Patna: In a mind-boggling and really funny mix-up, the Bihar Education Department has given maternity leave to a male teacher by mistake. The whole thing created a wave of amusement and nagging criticism. The stray point has shed light on the department, which officials…
The strange event captured everybody’s attention in Hajipur district of Vaishali where Jitendra Kumar Singh, a teacher of Mahua Block High School in Hasanpur Ousti, was wrongly reported as pregnant on the department’s e-Tisha Kosh portal. Therefore, he was granted maternity leave, which was also uploaded on the official website.
The oversight was attributed to a technical bug in the department’s system, which incorrectly tagged the maternity leave to the male teacher. The slip-up has incited fury among other teachers, who are now demanding to know about the lapse in the system.
Block Education officer Archana Kumari accepted the mistake by saying, “This mix-up happened due to technical reasons. Male teachers are not given leave like this. We will rectify the matter immediately.”
Kumari said that Jitendra Kumar was mistakenly given maternity leave from 2nd December to 10th December. On finding out the error, the department started an investigation and said sorry for the oversight. The education officer pledged that the department will now put things right and will take measures to avoid reoccurrence of such incidents in the future.
The incident not only caused a discomfort for the education department but also stirred up a cascade of jokes and memes on social media. Users were swift in their remarks, poking fun at the misstep with comments like “Incredible Bihar” and “Is this even possible?” and “The first man to give birth.” Although the department is busy solving the problem, the incident is still a source of humor and comic relief to the internet users.
At present, Bihar Education Department is in damage control mode, making every effort to restore the public’s faith and ensure that such errors are not repeated again.
The department has come out with a commitment to review its systems and processes for occurrence of similar bloopers elsewhere in the future.