A system in decay

AT 47.53 per cent Bihar has the lowest literacy rate in the country. The educational infrastructure is a tell-tale symbol of the collapsing state machinery. According to a study done by some citizens' groups, 57 lakhs of the over 18 million children in the 6-14 age group in the State were out of the school system in 2001. Of these 57 lakhs, 42 lakhs were girls. The dropout rate among children is as high as 77 per cent.

There were only 40,000 primary and 10,000 middle schools in the State. Over 10,000 schools had only one room or no building at all. The study found that most of the schools had no toilets. There were only 1.5 lakh teachers in the elementary schools and 40,000 in the primary schools. For years there was no recruitment of teachers and the existing ones had lost interest in their work as they had not been paid their salaries for months.

A common refrain in government schools in both urban and rural areas is that teachers either do not come or, if they come, they do not teach. "Madam bunai karti rehti hain (madam keeps knitting in the class)," said 10-year-old Ashraf, a student of a charwaha vidyalaya in Naubatpur near Patna.

The charwaha vidyalayas was started by Lalu Prasad during his early years in power for those children who tended to animals and could not attend regular schools. The concept, though noble in nature, has been reduced to a farce in most of the places and the 500-odd such schools are almost defunct.

The National Democratic Alliance government's Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan project has not done much good to children in Bihar. Ramshackle school buildings with little or no infrastructure, children mostly attending classes in the open and absentee teachers - this is the general state of affairs in most government schools in Bihar.

Significantly, Bihar had a comparatively good system of government schools, which were considered on a par with private schools anywhere in the country. Not so anymore. This has resulted in the mushrooming of private schools, which are, however, out of the reach of poor people. It has also led to an exodus of students from Bihar to educational institutions elsewhere in the country.