No Books, No Drinking Water: Surprise Check Exposes Reality of Govt Schools in Bihar

Patna: Savitri Kumar, a student of class V in a state government-run middle school in Arwal district, has been attending school without books and proper dress as authorities have failed to provide her with anything.

Savitri, who belongs to an economically marginalised family, is one of the thousands of school students attending classes without books thanks to government and administrative apathy.

But this is not all. There are some schools which lack even basic infrastructure like hand-pump for drinking water.

Glaring lapses in the administration of government schools such as mentioned above were exposed in a surprise check conducted in 234 schools across the state on Thursday, July 24, by different teams of officials on directive of the primary education directorate. “The result of the surprise check of schools has exposed the ground reality,” a senior official of education department told NewsClick.

According to the report of surprise check, out of 50,851 students enrolled in 234 schools, only 28,561 were found present in the class rooms of the schools. Even among them, more than 40% students attending the schools were without books. This means that 12,000 students were without books. Only about 16,230 students were found attending the schools with books.

Also read: New Policy Testing the Facade of Government Schools in Bihar

Similarly, about 15% students were not in proper school dress. Over 10% schools were without one functional handpump. Not only that, a large number of teachers were also found to be absent without informing the concerned officials.

Ghalib Khan, a retired officer of the education department admitted that thousands of school going children are without books due to delay in providing them. “It is a reality, no one can deny the fact that students in government schools are attending classes without books,” he said.

Gahender Sharma, a contractual school teacher said that some students are managing with old books from others to study.

However, on paper the state government has repeatedly claimed that after it adopted the policy of transferring the money to accounts of students for purchasing books last year, the situation has changed.

Mahendar Yadav, an activist told NewsClick, “Unlike private schools, children of mostly poor parents, including daily wage labourers, landless farmers and self employed people, who are struggling to earn livelihood, are studying in the government schools. These parents are powerless and voiceless, and are forced to put their school going children to suffer without books.”

“The state government claims to provide free books to students from class 1 to 8 but most students are still without books. The books hardly reach students due to lack of money and a very tardy rate of publication of the Bihar State Text Book Corporation (BSTBC),” he added.

He pointed out that as government schools have children from mostly poor socio-economic background, officials hardly pay any attention to improve the quality of education. He said, "I am working among flood victims in the Koshi region where floods are an annual event. The floods have badly hit school education, especially for children of poor parents but government hardly does anything on it.”

Also read: Thousands of School Teachers in Bihar Upset Over Non-Payment of Salaries for 3 Months