The para-teachers are the naughty boys and girls of schools of Bihar now. They are being blamed by the ruling JD(U) for what happened in Khagaria on September 27.

The nation watched on television channels with dismay shots of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar publicly complimenting JD(U) leader and former Independent MLA Ranvir Yadav, who snatched a gun from a security man and fired in the air to disperse a mob, including some para-teachers who allegedly pelted shoes, eggs and stones at his cavalcade.

The mob in Khagaria was not of para-teachers alone. There were others too. Fed up with corruption, loot, non-stop rise in crime and administrative inefficiency, they took to streets to oppose Nitish’s Adhikar Yatra.

As the para-teachers were the common factor in all the recent demonstrations against Nitish at Motihari, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Begusarai and Khagaria, it was easy to put all the blames on them.

Even the media did not do the homework and found the para-teachers as the favourite whipping boys and girls.

It is true an overwhelming number of a couple of lakhs of para-teachers recruited by the state government some five years ago are not only incompetent but are even unfit for fourth grade jobs. While many cannot even spell words like monkey, donkey and January, some do not know how to write their own name in English. They got the job without appearing in any written exam or interview. Armed with certificates, they simply walked into their respective schools. Many of them got their jobs by allegedly heavily bribing mukhiyas (village heads) and officials. The media conveniently ignored when they were getting appointed and kept applauding the state government for providing jobs, though the whole exercise was a part of the Centre-sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. About a decade ago, the erstwhile Rabri Devi government too recruited 1,40,000 contractual teachers on the consolidated amount of Rs 1,500 per month.

But this is only one part of the story. There is another more serious side too.

Thousands of young boys and girls, perhaps more qualified for the job, opted to work as para-teachers simply because an impression was created — and once again the media too played its part — that these para-teachers recruited on the consolidated amount of Rs 4,000 to Rs 7,000 would soon be appointed as full-fledged teachers with pay-scale and all other facilities.

This impression marred the career of many youths. A full-fledged teacher’s job, especially in Plus Two schools, is a respectable one with good salary. So a large number of them looked at it as a career.

Take the case of a newly married youth working in a private firm, Ceasefire, in Delhi. He was getting Rs 25,000-plus salary and was living comfortably there with his graduate wife. When he heard that teachers were being appointed in Bihar, he applied and got a job in his hometown, Biharsharif, the district headquarters of chief minister’s home district of Nalanda.

Since he had old parents, he took a journey back home with one-fourth of the salary he was getting in Delhi. It was only months later that he realised what a terrible mistake he had committed as there was no scope of full-fledged job of teachers in Bihar.

Another gentleman with a very good qualification and even armed with BEd degree was working as a principal of a relatively reputed private school in Gaya. He was getting Rs 20,000-plus then. He too applied and got a job of a para-teacher in a village with a much less salary.

Another civil service aspirant was working in a private school in Gaya as a teacher of botany with a salary of Rs 15,000-plus. He took up a job in a private school in Patna to prepare for the competition.

Then came the news that the government was appointing para-teachers. He applied for it and got a job in a remote village in Jehanabad district. Now, he has to travel by train as well as bus to reach the school with a measly amount as pocket money. With all the time consumed in travelling and attending school, he hardly gets a chance to prepare for the competition. Four years later, he appears to have lost his goal — all because of the unnecessary hype and hope generated by the appointment of para-teachers.

The state government appointed full-fledged teachers only once in the past seven years — and that too only recently — following a Supreme Court ruling. The recruited full-time teachers had applied in 2003-04, when Rabri Devi was the chief minister. They fought tooth and nail to get the job.

Many para-teachers did not apply then; and the number of posts too was much less.