Bihar govt cancels Raksha Bandhan holiday in schools; teachers protest, attendance extremely low

The Bihar government has reduced the number of holidays given to government school teachers. Thus, the holiday on Raksha Bandhan has also been cancelled. Teachers burnt the government notification on holidays today and have threatened to intensify their movement if the government does not withdraw its decision.

Patna:For the first time in Bihar, schools remained operational on Raksha Bandhan as the state government suddenly cancelled the holiday. Thus, classes were held at the 80,000 government schools but only a handful of the students turned up.

The cancellation of holidays on Raksha Bandhan is part of the government's move to reduce the number of holidays. The move has led to a widespread protest from teachers who burned the copy of the government's notification that was issued in this regard.

Teachers said that if the government did not withdraw its decision they would wear black bands on their wrists from tomorrow onwards and would take a decision on going on strike after September 25. Aseem Mishra, a government school teacher said that 60 holidays a year except Sundays is a right of the teachers. "The education department is violating the rights of teachers in the name of imposing duty. The education department officials have got the wrong message that we do not teach in schools for 220 days. The fact is that there are 52 Sundays and 60 holidays which together make us entitled to 112 leaves," Mishra said.

Deepshikha, a teacher said that she has kept a fast for her brother and it is an injustice for them to come to school during the festival. Echoing the same, another teacher, Rakesh Kumar said that all had made prior plans and the government was harassing them by suddenly cancelling their holidays.

Sudhir Singh, national secretary of Bihar State Gazetted Elementary Teachers Association said that the government has transformed the government school into a government office. Apart from teaching, teachers in government schools are being made to do many non-academic work. "From selling sacks to selling junk and preparing mid-day meals, a lot of non-academic work related to census and elections is done by teachers. We are only left to clean toilets and roads," he said.

Meanwhile, despite being operational most of the schools recorded an abysmally low attendance and in some schools, not a single student turned up. For instance, at Miller Higher Secondary School in Patna, out of 962 children, only 14 children were present. Again, only 83 out of 300 students in the middle school Mithapur were present while around 20 out of 200 students in Boys Middle School were present.

Teacher Saraswati Kumari said that for the first time on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, schools are open so they called up the parents and asked to send their wards to school. Despite this, the attendance is negligible she said.

Principal of Middle School Mithapur, Ajay Kishore Prasad said that compared to the usual attendance of 250, only 83 children turned up today. "The problems of women teachers have increased due to the cancellation of holidays because Chhath, Bhai Dooj or Teej and Jiutiya are celebrated by women," Ajay Kishore Prasad, Principal, Middle School Mithapur said.

Sonu Kumar, a student said that he has come to school for the first time on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. "My sister is waiting for me at home to tie rakhi. After the school gets over, I will go home and get my rakhi tied," he said.

"Teachers save their casual leaves for medical purposes but now the situation has become very difficult. Even in Chhath only two-day leave has been given but the preparations start a week in advance," Kumari Sudha, Principal, Miller High School said.