Patna, May 2 (IANS): Nearly 20 million students in Bihar's government-run schools have been affected due to an indefinite teachers' strike in support of over 3.5 lakh contractual teachers, officials said here on Saturday.

The teachers' strike has badly hit class 1 to 12 students.

The contractual teachers of around 72,000 primary and middle schools went on strike last month demanding pay at par with regular teachers and better working conditions in schools.

Thousands of high school teachers have also gone on strike to support these contractual teachers.

"After thousands of high school teachers began their indefinite strike on Friday in support of striking contractual school teachers, millions of children have been deprived of their education," an education department official said.

Striking contractual teachers had already led to locking of hundreds of schools across the state. Most of the affected students belong to the poorest of the poor section of society.

"In last few years, studies pointed that well off people sent their children to private schools and most of the poorest of the poor sent their children to government run schools," the official said.