In a span of just two months, the Bihar Education Department has suspended 55 teachers due to negligence or not being present in the schools. Additionally, it slashed the salaries of 6,000 others for various teaching violations. Soon after KK Pathak took charge as the Department's Additional Chief Secretary in June, he started inspections of different schools from July 1, as stated in a report by IANS.
Further, the additional chief secretary has given strict directions to district magistrates and district education officers to inspect every school twice or thrice a week and take action against the offenders.
As per the official data, without obtaining prior permission from the authorities, the offending teachers remained absent from work and would even come in late for their classes. Of the suspended teachers, the maximum were from Sitamarhi (26), while the remaining were from 12 other districts, the data added.
Giving more details, the data showed that about twenty-four districts did not report any suspension. The Education Department cut the salaries of two teachers in Bhagalpur, three in Arwal, nine in Khagaria and nine in Rohtas. In the remaining 34 districts, the numbers were between 10 to 300, as stated in a report by IANS.