Bihar Minister’s appointment as Assistant Professor put on hold due to shortcomings

Bihar Education Department Minister Sunil Kumar on Monday (December 29, 2025) said that shortcomings were found in the matter Ashok Choudhary due to which his appointment as Assistant Professor has been put on hold.

Sources said that due to the discrepancy over his name, the appointment of Mr. Choudhary who is a Minister in the Bihar government has been withheld. Last year in June, he was selected for the post of Assistant Professor in Political Science at Pataliputra University.

Mr. Choudhary had cleared Bihar State University Service Commission (BSUSC) recruitment exam and following the interview he was selected as one of 274 candidates.

“His matter has been referred to the commission, which will give its opinion and inquiry. After receiving the list, we did the review following which we sought the opinion of the commission,” Mr. Kumar said while addressing the press in Patna.

Asked about the discrepancies in his appointment Mr. Kumar further said, “There were some shortcomings and in certain matters we review it minutely and after finding the differences we have sought the commission’s opinion.”

Sources said that during the scrutiny, two different names were found in his educational certificates and election affidavit.

Mr. Kumar also announced that the requisition for appointment of school teachers through Teacher Recruitment Examination (TRE)-4 will be sent by January 14 to the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC).

The State government has, so far, appointed 2,27,195 teachers in government schools in three phases through BPSC which is an example in itself, Mr. Kumar said.

“There has been a delay of 3-4 months in sending requisition to BPSC for appointment of teachers through TRE-4 because the officials (of education department) were busy in assembly polls. Now the roster has been cleared and we will certainly send the requisition to the BPSC between January 10 and 14 (2026),” Mr. Kumar said. 

The Minister was accompanied by the department’s Additional Chief Secretary B. Rajender, Secretary Dinesh Kumar, Director of Higher Education N.K. Agarwal, Director (Administration) Manoranjan Kumar and other senior officials.

He also announced that government will appoint 5500 librarians in the State. The State government has already sent the requisition for appointment of 7000 “special teachers” for “differently abled children”, he said and added that it is the duty of the government to take care of these children.

Highlighting his government achievements of what it achieved in the past two decades under Nitish Kumar’s leadership, Mr. Kumar said that the number of teachers, students, and budget size has increased manifold besides improving the pupil-teacher ratio from 65:1 in 2005 to 29:1 in 2025.

“Education department’s budget increased to ₹72,652.44 crore in the current financial year from a paltry budget of ₹4341 crore. The number of teachers almost tripled to 5.87 lakh in 78,000 schools in 2025 from 2.04 lakh in 2005. There are 1.76 crore children studying in government schools while 20 lakh students are studying in private schools of the State,“ he added. 

He asserted that percentage of out of school children has declined to 1% from 12.5% in 2005.

“The State has witnessed tremendous increase in its literacy rate which is evident from the fact that the male literacy rate has increased to 84.91% in 2023 from 71.20% in 2011 (census) whereas female literacy rate too has increased to 73.91% in 2023 from 51.50% in 2011 (census). 

In response to a query on strict implementation of 25% seats that are reserved for children belonging to economically weaker sections in private schools, the Minister said that this comes under Right to Education (RTE) which will be strictly implemented from next session.