Hawking used gunny sacks is not something school teachers are expected to do. The Bihar government, however, ordered teachers of government schools to do exactly that. The loss in revenue in the years 2014 to 2016 under the mid-day meal scheme was to be made up by teachers selling the sacks used to distribute food grains to schools at half the price of each. This amount was to be returned to the government. The money was calculated according to the number of sacks given to the schools in the designated years. Any teacher unable to return the amount for which he or she was responsible would be charged with embezzlement. The lack of respect underlying the order is not new, although the Bihar government’s stand is still outrageous. A principal who tried to make this obvious by hawking in the open market sacks that nobody was buying was suspended; his colleagues protested against both the suspension and the order. They emphasized the government’s disrespect and coercion, fearing that they themselves would have to pay for sacks that were torn, damaged by rats and floods, used by children without chairs to sit on. There never had been any scheme to return the sacks.

Teachers in government schools are expected to serve the government besides teaching. A Central government rule kindly says that teachers should not be deployed for any non-educational activity except the census, disaster relief and election duties. These tasks in the national interest are time-consuming; they also allow the administration to take teachers for granted. So teachers are now in charge of mid-day meal systems in their schools, from buying ingredients to tasting the food, and maintaining accounts. They distributed dry rations to students during the pandemic; the reported number of deaths from the virus is staggering. Participating in surveys or the pulse polio campaign, even taking pictures of open defecation during the programme against it are, reportedly, other tasks. In 2019, a survey of five states showed that teachers taught for only 19.1 per cent of their time; the rest was given to non-academic duties. The Bihar incident is the extreme expression of a typical disrespect. It is a corollary of the administration’s indifference to foundational teaching. It is no use criticizing achievement levels if teachers are not allowed to teach.