Rs 15,047 Crores - State's budget allocation for Education in Year 2012-13

With a focus on improving the literacy rate of Bihar and empowering the people of Bihar with knowledge, the state government of Bihar has allocated Rs. 15,047 crores for education in this year's (2012-13) state budget.

The approximate breakdown of the allocation is as follows:

1. Rs. 9,093 crores for primary education
2. Rs. 3,201 crores for secondary education
3. Rs. 2,497 crores for college and university education
4. Rs. 255 crores for adult education

Besides this, the annual plan outlay of Rs. 28,000 crores for 2012-13 also provides Rs. 3,670 crores for education.

Educating the people in Bihar is the only way for sustaining a long term Bihar growth strategy, empowering people, improving their lifestyles and reducing the stigma of casteism that plagues Bihar. Thus a good step in the right direction.

This and more details can be found in the Times of India article "State committed to achieving news heights in mass literacy: Dy. CM Sushil Kumar Modi"

Rampant copying in Bihar exams

Zee TV carried out a coverage of exams in Bihar in Mar 2010 which shows that coping is rampant in exams in Bihar.

I would like to think that things would have gotten better in the last 1.5 years and the education ministry would have taken steps to reduce copying in Bihar after the news was captured and flashed across India.

However, I just posted another article which showed the quality of education in Bihar. Looking in conjunction with what we see in the embedded youtube video of the Zee TV coverage, there is a lot of work that has to be done in the education system of Bihar.

The education minister / HRD minister of Bihar, has a lot of work cut out for him. The future of Bihar is in the hands of the Education (HRD) Minister and the Education (HRD) Ministry. Are they listening?

State of Education in Bihar

There was a time not long ago, about 5-6 years back when Bihar had an acute shortage of school teachers. There was a shortage of more than two lakh (2 Lakh) teachers, more like two and a half lakh (2.5 Lakh) teachers. So many teachers were required because the vacant positions had not been filled in mnay years.

The current government took an initiative to appoint two lakh school teachers. Hiring two lakh teachers at a shot meant that many untrained but educated youths got a change to become teachers. It also reduced crime on the streets as the unemployed educated youths got a change to give up street crime which not only let them make a decent recurring salary but also take up the noble profession of teaching.

However with the good, there were some problems too. Many of these teachers did not have teaching skills. Besides, corruption being present, many unqualified people became teachers over qualified ones. Here is an example of the state of teaching, specially in the rural areas:

Is this representative of the total education system in Bihar? - I do not know. However this is indicative of what has to be done. The first step was taken and well received by everyone who cared a dime about Bihar. But  that was in the past and not good enough now. The Education department , ministry and everyone concerned have to take steps to improve the quality of learning being imparted to the students. Only then Bihar will continue to become more competitive and the students will not face ridicule when when venture outside Bihar for higher education, jobs, etc. Imagine the kind of ridicule the students from this video will face when they venture outside Bihar and spell MONDAY as MANDE or APPLE as APIL.

Do we want our children to continue facing the ridicule that many amongst us from Bihar have faced all over India?

Madhubani - Education Sector - Job Opportunity

All,
I came across this job opportunity in one of the Bihar related yahoo groups. This is a job opportunity for teachers and a Principal in Madhubani required from April 2010. You may pass it on to people who might be interested. Anyone who is interested can directly get in touch as per the email below.

I am pasting the contents of the email below.

====================================================================

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Raj Singh rajsingh801@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 1:01 AM
Subject: Requirement of Principal and Trained Hindi/English/Science/Math teachers

Hi All,

I am re-forwarding my previous mail for teaching staff requirements.

Though, I have been able to meet the current teaching staff requirements for our school by hiring teachers from outside, I am looking for more trained teachers and Principal from next session starting from April 2010.


Would appreciate for passing on this message to the target groups in case you know.

Regards

Raj Singh

Managing Trustee, Vivek Singh Memorial Trust,


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 3:05 PM, Raj Singh <rajsingh801@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear All,

I am in the look out for the following staff for running the school which has been started last week:

A visionary Principal with an excellent academic experience in developing and managing public school from ground zero level.
Trained Science/Math teacher
Trained English/Hindi teacher
The medium of instruction is english and aspirants should be fully versed with english. They will be required to stay in the school campus. The necessary accomodation and amenities will be provided. Food will be provided in the common mess with the students.

The school is in village surrounding where the campus is being developed on a 12 acres plot, located 15 KM east of Jaynagar Railway station (connected with direct trains from Delhi, Kolkatta, Patna, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur). It is 3 KM south of Khajedih Chauk (on NH104) in Ladhania Block under Madubani District.

Interested may submit their resume at : rajsingh801@yahoo.com
Phone: (0) 9223595078

Salary would not be a limit for a right candidate.

Regards

Raj Singh

Managing Trustee, Vivek Singh Memorial Trust

Elections, Politicians and Education

On a another note, I don't see the government taking any specific new steps for infrastructure or any other type of growth, because of the poll code of conduct coming into effect . So for the next two months, it would be a fruitful exercise to highlight some of the possible political dimensions and impacts that can have an effect on the future of Bihar. Hence I will be posting some relevant views where ever possible relating to the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

However everyone should take my views with a pinch of salt because like every other human being my views might be biased because of the perceptions I develop based on the events that are unfolding in Bihar.

This article in Hindustan Times caught my eye "Peep into qualifications of representatives from Bihar"

As per this article, Bihar was represented in the 14th Lok Sabha by some highly educated representatives especially when you consider the state of literacy in Bihar. Out of the 40 representatives in the Lok Sabha from Bihar, there were 34 who were at least graduates. Out of these thirty four, there were nineteen representatives who were either a postgraduate or had a technical degree like Engineering or MBBS or had a Ph D. Even out of the BAs/MAs , 9 had LLB degrees too.

So if I consider the total number of representatives in Bihar who had more than a graduation, then the number would sure be greater than 20 or more than 50%. Thus 50% of the members in the parliament from Bihar were highly educated in the 14th Lok Sabha. Many of them had been part of the 13th Lok Sabha too. There were only 3 representatives who were non-matric.

I therefore have a question... With so many educated representatives from Bihar, why is it that many of them have not done enough for Bihar's development. Why did these people, some of whom have been a MP for atleast 2 terms not think about the state? We thought education brought changes but does the Bihari politician prove this wrong? Or is it us, the people of Bihar who have given these politicians the free hand for not doing anything for Bihar?

In my view, it is time for the people of Bihar to reject any politician who has not added to the development of Bihar, irrespective of whether she/he is highly educated or less educated or not educated ... Reject all politicians who have not supported the growth of Bihar. Let the political community know that the people of Bihar will not accept any non-performers in Bihar.

I know it is not going to be easy and nor will it happen just because a handful of us think this way. But then the handful of us can be instrumental in getting across this message to a lot more people in Bihar. Are we willing to do so for Bihar?

The break up of the education of Bihar MPs are as follows


Non-matric: 3
Matriculate: 3
Intermediate: 3
BA: 12
MA: 13
Engineering: 2
MBBS: 1
Ph.D. 3

I would definitely love to find out what each one of the MPs has done for Bihar. If you do have any thoughts or ideas about the work done, specially if you have some links to relevant articles, please do post it, I would like to read about them. And I guess many others would want to do so too.