Sir,

The education system in Bihar is no doubt becoming worse day-by-day.

Recently, there was a report on television and newspaper that a science topper in Bihar Board’s class 12th exam when interviewed could not say what electrons and protons are.

Similarly, the Arts topper Ruby Rai (daughter of Bachha Rai) pronounced Political Science as prodigal and she further added by saying that it is something related to cooking.

Scams found like this is a matter of shame for the entire people of Bihar. If the toppers are found giving bribes for few marks, doesn’t it mean that other students might have had cheated too? So, the ‘secret’ of this scam is corruption and lack of strict action.

Likewise, it was once shown on television that a minister of Rajasthan when once visited a government school wrote the spelling of Elephant as ELEPHENT and he even asked the students present there to repeat what he had been written on the blackboard. When questioned was found defending himself by saying that he was cross checking those present whether they knew the correct spelling or not. This report says that if a minister is unaware of the correct spelling of Elephant, how come he became a minister of a particular state?

It shows the education system of not only Bihar, but India as a whole. Education system has not been corrupted now but since long before only.

Another big question arises that who is responsible for such acts? The ‘topper’, parents, teachers, bureaucrats or the politicians? The creamy layer of the society shouldn’t avail the benefits of going to school but an eye must also be kept on the infrastructure of rural areas which enables the students of being absent .Students do not have any incentives for going to school (perhaps the mid day meal but even the scheme is not functioning well now).

Lack of separate and clean toilets for boys as well as girls leads to students drop out, low participation of girl students because parents think that a girl is born to do household works, variation of literary rates and so on. Thus, a specific system can’t be blamed for it. Everybody is responsible for it.

Proper steps should be taken like a law should be passed of giving free education in rural areas for the objective of creating literary, a target should be set to have 99% of the population having good literacy skills by the age of 16 within 21 years. Those found responsible should be punished. We have been able to curb cheating to a large extent, but we need to tighten screws further so that the students of Bihar have a bright future ahead.

Yours truly,

Mihika Aishwarya, CEMS 2nd Year, Patna Women’s College,

Patna.

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