Bihar fails the education test

The Bihar government's performance in education is an interesting study in contrast. Around Rs 500 crore allotted for the higher education has been spent, says Naveen Verma, secretary (higher education). But, officials say, 75 per cent of the funds meant for primary education are routinely returned.

This year is no different. The Union human resources development ministry approved an outlay of Rs 88.4 crore for 2004-05. But just Rs 31,500 lakh was released, because the state government could not raise the money to receive the balance.

The state bureaucracy is convinced that the state does not spend money on education partly because Lalu Prasad thinks education is superfluous, partly because the procedures are so centralised that by the time the education department gets it, the money has already lapsed; and partly, because there is no one to spend it on.

Oddly enough, spending on higher education is much higher. Politically benign expenditure like primary education gets no attention.

The real reason is the vacancies. The World Bank estimates that Bihar has a student-teacher ratio of 90:1. But the nine-year legal battle between trained and untrained teachers has resulted in around 55,000 vacancies for primary teachers.

All over India, the norm is that only trained teachers will be appointed. In Bihar, when Lalu Prasad took office, it was decided that untrained teachers would be appointed but they would be given the trained teachers' grade only after they took an examination.

The trained teachers took umbrage at this and went to court. The high court stayed the appointments and the issue is now before the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, about 20,000 untrained teachers sat for an examination on May 2004. Of them, 600 were expelled for cheating. In the second phase, 2,000 took the examination and 200 were caught copying.

In these circumstances, it is not surprising that the government doesn't need to spend money"" there is no one to spend it on.

The government has, 10 days ago, started mid-day meals in primary schools. Activists say that hygiene in schools so low that it would be better if the government gave raw materials for food to be cooked at home.