Blog #11: Many schools in Bihar lack adequate rooms, toilets and even teachers!

Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said, “The current age is the era of knowledge and not of weapons, and only through education and knowledge can one break out of the abject poverty.” The Bihar Government has done work in trying to raise the awareness of education in the state. The initial efforts were towards the enrollment in schools and the work became evident in 2011 when only 2.5 percent of children were out of school, compared to the 12 percent in 2005. After achieving this success, the efforts have shifted to improving the quality of education in schools. Unfortunately they still have several cases in the state where you can see how reality really is. One example is, Vidyapati High School, which has over nine hundred students and has only about 40 percent of girls attending. Defying all promises of sanitation this school does not have a single toilet on the premises. “This reflects not just upon India, but our attitude towards sanitation. It also reflects the Government over the years has not paid the kind of attention that ought to have been paid on issues related to sanitation,” said Union Human Resources Development Minisster Kapil Sibal. Sanitation alone is not the only problem, but also there is no electricity, no windows, no doors, and no library. Studying in classrooms is an uncomfortable experience; they sit and study on the floor in the five classrooms that are provided. Rural Indian students do not have the same luxury has other students that live in the metropolitan cities. Rural Indian students survive and study in absence of even basic facilities. With the condition of Vidyapati it is reported that less than a third of class III students in rural Indian schools can solve two-digit subtraction problems.         

Like many other places, Bihar is trying to provide a quality education for their students. However, there is a gap between the government initiatives and their implementation. In India here is an existing National School Sanitation Initiative that lays emphasis on personal hygiene, proper sanitation, clean toilets, safe drinking water, and separate toilets for both genders. However, this is yet to be implemented in Vidyapati High School and I’m sure other schools are lacking as well. I honestly don’t even see how Vidyapati is still operating with no sanitary facilities. That is something that I believe should be required to run a school. How can a student effectively learn if they have to sit and hold their urine during class and more importantly if they have to use the restroom, where do they go? This goes back to the ability to fund for a quality education and how money is budgeted for different areas or school districts. In the metropolitan cities, they have somewhat of a five star treatment, but most of these schools are private. This then means that many students are paying excessive amounts to attend these types of schools, a fee that many parents in rural India can’t afford. It is not fair to the students in rural India to not have electricity or toilets among with other things. 

http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2012/04/06/147-Many-schools-in-Bihar-lack-adequate-rooms-toilets-and-even-teachers-.html