PATNA: Teachers at many government schools across the state wore black bands and badges while attending their duties on Thursday, in protest against the curtailment of holidays by the education department.Even as the attendance of students in majority of the schools was thin, the teachers had to remain present in their classrooms from the morning till evening. In a city-based government school, only a dozen students turned up for their classes, while the school has the strength of more than 700 students.Women teachers in general were more agitated due to the education departments decision to keep the schools open even on the day of Rakshabandhan festival as they could not tie rakhi on the hands of their brothers. An aggrieved teacher said, "Had education departments additional chief secretary K K Pathak come to our school, we would have tied rakhi on his hands.""It seems the education department officials do not have sisters and thats why, they have cancelled the holiday scheduled for Rakshabandhan." said another teacher of a girls school in the city.Leaders of primary and secondary teachers associations have also lodged their protest over the curtailment of previously declared holidays without any rhyme or reason. General secretary of Bihar State Bihar State Secondary Teachers Association, Shatrughna Prasad Singh and working president of State Primary Teachers Association, Manoj Kumar, have criticized the move and demanded immediate restoration of all the holidays as earlier announced by the state government.They pointed out that the education department must not play with the sentiment of teachers and students of the educational institutions as they were emotionally connected to festivals like Diwali, Dawat Puja, Chhath and Raksha Bandhan. They urged the chief minister to immediately intervene into the matter and order for restoration of holidays.The education department has reduced the number of festive holidays in government schools. As per the official release, the number of festive holidays in government schools has been reduced to 11 that were 23 between September to December.

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