Hours after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar assured the state assembly that the existing eight-hour school duration will be reduced, the Education Department on Tuesday announced new school timings which will be for six hours – from 10 am to 4 pm.
A circular issued by Director, Secondary Education, Kanhaiya Prasad Srivastava, on late Tuesday evening said that the new timings will start with immediate effect.
Earlier in the day, the chief minister told the assembly that the existing eight-hour school duration from 9 am to 5 pm in government-run institutions will be reduced by two hours.
New timings
He also said the new timings will be from 10 am to 4 pm.
His assurance came amid uproarious scenes in the assembly by opposition members, who entered the well of the House, protesting the “inhuman” timings.
“The timings of schools for academic activities should be from 10 am to 4 pm only… it should not be from 9 am to 5 pm,” he said.
“This is wrong,” he said about the existing school timings.
“I will immediately call the competent officer of the department and will direct him to change the timings. You (opposition members) should have told me earlier. Now the new timings will be from 10 am to 4 pm,” Kumar said.
The timings were issued by the then education minister Chandra Sekhar of the RJD, when the JD(U) was in the Mahagathbandhan.
The education department had in November last year issued the new timings for the schools, and it came into effect on December 1.
Besides providing details of class timings, the guidelines specified the disciplinary measures against teachers for not following the new timetable.
