PATNA, July 27 -- The Raj Bhawan has approved fresh rules for teacher promotions that tie career advancement scheme (CAS) to actual classroom performance and academic output. Under the new CAS 2026, notified on Saturday evening and effective from July 24, teachers in state universities, affiliated colleges, minority institutions and deficit grant colleges must deliver at least 70% of their assigned classes to become eligible for promotion. Those achieving 80% or higher attendance in teaching duties will earn an "excellent" grade, while 70-80% will be rated "satisfactory." Falling short of the 70% threshold could stall their progress. Additional chief secretary, Governor 's secretariat, Dipak Kumar Singh said that the notification for amended CAS has been published on the secretariat website. "Teachers of minority and deficit grant colleges, whose promotions were not regulated through the previous CAS (2018), will also have to stick to new norms to get promotions," he said. The overhaul moves away from the old seniority-based system to a comprehensive academic performance index (API) that evaluates teaching effectiveness, research contributions and overall institutional engagement. Promotions will now depend on a mix of annual appraisal reports, participation in orientation and refresher courses, research publications, PhD supervision, seminar contributions and co-curricular activities. The new set of rules gives substantial weightage for research work. Those who have guided PhD scholars successfully and published articles in reputed national and international journals will get good scores, with minimum research scores prescribed for higher academic grades. The API envisages additional credits for administrative responsibilities and extracurricular involvement in the institutions. A screening-cum-selection committee of the universities will scrutinise applications for promotions, based on documentary evidence of performance. The scheme covers the institutions being regulated under the Bihar State Universities Act and Patna University Act, and seeks to bring in uniformity across the board. Eligibility timelines remain broadly similar - typically four to six years for moving from Assistant Professor to Senior Scale, with stricter requirements for Associate Professor and Professor posts, including advanced courses like MOOCs. Teachers appointed or promoted before July 18, 2018, can opt for transitional provisions under the previous rules. Education officials have welcomed the changes as a long-overdue step to improve teaching quality and foster a stronger research culture in Bihar's higher education institutions. For many teachers whose promotions have been pending for years, the new framework is expected to create clearer pathways once implementation begins. Officials said that the universities have been told to start following the new rules and start processing cases of promotions under the updated guidelines. General secretary of the Federation of University Teachers Association of Bihar (FUTAB) and MLC Sanjay Kumar Singh appreciated the performance-oriented approach for bringing transparency in the system, but cautioned that success of the policy hinges on reliable attendance tracking mechanism, fair evaluations system and better support for research, especially in under-resourced colleges....