The mid-day meal tragedy has exposed the myth of sushashan in the State. What was destroyed during the lalu-regime has not been repaired by Nitish Kumar. His inaction has permitted the rot to perpetuate further
The tragic death of 23 school children in Bihar is a traumatic example of the consequences that can follow when the system of governance is lax, unconcerned, insensitive and self-centered.
Those familiar with the state of education in Bihar have known for several decades that the State suffers a decadent education system, which is consistently sliding without any effort made to check the decline.
In 1990, ‘Biharisation’ was a frequently used term in Shastri Bhawan housing the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. It did not take much effort on anyone’s part to appreciate what ‘Biharisation of education’ was meant to communicate. If any plan or programme could succeed in Bihar, its success elsewhere was guaranteed!
Historically, Bihar is known for leading the nation in ideas and innovations. In the contemporary context, politicians in power in Bihar have reoriented this tradition as per their own interpretation. One must acknowledge that what Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inherited, was beyond repair, and people had high hopes as the preceding 15 years were nothing less than a nightmare.
The admiration, particularly in his second term as the Chief Minister, detracted Mr Nitish Kumar from his mandated task. He began to strategise ways to project his persona on the national scene, busying himself with the politics of Dalits, Mahadalits, the Muslims and the Congress-brand of secularism that makes promises to minorities but fails to implement them.
Mr Nitish Kumar thinks that, as a detractor of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, he would be able to unite the minority community to support him unreservedly in his national ambitions. His consistent clamour for the ‘special status’ to Bihar is more of political trumpeting than a genuine well-intended effort to ameliorate the lot of his people.
Interestingly, Bihar was the first State in which Mahatma Gandhi had established three primary schools, having witnessed the crushing poverty during the Champaran satyagraha. To him, education was the only tool that could ameliorate the sufferings of the people. Education, sadly, has been given short shrift by politicians in Bihar.
The practice of posting regular teachers in remote areas and appointing local persons as proxy teachers in their place was allowed to flourish in Bihar by the politician-bureaucrat nexus. This hit at the very roots of the universalisation of elementary education, particularly in rural and tribal areas, where options to Government schools are neither accessible nor affordable.
If this was not sufficient to derail the system, the Government itself began to appoint ill-paid teachers in schools even when trained teachers were available. Mr Nitish Kumar not only continued with the practice, he practically stopped regular appointments of teachers. To him, untrained and under-qualified para-teachers, selected by mukhiyas/panchayats for a ‘consideration’, were the right choice for the vikas of his people.
Successive regimes in Bihar have done their utmost to prove that teacher education is an unnecessary wastage of money and resources. It was in Mr lalu Prasad’s time that admissions to training institutions for teachers of primary and secondary schools were stopped. The Government, however, remained very liberal in permitting private training colleges in the State, resulting in numerous candidates from places like Kerala and the North-East coming to Bihar to get a Teacher’s Training Degree. The only requirement imposed was their presence for admission-related formalities and the payment of fees during examinations.
The Government refuses to permit universities to make appointments even against the vacant academic positions. This pathetic situation has led to the exodus of youth from Bihar to get a sound education outside the State. Obviously, this alternative is open only to those who have the resources.
The Bihar school tragedy has shocked the nation. Mr Nitish Kumar, who claims to be the inheritor of Ram Manohar lohia’s legacy, may like to recall the principles of public accountability that lohia enunciated in a letter he wrote from lucknow jail on August 12, 1954, to Pattam Thanu Pillai, the then Chief Minister of Kerala.
lohia learnt of the police firing on unarmed citizens which killed seven and injured eight. He wrote to the Chief Minister of his party to resign as a matter of principle. Today, the Chief Minister has not even owned moral responsibility. Still more shocking is the Bihar Education Minister PK Shahi’s thoughtless statement that there was a ‘political conspiracy’ behind the tragedy. The Chief Minister did not even visit the village promptly where the tragedy happened.
The myth of sushashan in Bihar stands fully exposed. What was destroyed during the lalu-regime has not even been repaired by Mr Nitish Kumar. His inaction and unconcern has permitted the rot to perpetuate further. Bihar needs an attitudinal transformation in selecting its leaders.