Bihar’s new policy of hiring teachers from private agencies' slamme- Edexlive

Bihar’s new policy of hiring teachers from private agencies’ slamme-

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As per a recent notice from the Education Department of Bihar, the hiring for various teaching positions in the state’s universities and colleges would be outsourced to select private agencies. 

The circular, issued by the Department’s Secretary Baidyanath Yadav, states different categories of teaching services for colleges, the prescribed remunerations for these services, and asks principals and vice-principals of state colleges to hire faculty as recommended for these services. 

These categories are – instructors and speakers, assistant professors, associate professors, and professors. Instructors and speakers are paid a remuneration of Rs 500 for a class of 50 minutes, while assistant professors must be paid Rs 1,000 per class. Similarly, associate professors and professors would be paid Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,500 per class respectively, according to a report by The Times of India. 

Further, the circular states that these arrangements have been made for two years only. 

However, a few educationists and activists see this policy as harmful to the state of academics and the financial security of teachers employed at these universities. 

Opposing this policy, Delhi-based student organisation COLLECTIVE took to X and wrote, “Privatisation poisons every inch of the Education Sector.”

 

“Recently, we have seen how ad-hoc faculty at the Indraprastha College and Ramjas College at Delhi University have been removed from their posts, despite teaching in those colleges for over a decade. This policy would lead to a similar erosion of job security for university teachers in Bihar,” elaborates Sourya, a spokesperson from COLLECTIVE. 

He further explains that hiring non-teaching workers, such as sanitation workers and security staff is already outsourced to private contractors. “As the universities are not the primary employers of these workers, their job security is not guaranteed by the universities or colleges and is left to their contractors. They would not even be paid proper wages, as it can be seen how teachers are being recruited for as less as Rs 500 per class in Bihar,” he says. 

Further, subjecting teachers to such precarious terms of employment and endangering their financial security would deeply hinder the teaching quality,” he says. 

 

More nefarious agendas at play?

The Education Department of Bihar stated that this step was taken to meet the shortage of faculty in many universities and colleges of the state, as there have been no fresh appointments in the last few years. 

However, many educationists cast doubt on the true purpose behind this exercise, and are suspicious that this move is part of a bigger, more worrisome game plan. 

Sourya also alleges that this policy is a part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the new Labour Codes passed by the Central Government. 

Echoing similar concerns, Vikas Gupta, an Assistant Professor at DU and a member of the All India Forum for the Right to Education (AIFTRE), reminds that the Government of Bihar, led by Nitish Kumar, has opposed NEP 2020. 

“Despite this opposition, this policy seems to have been pushed by the Central Government through the Governor’s office,” he alleges. He further states that by bulldozing such policies against the state government’s wishes, and through the NEP 2020 as a whole, the Centre aims to “capture the control of education from the states”.

Gupta further says that the NEP is a tool for the Central Government to privatise the education system in India. “In the name of making higher education institutions more autonomous, the government has been cutting the funds allocated to education. Further, the government calls for funding educational institutions from alternate sources. This further opens the doors to industry and private players to enter HEIs,” he adds. The new recruitment policy of Bihar is just an example of this, according to him. 

With the entry of private sector players into the functioning of universities, Gupta says that the role and presence of teachers – who play a key role in the universities’ functioning – would only get marginalised. “If the university ceases to be the primary employer of teachers, they would not be a part of the decision-making process of the university. They would not even be represented in the Board of Governors or any university-level committee,” he explains. 

Instead, he worries that these committees would be filled with industrialists, private sector players, and “people from social organisations close to the Central Government”.

This trend would have a far-reaching impact on the quality and accessibility of academics, he says, adding that research would not extend beyond subjects and topics that do not further the interests of corporations and industries and that the involvement of private players would make education more expensive for students from marginalised backgrounds.



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