By Arun Srivastava
Ever since Nitish took charge as Bihar chief minister
he has been claiming that he succeeded to reach education to the door steps of
the poor and empower them. In the initial years of his rule he had provided
some incentives, books, dress and cycle to the students, as underlined by the
UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG), particularly to the girls. UN in
September 2000 had proclaimed the eight development goals. Achieving universal
basic education is one of the goals.
The Nitish government only had to implement the
programme, but it failed miserably. Like other state governments, Bihar was
also paid by the Union government under the Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan. Though there
was no dearth of funds, there was a clear lack of commitment. After some time
Nitish turned his attention to some populist programmes, like the shelter
scheme. Unfortunately the shelter homes earned notoriety for sexual
exploitation of girls. One girl also died under mysterious situation.
The abject decline in the state’s education has been
unraveled by the Annual Status of Education (ASER) report of 2018. The report
points out that education under Nitish has dipped. The report highlights the
declining trend in learning levels in government schools, especially since
2016. If 44.6% of class V students were able to read standard II text in 2014,
it has come down to 35.1% in 2018. A similar fall is witnessed across all
levels.
The 2016 report had also pointed to falling learning
outcome, with one out of four children leaving standard VIII without even basic
reading skills. The annual status of education report 2018, released on January
16, has underlined the poor state of school education in Bihar, which is marked
by low classroom attendance, growing attraction towards private schools and
continuing trend of dip in learning outcomes.
This is despite a lot of incentives and improvement in
school facilities like provisions of playground, library, toilets and drinking
water. The report while underlining the poor state of school education in Bihar
also points to apathy of the government department in promoting education.
The most disheartening development is the decline in
learning levels in upper primary, the foundation for secondary and higher
education in both reading and arithmetic. In 2018, around half of standard VIII
children struggled even with simple division. Even after this revelation the
state government has not taken any initiative to improve the foundation skills
of students for higher grades.
Last year, the report had underlined that even among
the 14-18 age groups, the problem of learning outcome, as demonstrated in
elementary schools, was a matter of big concern. Its survey in 2017 in
Muzaffarpur had shown 22.2% students in the 14-18 age-group could not even read
Std II level text, while nearly 35% could not even do division. The 2016 report
had also pointed to falling learning outcome, with one out of four children
leaving standard VIII without even basic reading skills.
It may sound paradoxical that after the launch of the
MDG the standard of education has gone down. The officials are busy making
ill-gotten money and least bothered to improve the standard of education. The
overall decline in learning levels in almost all grades is a cause of major
worry. A decade ago Bihar’s learning levels were above the national average.
Bihar was among the top ranking states in mathematics, but that is not the case
anymore. The impact of weak foundation was clearly visible in the last three
board exams when large number of students failed. The situation has deteriorated
to such an extent that the government was also contemplating to dilute the
standard of questions to improve the pass percentage.
The survey of rural India youths presented a gloomy
picture of Bihar on some basic parameters. ASER has selected one district each
from the selected states for the nationwide survey. In Bihar it was
Muzaffarpur. Like its previous report, the 2018 report raises several worrying
questions. Only 50 per cent of students in Class V can read a Class II-level
text, reveals the study. Children are also struggling with basic arithmetic
skills. More than 56 per cent of children enrolled in Class VIII cannot solve a
three-digit by one-digit division problem correctly.
Last year’s ASER report had revealed that only “28 per
cent had used the internet and 26 per cent had used computers, while 59 per
cent had never used a computer and 64 per cent had never used internet”. The
revelations in this year’s report are even more grim. It points out that one
out of four children in rural India leaves Class VIII without basic reading
skills and over half of them cannot solve a basic division problem. The report
also revealed that learning deficit visible so far in elementary school
children is now getting reflected among young adults too.
“When your secondary level students are not learning
like the elementary students, the problem becomes bigger. It is because of two
reasons—one, this 14-18 years age group are ready to enter the workforce and
thus has a direct bearing on the economy; second, the families depend more on
this young cohort for doing free work,” says Rukmini Banerji, chief executive
of Pratham Education Foundation.
ASER team members visited 15,998 government schools in
596 districts in rural India. A total of 3,54,944 households and 5,46,527
children in the age group 3 to 16 were surveyed. Bihar is one of the poorest
states in India. The educational attainment is low and the quality of education
as measured by learning outcomes very poor. (IPA Service)
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