To involve them in caste survey, Bihar suspends teachers’ training classes

Following the Patna High Court’s declaration that the Bihar caste survey was ‘valid’ and ‘legal’ the previous day, the state administration reacted swiftly on Wednesday and suspended all active teacher training programmes in order to quickly complete the survey.

Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Sajjan R, pleaded with the appropriate authorities in a letter to immediately halt all such teacher training programmes.

He addressed the letter to the heads of all teacher education institutions, district institutes for education and training, elementary teacher education colleges, and similar block institutes, as well as to the Bihar Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (BIPARD-Gaya and Patna).

 

 

He sent the letter to the Bihar Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (BIPARD-Gaya and Patna), heads of all teacher education colleges, district institutes for education and training, primary teacher education colleges and such block institutes.

‘Following the direction of the state government, all ongoing training programmes for teachers across the state are suspended with immediate effect. The decision has been taken to ensure that services of teachers (including new recruits) can be utilised for early completion of the caste survey in the state,’ the SCERT director said.

He wrote in the letter that instructors in training are required to participate in the caste survey in addition to carrying out their regular teaching duties at their individual schools.

The current caste survey in Bihar was temporarily delayed by the Patna High Court on May 4. The state government insisted that the constitution requires the gathering of caste-based statistics.

The caste survey was nevertheless recognised as ‘valid’ and ‘legal’ by the high court on Tuesday.

Additionally, the court had denied petitions brought up against the caste survey that the state government had started in June 2022.

On January 21, the exercise’s initial phase was finished. For the door-to-door survey, some 15,000 officials, including enumerators and observers, had been given varied roles.

The exercise would cost the state government Rs 500 crore from its contingency fund.

The focal authority for the survey is the general administration division.