Bihar Teacher's Salary Linked to Children's attendance

Bihar teachers' pay to be linked to student attendance

Patna, Aug 21 : Salaries of teachers of government schools in Bihar will not be paid if they failed to ensure at least 75 percent attendance of their students, officials said Friday.

Concerned over low attendance in government schools across the state, the Nitish Kumar government is planning to issue a circular to principals of the schools to ensure at least 75 percent attendance.

"The salaries of teachers would be held back if attendance in the school is below 75 percent," Ajit Kumar, an official of the education department, said.

Additional Commissioner, Human Resource Development department, K.K. Pathak said the government was serious about ensuring a higher percentage of attendance in schools and principals had been asked to ensure at least 75 percent attendance.

Pathak said the responsibility of maintaining attendance would be on teachers and they could face action if the percentage dipped below 75 percent.

Last month the government had offered Rs. 1 per day to poor children to encourage them to attend school and raise literacy levels, officials said.

Bihar's literacy rate is currently just 47 percent against the national average of 64.84 percent, as per the 2001 census.

Officials admitted that attendance in schools was less than 60 percent.

Knowing Bihar, it would be very simple to fudge the attendance of the students so that all schools have over 90% attendance.
You can take a horse to water but you cannot force it to drink.
Here we are dealing with small children who normally would not like to study unless there was some inducements.
The above scheme will not improve literacy levels in Bihar.
First of all unanounced inspections should be held at schools by honest people to check the attendance.
Secondly, tests should be conducted to see how well the students have absorbed knowledge.
If the students have not learnt anything, the teacher's salary should be proportionately reduced.
Both attendance and tests should be used to gauge the teachers performance.