More than 4.5 lakh teachers who have taken the Teachers’ Entrance Test (TET) in Bihar have moved on an indefinite strike regarding equal pay for equal work, pension, gratuity, assistant teacher and government employee status and other demands, including term of services. These teachers are staging demonstrations and strikes in different districts of Bihar. Many TET teachers have even taken to begging on the streets of capital Patna.

“The government is unable to give us a respectable salary. So, we are raising money for the exchequer of the government by alms so that they can pay us a respectable salary,” a protesting TET teacher told Gaon Connection on the condition of anonymity.

These teachers have been on strike and demonstrations since February 17, affecting the education of about two crore students in the state. In addition, the strikes are also affecting the examination and inspection of the answer sheets of the ongoing primary, secondary and board examinations in the state. The government has also taken stern action suspending and dismissing about 400 teachers.

However, after nearly 20 days of strike, the government has also indicated some leniency. The state deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had stated in the assembly that the state government is sensitive to its teachers and that the salaries of the teachers will be improved soon. He quipped that the salaries would anyway have been revised after the two-month, strike or no strike. He, however, made it clear that the teachers cannot be given equal pay for equal work as the Supreme Court had already rejected a similar demand of teachers.

The protesting teachers allege that while the government cites a part of the Supreme Court order, it is also overlooking another important part in which the court has talked about treating the regular and TET teachers as ‘expert teachers’ and giving them respectable salaries. Amit Vikram, convener of the TET Shikshak Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti informed Gaon Connection: “The government is very shrewdly trying to validate itself. But the same ruling of the Supreme Court has also asked to give better and respectable salaries to the teachers and shiksha mitras employed in Para 78, but the government could not implement it for the past 10 months.”

Amit Vikram was talking about the Supreme Court judgment that was issued on May 10, 2019. While hearing the Bihar government versus teachers’ struggle committee case, the Supreme Court had commented: “The teachers should also be paid at par with the regular teachers of the state. Specialist teachers who pass examinations like TET should be given better pay scale.”

Amit pointed out that despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, the status of TET teachers in the state did not improve. Because of this, the teachers had to take to the High Court. The High Court, while hearing the case on February 22, had said that the Supreme Court’s suggestions and decisions should be implemented in letter and spirit. The High Court has given four months’ time to the Bihar government in the case.

Abhishek Kumar, member, Bihar Rajya Shishak Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti, said: “The government’s attitude in this whole issue has been stiff. We are constantly trying to negotiate with them, but they have never called us for talks. We had already notified the government about this agitation and strike, but the government chose to suspend many of our colleagues instead of hearing us. This attitude of the government is very unfortunate.

Abhishek explained: “In 2015, long before the Supreme Court’s suggestion and the High Court order, the government had talked about accepting our demands and enforcing the service conditions within three months. Then we had a strike of 41 days. Even after five years, no service condition was implemented.” He said that although Sushil Modi is talking about increasing salaries within two months, he has not yet called anyone for talks. This shows that the government lack in good intent.

Amit Vikram said that despite the government’s assurances, the strike will continue as the government has given false assurances in the past too. He said that after Holi, the agitating teachers will collectively protest against the government on March 13 by shaving off their hair. On Wednesday also, the agitating teachers had at several places, including Rajgir, expressed their protest similarly.

The teachers’ strike has badly affected the teaching work and mid-day meal distribution in the state. It is also confirmed by a letter from the state government itself. In a letter sent to all the district programme functionaries by the director of the state’s mid-day meal, he has written that the afternoon review of February 27 has revealed that only 19 per cent of the schools are operating mid-day meal in last four days. This shows that more than 80 per cent of schools have completely stalled schooling.

Amit Vikram informed that since more than 90 per cent of the state’s employed and TET teachers are participating in the agitation, only 60,000 regular teachers may not be adequate to run schools. It is noteworthy that more than 76,000 primary and pre-secondary schools in Bihar have 60,000 regular teachers, 2.5 lakh shiksha mitras and 1.5 lakh TET qualified teachers.