The BJP-led Opposition on Thursday slammed the State Education Department in Bihar for its decision to strike off the names of over 20 lakh students from government schools in a move to improve the attendance standards. The students are being expelled from the school for being absent from their class. Hundreds of girl students came out on roads to block traffic movement for hours in Bihar’s Lakhisarai to protest against the Education Department’s decision.
Of the 20 lakh students, over 2.66 lakh were supposed to appear for class 10 and 12 board exams in 2024. The government began with the drive for improving the attendance since September 1, 2023. As of now, the Education Department has struck off names of 20,60,340 students till October 19, 2023. There are 75,309 government schools in the state.
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“I must say the school students are being victimised by the government to hide serious faults in the education system in the State. We demand immediate restoration of enrolments of those students whose names have been struck off,” said senior State BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha.
“If government schools in Bihar are facing acute shortage of teachers, students will have no option and they will certainly go for coaching institutes to complete their syllabus,” Mr. Sinha said.
“The Nitish Kumar government has miserably failed in improving the educational standards in government schools,” he added.
The Education Department officials said such students were not coming to schools since they had either taken admission in other schools to receive benefits from government’s DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) programme or attend private schools or coaching institutes at distant locations like Kota in Rajasthan.
The DBT benefits to school students rack up to ₹3,000 crore annually. If the enrollment of even 10% of such absentee students who are enrolled in schools only for the purpose of getting DBT benefits is cancelled, then there would be direct savings which could be utilised for some other development and welfare schemes for the students, said the Education Department directives to district department officials.
“Where are the space in schools for 100% attendance of students to sit in their class rooms? If 100% students start to coming to their schools in Bihar most of them have to sit outside their class rooms. And, where are the teachers for all subjects in each schools. It is the responsibility of the department to look after the minimum facilities to be provided to the students,” rued retired government school teacher Ramadhin Sharma while speaking with The Hindu.
“I fully agree what Mr. Sharma has said. The government schools in Bihar has not even bare minimum facilities for the students to read. At several places in the state and even in Patna three to four schools are being run in a two class-room building,” said a government school teacher, preferring anonymity, of Rukunpura in the district.
Meanwhile, protesting against the government’s move to strike off names of over 20 lakh students from enrolment, hundreds of girl students of Durga Girls School in Lakhisarai came out on the road on Thursday, and blocked it for hours disrupting vehicular traffic on the Patna-Jamui-Lakhisarai route. Out of 986 girl students of the school, the names of 127 of ninth standard and 357 of 10th standard have been struck off by the school principal for not attending the school, they said.
The protesting students also complained that the school building has not enough space for them to attend classes and there was lack of even basic facilities for them at the school. “Our names were struck off from enrolment without giving any information to us. How we’ll appear in our 10th board examination?” asked the enraged students.
The district administration officials managed to disperse the protesting girl students after assuring them that higher authorities would look into the issue expeditiously
