PATNA: Bihar’s new government has decided it’s time to enforce ‘education for all’. Now every child over five will have to attend school.
To ensure this the government will use Bihar’s police. Police stations have been told to ensure that all children in their area attend school. This directive applies from the village council upwards.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has told bureaucrats that education for all should no longer remain a slogan. He has suggested that women and mothers, especially in rural areas, be involved in the scheme as they play a greater role in a child’s elementary education. He, in fact, suggested that the parents’ committee formed in every primary and secondary school be renamed mothers’ committee.
Kumar’s inspiration, perhaps, is his own wife who is a school teacher. While not undermining the role of panchayat bodies in regulating primary and secondary education, Kumar believes women should be involved in every village to ensure that teachers and students turn up in time and education is imparted.
He also suggested that primary teachers be posted at schools close to their homes so that they can reach on time. He said there is no paucity of funds to ensure that no child in Bihar remains illiterate. It is lack of employment opportunities that discourages rural folk from schooling children.
“It has become a refrain in the villages that even after being educated they are unable to get employment,” he said. “We are trying our best to create a proper atmosphere for investment so that more and more people get jobs.”
