It may sound bizarre but it happened in Bihar where more than 10 thousand schoolteachers have failed in competency test. To improve the educational level and standard in Government schools, the Bihar Government takes such periodical test of teachers and take action accordingly.
“A total of 24 per cent contractual teachers have failed in competency test this year. Out of 43,447 teachers who took the test 32,833 could clear the test and the rest failed to come up to the mark,” said State Education Principal Secretary (Education), Amarjeet Sinha. The test was conducted last month and the result was out on Monday.
The State Government has been conducting such eligibility tests for schoolteachers since 2008. The schoolteachers were tested for knowledge of English, Mathematics, Hindi and General Knowledge for up to Class V.
Following complaints of poor standard of teaching in schools and the falling level of teachers the practice of competency test was brought into practice by the State Education department, said the officials.
But what would happen to those teachers who failed to clear their competency test up to the standard of Class VIJ
“The Government has made it clear that those who fail the test should either improve or leave teaching,” said Amarjeet Sinha.
For those who have failed for the first time would be given another chance but those who have failed to clear the test for the second time would lose their jobs as per Government rules, he said.
The department will now check after counting how many have failed for the first time and how many have exhausted their chances.
Of late, there have been regular complaints that despite the State Government’s measures like Balika cycle yojana and scholarships for the students the standard of teachers in the school has been falling badly. The primary teachers were often caught on camera unable to spell even the days of week and colours in some Government schools.
At most of the schools the teachers visit the campus once in a month to draw their salary and have kept a ghost teacher from the local area to manage their absence.
Meanwhile, the State Government has published the service records of nearly 3.5 lakh teachers at 70,000 Government schools online.
“Its a first such move to put service records of 3.42 lakh teachers of primary and middle schools online,” said an education department official, RS Singh. He also informed that computerization of the records was executed by a private agency with the World Bank’s assistance.