On November 15 in the year 2000, Bihar didn’t lose only coal mines, minerals, industrial hubs and its Summer Capital Ranchi to the hands of newly bifurcated Jharkhand; it also lost one of the finest, most prestigious, and probably only of its kind secondary education stand-alone schools in India called Netarhat Residential School. But what could have been a boon to this 45 years old school at that time, is actually appearing little less than curse under possession of its new custodian, Jharkhand government, during last 16 years.
Curse, because time has taken many leaps in terms of syllabus and medium of education in last six decades. However, the school, globally renowned for sunrise and sunset picturesque, is being run under Jharkhand Academic Council in the way it was run by Bihar government in 60s and 70s of last century. Curse, because none other than own old boys of the school itself, who have been serving in state and Union administration, the army and almost all the other fields in senior capacities have started questioning the way the school has been run in modern days.
“We need a paradigm shift in the subject matter of study of school and its infrastructure, if we are really concerned to preserve the history and glory that the school had been enjoying at one point of time. We do need better teachers, though I have high regards for serving teachers and for their capabilities. And we do need to think how this school remains relevant in challenging times like this,” said ex-Home Secretary of Jharkhand and an alumni of Netarhat Residential School JB Tubid.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to visit Netarhat School on its 62nd Foundation day on November 14. The school claims to possess a record of producing toppers of the Bihar School Examination Board year after year. Even after it came under purview of Jharkhand government, the students have dominated the Regional Mathematics Olympiad and National Talent Search Examination (NTSE), apart from claims of having considerable number of UPSC and State Public Service Commission passers every year. But the real challenge of the students passing out from Netarhat is that they are found somehow misfit in any modern school. They are found struggling with introduction of CBSE Board at 12th Standard in any school.
But both Tubid and Ajay Nath Jha, a Deputy Director level officer in Jharkhand Government claim that the standard of education is not a bigger concern. “Netarhat is not in any competition with any board, and better it is not. It has been preserving Indian ways of education. The culture, tradition, values and ethos that the school runs on are there to nurture human beings, not money-machines like thousands of other institutions that have popped up in every part of the country in recent past. In that way, I must say that we need more and more schools like Netarhat,” claimed Jha.
But even Jha agrees with the fact that the school needs to have more autonomy and little bending towards modern ways of education. “I will say that it requires infrastructure, innovation centres and involvement of students in modern technologies. You know that the school was once one of the most modern schools in terms of technology and laboratory at one point of time. But it was not modernised with time,” added Jha.
So, what went wrong with an educational institution which is credited to have inspired late PV Narsimha Rao, the then HRD Minister to float an idea of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in mid 80’sIJ “Nothing has actually gone wrong. It only needs to include modern educational techniques, some autonomy to its committees in terms of how to run and manage school, and a sound financial back-up,” said NN Sinha, President of Netarhat Old Boys Association (NOBA) and a Secretary with the Jharkhand Government.
Apparently, when NOBA is going to organise its global meeting on November 12-13 in Ranchi, it is not going to discuss the past glory of the school. “It is actually going to have brainstorming sessions on how the school remains relevant by modernising it on a number of fronts. We do believe that we will be able to get a roadmap in the meeting to suggest to the government, in which Home Minister is also expected to make his presence and insight us,” said NN Sinha.