Challenging Bihar on Primary Education: Mother Tongue – ‘The Neglected Resource’

Abstract

The last few years have seen substantial and significant expenditure by the state government
in primary education. There has been a concerted and accelerated attempt to fill huge glaring
gaps in the provision of schooling that had accumulated over the last quarter of a century. Within
a short period of time, over 3,00,000 teachers have been recruited, close to 1,00,000 new
classrooms have been built, textbooks are being delivered in time, and mid-day meals are being
served in school.
There have been special efforts made to enable girls across the state to continue in school
past the elementary stage. The state government has distributed bicycles to girls going to
secondary school. There are also special efforts to target the neediest children. All over the state,
the very backward habitations have been identified. These habitations tend to be largely
populated by “musahars” (one of the scheduled castes) or very backward minorities. The
government’s concern with equity has led to targeted programmes being put into place to support
enrolment, attendance and learning of children in such habitations. Overall, many programmes
have been launched by the government to encourage children to go to school and stay in school.
An example is the number of out of school children in Bihar. This is a key indicator of
change. National and international goals for universalisation of elementary education put a great
deal of emphasis on access and enrolment. In rural India, girls above 10 years are the hardest to
bring into and keep in school. In 2005, in poor and educationally backward states, such as, Bihar
and Rajasthan, the proportion of girls in this age group who were not in school was well above
20%. Across all states, from 2005 to 2010, Bihar has seen the sharpest decline in the proportion
of children still not enrolled in school. The proportion of children out of school in Bihar has
dropped from 20.1% in 2005 to 6% in four years and now the numbers are below 5%. This is a
very substantial achievement in such a short period of time. Bihar has come a long way towards
meeting the target of universal enrolment.
In 2004, in an average district in Bihar, the allocation of funds for activities under the Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the government programme for universalising elementary education
was around Rs 10 crore. By 2008, this number had risen to Rs 100 crore. According to the
Economic Survey of Bihar, in 2007-08, 67% of the state government’s social sector expenditure
was on elementary education. The survey also highlights Bihar’s expenditure of almost 20-25%
of its total state budget on education.
It is evident that there has been a massive infusion of inputs into the system at a very fast
pace. Government expenditure on elementary education has increased enormously, basic
educational indicators, such as, access and enrolment are rising and the student-teacher ratios are
becoming more favourable. Compared to the situation that it had inherited, the currentgovernment has worked very hard to “catch up” and wipe out the back log of schooling
provisions that had accumulated after years of neglect.