Attendance dips up to 80% in 45,000 Bihar schools due to teachers strike: Report

The attendance in an estimated 45,000 of 75,000 schools in Bihar has dropped by 70 to 80 percent due to an ongoing strike by over 3.5 lakh regular contract teachers, according to a report by The Indian Express.

The teachers have been on strike since February 17. Their main demands include regularisation of their service and pay scale equivalent to those teachers who got regular employment decades ago.

According to the report, a contract teacher gets a salary ranging from Rs 18,000-30,000 per month as against a monthly salary of Rs 60,000-Rs 90,000 drawn by government teachers.

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Earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected the state government's demand on equal pay. As a result, the education minister have alleged that contract teachers have been trying to "blackmail" them in the election year.

"Contract teachers have been trying to blackmail us. Since the Supreme Court has made it clear that they cannot be given equal pay, they should rest the matter. It is true that evaluation, teaching and mid-day meals are affected, but we are working on a long-term solution," Bihar Education Minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma is quoted as saying in the report.

Since teachers are on strike, even the evaluation work of the Intermediate answer-sheets has been badly affected with a majority of the teachers boycotting the evaluation exercise.