Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's home district Nalanda and his bete noire Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's political turf Madhepura are among the nine worst performing districts in the ongoing recruitment drive for teachers in Bihar.
The Nitish government had announced last year the largest recruitment drive ever in the state to fill up 2.36 lakh vacancies in Bihar's 54,000 primary, middle and high schools.
Besides, the Centre also cleared the state's proposal to open 15,000 new schools, which would also require teachers. In the first phase, 1.20 lakh teachers would be recruited.
The rest 1.16 lakh would be appointed in phases. Over 80,000 schoolteachers have so far been recruited, which in itself is a record.
The government has also planned extensive on-the-jobtraining for all the new recruits.
The poor performance by some of the districts has meant that the target of appointing 1.20 lakh teachers is unlikely to be met before the February deadline. The nine bottom-ranked districts have secured less than 50 points on a scale of 100. The state's human resource development department has done the grading. Rohtas heads the list of seven best performers with 76 points. Patna, too, has lagged behind with an `average' performance rating.
The human resources development department has warned the laggards to complete the exercise by March, failing which action would be taken against the district superintendents of education (DSEs). The department has also written to the DMs to monitor and help in completing the recruitment.
This is the first time teachers are being recruited through Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) in the state.
Nitish also earned laurels in the recent national surveys largely because of the government's initiatives to revamp school education.
