Teachers' training, annual exams during Holi, Good Friday sparks row in Bihar

A row has erupted over the Bihar education department scheduling a training programme for government teachers and annual examinations for school students on Holi and Good Friday respectivelyRJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has sought the intervention of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar into the matterA circular issued by the State Council of Educational Research and Training SCERT on March 20 stated Officials concerned must ensure that all primary school teachers from classes 1 to 5 who have not attended training session earlier must attend the sixday Foundational Literacy and Numeracy FLN training that is being organised by the council from March 25 to 30The circular has been sent to the principals of all College of Teacher Education CTE District Institute for Education and Training DIET Primary Teacher Education College PTEC Block Institute for Education and Training BIET and other officials concernedAs per the letter a total of 19200 government school teachers will attend FLN training at 78 training centres of the department from March 25 to 30The SCERT has made it clear that no leave will be granted to all concerned during the training periodThe SCERT is the apex academic body in the state for school and teacher education and is a wing of the education departmentThe Bihar government has already declared public holidays on Holi and Good Friday and all offices of the state government will remain closed on those daysSimilarly the departments decision to conduct annual examinations for students below class 8 even on Good Friday March 29 has triggered a controversyEven Robert L Chongthu principal secretary to the Bihar governor in a letter to the chief secretary urged him to direct the department to change the exam schedule of March 29Both the SCERT circular and the Raj Bhavan letter to the chief secretary are in possession with PTIDespite repeated attempts Education Minister Sunil Kumar was not available for his comments on the issueIn a post on X Tejashwi Yadav said As per orders of the NDA government in Bihar teachers have to be present even on the day of Holi This has never happened in Bihar earlier when the entire state is celebrating Holi teachers will stay away from their families on that day The CM must intervene in the matterHis party RJDs spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwary told PTI This shows complete anarchy in the state government and the education department How can the department concerned organise training for teachers and hold exams on festivals This will certainly hurt the religious sentiments of the people These circulars must be withdrawnThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever