A fortnight ago the photographs of mass cheating in two schools in Bihar had taken the world by storm, drawing criticism and ridicule. The global reactions over the images of people scaling the walls of Vidya Niketan school in Mahnar village, 60 kms from Patna, and Gandhi High School in Shahdehi Bujurg village, supplying chits to students appearing for the class X board exams, reinforced the perception of a lawless Bihar. Incidentally, some years ago, the state had shed its decades-old badlands image under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who was then credited with achieving the impossible. The disillusionment with Bihar has been quick and drastic, giving credence to doubts whether the story of a turnaround was a false propaganda of the state government. 

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The spotlight on Gandhi High School in the Shahdehi Bujurg village has drawn attention to the ills plaguing Bihar’s education system for many years now. The shocking lack of space — 1,700 students huddled in five rooms, with only three teachers at their disposal — is only part of the familiar picture of neglect. There is just one laboratory for Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The remaining rooms serve as a library and storage space for furniture and the items used for extracurricular activities. To be objective, the mushrooming of coaching institutes in the state, run by teachers who themselves lack knowledge and teaching expertise, is a trend prevalent throughout India. 

In the case of Bihar, however perverse the logic, the state government’s initiative of awarding Rs10,000 to every girl scoring first class in matriculation has also contributed to the culture of copying, with both students and parents adopting unfair means, and exercising influence to avoid censure and punishment. The Right to Education (RTE) Act, too, played a role by doing away with the pass-fail method till class VIII and instituting the practice of grace marks in exams to promote undeserving students. 

Predictably, the cheating issue has acquired political overtones with the opposition BJP trying to discredit Kumar’s government. Kumar, on his part, has tried some damage-control by promising stern action against policemen and magistrates if they are found guilty of encouraging cheating. The Patna high court has stepped in by converting the newspaper report of mass cheating into a PIL. But, none of these measures will help an ailing education system in the long run. 

Kumar’s warnings and appeals may not yield the desired results because his government has been instrumental in institutionalising cheating. The teacher recruitment scam in 2014 is a classic example of the government’s failure to stem the rot. As many as 20,000 teachers submitted fake degrees the same year that the government had to sack 2,700 contractual school teachers for failing to clear two consecutive competency tests. Little wonder then that Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)-2014, found student attendance in Bihar schools as one of the lowest in the country.

While castigating Kumar’s government, it must also be said that many other states fare marginally better than Bihar when it comes to education. Much like in health care, the precipitous decline in education standards has impacted the middle class the most as families are now burdened with additional costs that comes with enrolling children in private English medium schools. What’s surprising is the general reluctance of states and the Centre to get their act together — especially when India aspires to reap demographic dividends. But with the education system falling apart, what hope does the country really have?