engaged for early completion of the exercise.

"Now the training will start from August 7 for those teachers who are not part of the caste survey exercise", says the letter.

The state government will spend Rs 500 crore from its contingency fund for the caste survey exercise. The general administration department is the nodal authority for the survey.