A latest report of the ministry of Education describing Bihar with the lowest Literacy rate in the country has raised concern over the poor state of education in the state that produces good number of Ias officers and IITians every year with many of them cracking the exams with self-study only.
Academicians, experts and officials have blamed the nearly ‘devastated’ primary education for the sorry state of affairs. They said the recruitment of schoolteachers on contract without caring for the talent has further aggravated the problem.
“Primary education was once in a good shape in the state, but now it has got destroyed, thanks to the introduction of contract system in TEACHING jobs. How can we get good teachers if the higher education remains in bad shape. If we can’t get good teachers, then primary education will remain in bad shape,” said Prof DM Diwakar, former director at the AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies.
He said the government institutions are the source of education for 90% of the Population, but the is bringing private universities.
Stating that the state government was quite serious towards improving the level of education in the state, the minister said the highest allocation (22%) of funds in this year’s budget is for education while chief minister Nitish Kumar has announced to increase it further by 4%.
According to the latest report of the Bihar Economic Survey, dropout is a major problem and it is pervasive in all the stages of education. Reacting on this, the minister said the education department has launched many initiatives such as bag-less Saturday to motivate schoolchildren towards education and to improve enrolments in schools, the government is quite serious towards improving the level of education in the state though it will take time. “Ek din me to sab thik nahin hoga na!”, he remarked.