Teachers Not To Engage In Caste Survey During School Hours: Bihar Education Dept

The Bihar Education Department has asked all district magistrates in the state to ensure that teachers are not engaged in caste survey exercise during school hours.

Teachers to engage in caste survey only after school hours: Bihar Education Department 9Representational Image)

Source : Getty

The Bihar Education Department has asked all teachers in the state to indulge in caste surveys only after their school hours. The Chief Secretary of the state’s education department K.K Pathak has also directed all district magistrates in the state to ensure that no teacher is occupied with caste surveys during school hours. ““The field-related activities of the caste survey exercise are almost complete now in the state. Now the data entry work is going on. Therefore, now it is requested that the services of teachers for the data-entry work should not be taken during school hours. Teachers should not be engaged for the remaining works of the caste-survey exercise during school hours”, Pathak’s letter to district magistrates was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. 

Earlier on August 1, Pathak also directed all district magistrates in the state to ensure that no school goes without teachers in the wake of engagement of teachers in caste surveys across the state. “DMs are requested to ensure that except caste survey exercise, teachers are not engaged in any other administrative works”, Pathak was reported as saying in his letter, underlining to uphold the quality of education in government schools in the state amid the caste survey exercise. 

Notably, following the Patna High Court’s nod on August 1, 2023, to conduct the caste survey in the state, the state government has recently resumed the caste surveys in the state. In its judgement, the Patna High Court held the caste survey as ‘valid’ and ‘legal.’ Following the judgment, the state government on August 2, cancelled all teachers training programmes in the state to engage teachers in caste surveys in the state. While the High Court also dismissed petitions against the caste survey started by the state government in June 2022, the Bihar caste survey has now been challenged in the Supreme Court.