In an effort to raise attendance standards, the State Education Department in Bihar was criticised on Thursday by the BJP-led Opposition for removing the names of more than 20 lakh students from government institutions. Due to their absence from class, the students face expulsion from the school.
In Lakhisarai, Bihar, hundreds of female students staged a roadblock to stop traffic for hours in opposition to the Education Department's decision.
Over 2.66 lakh of the 20 lakh students were scheduled to sit for the class 10 and 12 board exams in 2024.
As of September 1, 2023, the government has been pushing for increased attendance.
The Education Department has currently removed the names of 20,60,340 pupils till October 19, 2023.
The state is home to 75,309 government schools.
“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. The Nitish Kumar government has miserably failed in improving the educational standards in government schools,” he added.
According to officials of the Education Department, these students were not attending classes because they had enrolled in other institutions to benefit from the government's DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) programme or were attending private schools or coaching centres in far-off places like Kota, Rajasthan.
The annual DBT benefits for school students total ₹3,000 crore. The Education Department has instructed district officials that by cancelling the enrollment of just 10% of absentee students who attend school solely for DBT benefits, substantial savings can be redirected to other student welfare programs and development schemes.
“Where are the spaces in schools for 100% attendance of students to sit in their classrooms? If 100% of students start to come to their schools in Bihar most of them have to sit outside their classrooms. And, where are the teachers for all subjects in each school? It is the responsibility of the department to look after the minimum facilities to be provided to the students,” Ramadhin Sharma, a retired government school teacher, expressed regret in an interview with The Hindu.
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