The Bihar Secondary Teachers Association on Wednesday discussed with senior officials ways to improve teaching in government schools and urged them to appoint more teachers.

Principal secretary (home) Amir Subhani was at the meeting apart from principal secretary, education, R.K. Mahajan, principal secretary, finance, Sujata Chaturvedi and others. On the other side were the teachers' association general secretary Shatrughan Prasad Singh and other office-bearers.

The association demanded secondary teachers be appointed in the schools and the government adopt a teacher-friendly policy.

The members placed a 13-point demand, including the teacher recruitment policy of 2006 be abolished; either re-introduce the teachers' appointment policy of 1983 or the Jharkhand government 2015 service rules for teachers' appointment.

There are provisions in the 2006 teacher appointment policy, the association said, that are not in the larger interest of teachers - such as there is nothing on promotion or transfer of teachers.

Shatrughan Prasad Singh, the general secretary, said: "The quality of secondary education is pitiable because of large-scale appointment of teachers with no knowledge of their subjects, and vacancies of teachers in secondary schools. The government's commitment to quality education can only be achieved if the vacant posts of secondary school teachers are filled up."

The association members also demanded the officials to promote teachers according to seniority and accord them benefits of three assured career progression.

The government had called a meeting with secondary teachers associations after the Intermediate examination result in May generated the lowest pass percentage in the past two decades. Only 35.25 per cent students cleared the examination.

It was recently decided that action would be initiated against teachers of schools whose students fared poorly in the 2017 Intermediate examination.