Replying to a starred question, he said that the secondary education scenario in Bihar was in a very bad shape due to lack of infrastructure and teachers in schools though the state had constructed a large number of secondary institutions by upgrading the primary ones.
The state government was presently engaged in the task of building secondary school buildings, Shahi said.
To another question by BJP MLA Amrendra Pratap Singh, the education minister said that the state was granted sanction by the Centre for upgradation of 797 primary schools as secondary schools under the National Secondary Education Campaign (NSEC) in the past two fiscal years.
However, no funds were allocated to the state for construction of infrastructure and other facilities at these upgraded schools.
The state government undertook construction of 323 and 169 secondary school buildings in the years 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively, the education minister said, adding that the state received only Rs. 64.42 crore and Rs. 124 crore for these two years under the NSEC.
The Centre did not make any financial allocation for secondary school education in 2011-12, he said adding the state will make arrangements from its own resources for improvement of education in secondary schools.
Earlier, to a discussion in the legislative council on vacancy of 20,000 Urdu teachers in the primary schools, the education minister said he was aware of the matter and a separate examination will be held in due course of time to shortlist a pool of candidates to fill up the vacant posts of Urdu teachers.