The Bihar government announced a transfer policy for school teachers on Monday, giving in to their long pending demand.

It is also an attempt to provide relief to a majority of them who have been working far away from their homes, families and native places for more than a year.

The move is being seen as an effort to preempt any adverse fallout of their anger in the 2025 Assembly elections after chief minister Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government realised that it could have won a few more seats in the Lok Sabha election held earlier this year, had the teachers and their families voted for it.

“A large number of teachers and their families suffered much due to sudden and mass transfers in mid-2023. It was done unilaterally by the education department, without thinking about various social and gender-related implications. There were instances in which male and female teachers faced difficulty in getting accommodation in villages or commuting to the schools,” a senior bureaucrat in Nitish’s core team told The Telegraph.

There are around six lakh teachers in 85,000 primary, upper primary or middle, secondary and higher secondary schools in the state. They are divided into four categories — regular pay-scale teachers, those appointed by local self-government (panchayat and municipal bodies), eligibility test qualified or special teachers, and those recruited by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC).

However, the policy left a large number of teachers —approximately 3.5 lakh — appointed by local self-government (panchayats and municipal bodies) out of the transfer policy’s ambit, which could trigger protests and boomerang on the government. They have been fighting for equality with other teachers for a long time now.

“The teachers will have to apply with 10 options for postings. The transfers, postings and deputations will be done with the help of a software-based application. They will be posted in their nearest sub-divisions or districts as far as possible, except that the male teachers will not be posted in their home or native sub-divisions and female teachers will not be posted in their home panchayats,” education minister Sunil Kumar said while unveiling the policy.

Sunil said that the state headquarters would conduct the transfers in the first phase, but later on, intra-district transfers would be done by establishment committees headed by the concerned district magistrates. Inter-district transfers within a division would be done by similar panels headed by divisional commissioners. Inter-divisional transfers would be done by committees headed by the education department secretary.

The teachers will have to submit their transfer application online through e-shiksha kosh software.

The minister added that a formal notification of the transfer policy and the process of its implementation would be notified separately.