Bihar govt asks school headmasters to sell discarded items, faces criticism

The Bihar education department has issued an order asking headmasters to sell off the discarded items that are lying as junk in the school premises. The order has not gone down well with the teachers, who termed it as an insult to them.

Patna: Days after teachers of all government schools were asked to sell used mid-day meal sacks, the Bihar Education Department has now directed headmasters to sell the discarded items of the school and deposit the amount into the state treasury.

An order in this regard has been issued by Additional Chief Secretary KK Pathak. Now, the instruction will have to be conveyed to the Block Education Officer through video conferencing.

Pathak, who has been constantly visiting schools in different districts recently spotted that many school premises were full of junk. In a few schools, benches and chairs were kept aside as junk while in some other places, there were heaps of discarded old books. Pathak has directed the District Education Officers to ensure that all the discarded materials are removed from the schools under their jurisdictions.

In his notification, Pathak has clarified that clearing the junk does not mean picking it from one place and throwing it somewhere else. The teachers and the headmasters of the schools have to catch hold of a scrap dealer and sell off the unwanted items.

The money received from selling the discarded items will have to be deposited into the school's bank account. Also, schools will have to inform the department about how much junk was sold and the amount received from it.

Meanwhile, the order has not gone down well with the teachers who are opposing it saying they are being disrespected. State president of Bihar TET Teachers' Association Amit Vikram has termed the order an insult to the teachers of the state. The education department is committing atrocities against teachers, Vikram said.

“First teachers were made to count toilets, then directed to identify open defecation and sell gunny bags of mid-day meals. Along with counting the number of utensils used for cooking mid-day meals, teachers were given the responsibility of maintaining the accounts. Now, teachers and headmasters are being asked to sell junk. The reputation of the teachers is being tarnished due to such an attitude of the department. We are unable to do our main task," Vikram said.