Patna, Nov 27 (IANS): Bihar has published the service records of nearly 3.5 lakh teachers at 70,000 government schools online, officials Wednesday said.

"It is a first such move to put service records of 3.42 lakh teachers of primary and middle schools online," said R.S Singh, an official of education department.

He said the computerisation of the records was executed by a private agency with the World Bank's assistance.

"Thanks to the assistance of the World bank, work in 25 of 38 districts was completed with the entry of service records of over two lakh teachers. Work is in advanced stage in (the remaining) 13 districts and would be completed by the first week of December," he said.

According to the official, the step will help the government in future planning as it will get timely updates on the number of teachers retiring, their dates of retirement, payment of retirement benefits, seniority lists and help in streamlining salary payments through banks.

Besides service records, the government also embarked on school inspections to get a fair idea of the present status and requirements.

Earlier, Bihar put details of Classes 1-8 of all government schools online.