Bihar teachers' recruitment exam schedule announced amid student protests

Job aspirants and guest faculties in Bihar are intensifying their protests, demanding immediate action on teacher recruitment exams and significant reforms in the state's education policy.

Bihar Public Service Commission announced the schedule for Teachers' Recruitment Exams (TRE 4) on Tuesday, even as opposition leaders like Tejashwi Yadav and Dipankar Bhattacharya threw their weight behind aspirants staging a protest to demand timely conduct of the tests.

A BPSC notification, asking aspirants to submit online applications for 32,388 teaching posts from September 1, came within five hours after the students, demonstrating at Gardani Bagh, threatened to gherao the education minister if the exam schedule was not announced "within 24 hours"..

Minutes before the notification came out, the protesting students were joined by Yadav, the RJD working president, and Bhattacharya, the CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary.

Yadav, who is also the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, told the gathering that the entire opposition supports the protestors' "legitimate demands".

"We have continuously fought to remove unemployment. During the 17 months when we were in power, my sole goal was to ensure people got jobs. We initiated the TRE-1 and TRE-2 recruitment process…Standing firm with you in this struggle, the entire opposition will raise your voice, right from the legislative assembly to the streets," he said.

Opposition Urge Protesters to Set Aside Caste Lines

Yadav urged students to set aside caste lines and fight unitedly, which will force the government to bow down.

The RJD national working president also requested the demonstrators to "strengthen his hands" by joining the party's Lok Bhavan March on Wednesday against the alleged police excesses during the NEET paper leak protests in Bihar.

Bhattacharya, who had participated in last month's Jantar Mantar protests in Delhi, said that "Gardanibagh has turned into Jantar Mantar" and the students' protest will definitely yield positive results.

"We support your legitimate demands and will ensure that these gain broad public support across society, forcing the government to bow before you," he told protestors.

Citing "consistent dialogue" during student protests in Jharkhand, the CPI-ML-Liberation leader asserted that the Bihar government should also hold talks with protestors and accept their demands.

"The broader question is that students across the country are fighting against corruption in education and recruitment exams. The issue is identical everywhere–the same pain, the same crisis, the same demands. Dividing these movements along political lines is wrong," he said

Opposition Slams BJP Leaders

Highlighting that Bihar leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi were products of student agitations, Bhattacharya said BJP leaders of the state "have no connection with students".

"To crush student agitations, AK-47 rifles and water cannons are used in Bihar, tear gas shells are fired, and students are seen through the lens of hatred and contempt. This represents the double standards of the so-called double-engine government in Bihar," he said.

Research scholars and teaching job aspirants have been separately protesting in Patna's Gardanibagh area over a multitude of issues, including new rules on recruitment of assistant professors and inconsistencies in the state civil services exam.

Yadav and Bhattacharya visited both camps and assured the protesters that they will take their demands forward to appropriate fora, including the Bihar Assembly..

Higher Education Minister's Resignation Demanded

Earlier in the day, teaching job aspirants began their protest, demanding a single-tier examination in BPSC-TRE 4, strict action against those who got jobs through corrupt practices, transparency in BSSC recruitments, and action against exam mafias.

"The government should release a notification for the BPSC TRE-4 exam within 24 hours. Else, we may gherao the residence of Bihar education minister seeking his resignation," student leader Dilip Kumar had said.

He also threatened to go on a hunger strike if all the demands were not met within three days.

Guest faculty members of several universities in Bihar and PhD holders, who have been protesting at an adjacent camp at Gardanibagh for the last 15 days, demanded the resignation of higher education minister Sanjay Singh Tiger and additional chief secretary Dipak Kumar Singh, who held a meeting with the demonstrators a few days ago to sort out the matter.

Among the protestors, Kumud Patel, who has been on a hunger strike throughout the period, said their "fight is to save Bihar's education system."

"Our talks with the higher education minister and additional chief secretary failed. We submitted representations to the governor and the chief minister three days ago, and were told that action would be taken very soon, but so far no such message has come," he said.

Vibha Rani, an assistant guest professor at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University in Muzaffarpur, who was one among the delegates who met Kumar, said the "government has become rigid and is behaving like a monarch" by ignoring protesters' demands.

"We presented our six-point charter of demands before the additional chief secretary with positive rationale. But they did not show any willingness to accept our demands," she said.

Their demands include the implementation of UGC Regulation 2018 in the appointment of assistant professors; raising the maximum age limit for applicants to 55 years; regularisation of assistant professor appointments; and implementation of a domicile policy, among others.

Assistant professor Kundan Singh said the government had "no answers to our questions" when we met them.

"The Bihar government should learn from the stir at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and in Jharkhand, so that this protest does not take a larger shape," Singh said.