Patna, July 1 (IANS) Bihar will no more engage school teachers in non-teaching assignments like survey and data collection works, an official said Saturday. The decision comes after protests by thousands of teachers and experts that such tasks take a toll on the quality of teaching.

The school teachers will not be engaged in various kinds of periodic census and survey works to be assigned either by the central or the state government for the collection of data on different kinds of social, economic, health and other activities, planning and development department (PDD) Principal Secretary Vijay Prakash said.

Prakash told IANS Saturday with this decision the school teachers will be free from other works. School teachers will be free from census and survey works. This is a positive move to improve equality of education in the state, he said.

The government's decision comes after complaints of teacher organisations and educational experts that teachers' engagement in non-teaching works hampers teaching in schools, he said.