The domicile clause in Bihar teachers’ appointment: Why applicants are protesting Govt’s latest decision

Appointments made between 2012 and 2019 included a good number of teachers from outside the state. Nitish Kumar was Chief Minister both in 2012 and in 2020.

So why was the domicile clause removed in the middle of the application process?

Bihar Education Minister Chandra Shekhar has said that the domicile clause was removed because the Education Department was not getting enough quality teachers of mathematics and science, and also because the government wanted a healthy competition to get the best available teachers for the students of Bihar.

Sources in the Education Department, however, pointed to a more practical problem. They said that with the restrictive domicile clause, the Department was simply not getting a large enough number of applications.

The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), which administers the competitive examination, has introduced negative marking (deduction of marks for a wrong answer) for the first time, which has discouraged applicants somewhat. Among the existing teachers, only about 1,500 have applied for fresh appointments that would give them the status of being state teachers, along with better salaries and provident fund and other benefits.

And what have teachers’ associations said?

President of the Bihar Teachers’ Eligibility Test (BTET) Association, Amit Vikram, who had led the teachers’ protest in Patna on Saturday, said that the Education Minister’s argument that removing the domicile clause would attract better and specialised teachers does not hold, because the current vacancies are not for middle school teachers (Classes 6-8) where subject specialisation is needed.

And for secondary school (Classes 9-10) posts, only teachers who have cleared the Secondary TET from Bihar are eligible. Thus, for all practical purposes, applicants from outside Bihar can apply only for primary teachers’ jobs, for which there are about 84,000 vacancies.

Is the quality of teachers the only point of contention?

Senior JD(U) leader and Building Construction Department Minister Ashok Choudhary said that since students from Bihar study and work in almost all states of India, the government had shown a big heart by removing the domicile clause, and expected other states to continue to be accommodative towards students from Bihar.

Some political observers have also speculated that the government wishes to send out a wider political signal at a time when Nitish Kumar is seeking a national presence in a renewed bid for a big national role.

But don’t frequent changes in the rules delay the appointment of teachers?

That is exactly what applicants, teachers, and the opposition BJP have been saying. Fresh appointments of teachers have been due for more than two years. The state government has so far made more than half a dozen changes to the rules, only delaying the process further.