Bihar students announce indefinite hunger strike from Aug 18 over TRE 4 delay

Bihar students preparing for competitive examinations have announced an indefinite hunger strike from Aug 18, escalating their demand for the release of the Teacher Recruitment Exam (TRE) 4 notification and reforms in the state's recruitment process.

Student leader Dilip will lead the protest at Gardanibagh in Patna, with students also seeking the resignation of Bihar Education Minister Mithilesh Tiwari and action over alleged irregularities in various examinations.

The decision followed a meeting of students in Patna. Aspirants have been pressing the government to issue the TRE 4 notification and had earlier protested when Tiwari took charge as education minister.

Dilip said students preparing for different competitive examinations discussed the pending notification and other concerns during the meeting. The indefinite hunger strike will begin at Gardanibagh on Aug 18.

He warned that if the government fails to address their demands within five days, the protesters will march toward the Legislative Assembly while continuing the hunger strike at Gardanibagh.

Dilip also criticized the education minister over his earlier assurance that the TRE 4 notification would be issued in July. He said Tiwari had repeatedly referred to July as the expected timeline when questioned about the notification.

Now that August is already halfway through, the notification has still not been released, Dilip said, adding that students were left with no option but to intensify their protest.

The students have put forward several demands, including the immediate release of the TRE 4 notification and recruitment against all vacant teaching posts. They are also seeking a single-stage examination for TRE 4 and strict implementation of domicile rules.

Other demands include removing contractual service weightage from Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) recruitments, conducting the Assistant Education Development Officer (AEDO) examination at the earliest and speeding up librarian recruitment.

The students have also called for greater transparency in examinations. They want answer keys to be released and carbon copies of answer sheets to be provided to all candidates.

Separately, the Education Department has reportedly sent a requisition to the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) for recruitment to 32,388 teaching posts.

The earlier recruitment plan covered 10,778 posts for Classes 1 to 5, 8,583 posts for Classes 6 to 8, 9,082 posts for Classes 9 to 10, and 16,774 posts for Classes 11 to 12.

Under the latest requisition, the proposed recruitment includes 3,847 posts for Classes 1 to 5, 8,563 posts for Classes 6 to 8, 3,877 posts for Classes 9 to 10, and 16,101 posts for Classes 11 to 12.

However, reports indicate that the TRE 4 schedule could face further delays as the State Teacher Eligibility Test (STET) is expected to be conducted first.