Bihar’s education department has ordered action against around 1,700 teachers allegedly appointed using fake certificates, even as officials work to complete verification of the remaining records under scrutiny. Education minister Mithilesh Tiwari issued the directions during a review meeting held on Wednesday.
According to the minister, certificate verification has been completed for 2.40 lakh of the 3.20 lakh teachers whose credentials are being examined. The remaining 80,000 records are to be verified on an expedited basis. Officials have been instructed to initiate action according to the rules against teachers found guilty after the verification process.
The review places document verification alongside several operational issues affecting Bihar’s government school system, including delayed salary payments, attendance monitoring, school infrastructure, financial irregularities, cleanliness and security. Tiwari directed officials to ensure that salaries of teachers and non-teaching staff are released before Chhath and said there should be no unnecessary delay in disbursement.
The minister also expressed concern over financial irregularities reported from several districts and ordered strict action against officials and employees found responsible. The department’s directions indicate that the review is examining not only teacher credentials but also the administrative systems used to manage attendance, payroll and school operations across districts.
Attendance was another focus of the meeting. Tiwari directed officials to ensure at least 75% attendance among education volunteers and Talimi Markaz workers and asked them to prepare a standard operating procedure to improve student attendance. He also noted that nearly 5% of teachers were not marking their attendance and instructed the additional chief secretary to coordinate with district magistrates through video conferencing to establish a foolproof attendance monitoring system.
The department also directed officials to prepare a standard operating procedure for maintaining cleanliness in schools and emphasised the deployment of security guards to prevent theft. All schools, including Saraswati Vidya Niketan model schools, are to be equipped with CCTV cameras, according to the directions issued at the meeting.
Salary-related issues were also discussed, including anomalies affecting seven categories of teachers. The minister specifically referred to the denial of pay protection to head teachers and directed officials to ensure that eligible teachers receive the benefit in accordance with the rules.
The meeting additionally included instructions on displaying photographs of the President, Prime Minister, chief minister and education minister, along with those of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr B R Ambedkar and Swami Vivekananda, in schools. A proposal for the Rs 248-crore Vidya Bhawan project was also discussed. The department’s immediate next steps are to complete the pending certificate verification, act against those found guilty and establish the attendance and school-monitoring systems ordered by the minister.
