Manisha Khatun, 8, is the first student to reach the government primary school in her village Choti Bathna Mushari Toli in Mansahi block, Katihar district of north Bihar. Since she habitually comes early, she’s been assigned the duty of picking up the keys from the rasoiya (cook responsible for cooking the midday meal) who stays close by, to open the classrooms set up in the community centre. There is no boundary wall, and it is difficult to tell where the school ends and the village begins. A plaque declares that it was inaugurated in 2019 at a cost of ₹5,74,700.
By 8.45 a.m., about 15 minutes before classes begin, there are about 30 students to attend classes from 1 to 5. Officially, 184 children are enrolled in the school that offers education free of cost, 80% belonging to the Musahar community of the Scheduled Castes, who are often discriminated against because they traditionally eat rats. Children show up in tattered clothes, with chappals.
Students’ duties
A few start sweeping the three classrooms; some dust a blanket on which they will sit and study; another set cleans the room of the headmistress Chanda Kumari, who has not yet arrived. There are no benches, fans, or lights in the classrooms. It is now past 9.30 a.m.; no teacher nor the headmistress has arrived.
“This is the way things are. The teacher hardly takes classes, and the headmistress is usually busy on her mobile,” Shila Devi, a mother who has come to drop off her children, says.
Jitendra Paswan, a former Sarpanch of the village, says students don’t even know the spelling of simple four-letter words even in Class 5.
One student complains that every Friday they are supposed to get an egg in the midday meal, but they get a biscuit packet that costs ₹5 instead; an egg costs ₹7. Another student complains that many times they are not served chokha (mashed potato) along with khichdi. Similarly, the weekly fruit is absent.
“If we complain a lot, our children will be thrown out from school, so we remain silent,” another parent says.
At the primary school in Argada village, in the same district, everything looks similar, except there’s actually a school building constructed in 2022. Students sit on gunny bags on the floor, but there’s one teacher in the class.
No infrastructure
“We have written several letters to the officer concerned to provide us with basic infrastructure, but nothing has happened. They say there’s a shortage of funds. As per the rule, the students should get benches to sit on, but they are forced to sit on the floor. We need six teachers, but three take care of 200 students. The school does not have a playground,” Sanjay Kumar, one of the teachers, says. The toilets are locked and students forced to go to the field instead.
The middle school in Bhedmara village in the same district has 949 students up to Class 8. There are 13 classrooms, but as per the rules, there shouldn’t be more than 40-45 students per class, taking the requirement to 21 to 23 classrooms.
“On a bench to seat two students, we have five; we don’t have subject teachers for maths, science, social studies, English, and Hindi,” says Mohammed Kamsal Haque, the headmaster.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, is flouted at many levels at these schools and many like them, across the State.
