The Patna High Court has instructed the Bihar government to treat ‘contract teachers’ and ‘guest teachers’ equally in the recruitment process conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC). Consequently, the court has also stayed the BPSC’s Teachers Recruitment Exam (TRE)-3.

Justice Anjani Kumar Sharan, in disposing of the petitions, emphasized that both contract and guest teachers perform the same teaching duties and should not be differentiated. He directed the state government to decide within a month to grant guest teachers five marks for each year of employment, up to a maximum of 25 marks, the same as given to contract teachers.

The court’s order, which also stayed advertisement No. 22/24 dated February 2024 (TRE-3), is expected to benefit over 4,000 guest teachers across Bihar, allowing them to participate in the BPSC teachers’ recruitment exam with the same preferential marks as contract teachers. These guest teachers lost their positions on April 1, 2024, following an order from the education department.

The Director of Secondary Education had recently instructed district education officers to discontinue the services of guest teachers who were hired on a fixed remuneration after an order from the education department dated January 25, 2018. This decision was made because the recruitment of 94,738 teachers in higher secondary schools—37,847 for classes IX and X and 56,891 for classes XI and XII—made the need for guest teachers unnecessary. Guest teachers were previously paid Rs 1,000 per working day, with a maximum monthly limit of Rs 25,000.

The court highlighted that guest teachers, like contract teachers, were involved in various administrative duties such as conducting elections and evaluating examinations. However, the BPSC did not initially offer the same preference marks to guest teachers in its TRE 3.0 advertisement.

Furthermore, the High Court noted that the BPSC had previously canceled both sittings of the TRE 3.0 held on March 15 due to allegations of question paper leaks. The BPSC is expected to announce a new examination date after the elections.

Source: PTI

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