Bihar: Cancellation of age relaxation in 2nd phase of teachers' recruitment, a rude jolt

Patna, Nov 8 (IANS) At a time when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav are terming the first phase of government recruitment as "their achievement" and taking credit for second phase as well, the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has played a spoilsport by disqualifying several B-Ed candidates for failing to meet the age criteria.

As per the first phase notification, candidates who have passed B-Ed course and CTET or STET examinations were given 10 years relaxation.

Shockingly in the second phase, while the candidates who have passed B-Ed course and passed CTET examination were not given age relaxation, those who have passed B-Ed and STET examinations have got four years' age relaxation.

This has resulted in the candidates falling under this category and applying for teachers jobs for classes 6 to 8, are finding themselves out of the race.

Making matters worse for them is the Supreme Court's decision in context of primary teachers recruitment in Rajasthan saying only Dl-ED passed candidates are eligible for the post. BPSC has implemented that judgment in the recruitment of the first phase of teachers in Bihar.

It led to around 3.90 lakh candidates being disqualified from the selection despite taking the examinations between August 24-26 August this year.

The B-Ed candidates have claimed that the notification came before the judgment of the Supreme Court and it's up to the recruitment body BPSC to decide whether it would implement the judgment or not but BPSC implemented it.

Same situation applied for the teachers recruitment in Chhattisgarh but the authority will not implement the same.

"BPSC has announced the age relaxation for B-Ed pass candidates in the first phase but did injustice to them in the second phase by not giving age relaxation. We had taken the examination last time but were ruled out following the decision of the Supreme court. This time, a majority of the candidates are out of contest even before appearing for the examination," said a B-Ed pass candidate Surabhi Sharma, a resident of Patliputra colony of Patna.

In a notification, the BPSC has said that for 31,982 posts for class 6 to 8 teachers, the minimum age is 18 with the upper limit being 40 years.

"As per the government data, around 2.63 crore students are registered in government schools of which 98.80 lakh are in classes 6 to 8. The education right act said 35 students required 1 teacher and there are 45,000 teachers of class 6 to 8 in the state. Hence, at least 2 lakh vacancies are required in this segment," said Raju Singh, state convener of Bihar TET primary teachers association.