Bihar sets August 15 deadline for schools to improve attendance

The Bihar government has issued a set of directives to improve attendance of students and teachers in schools.

In a letter to the district education officers (DEOs), the department claimed that there was improvement due to inspections, but the worrying part was below 50% attendance in the primary, secondary and higher secondary schools closer to the block education offices.

“If the attendance remains lower than 50% in the schools by August 15, it should be treated as dereliction of duty and action should be taken against concerned block education officers (BEOs) for stopping their salary with immediate effect and proposal for departmental inquiry against them be sent to the department,” said an order from director, secondary education, Kanhaiya Srivastava last week.

Also Read: Ensure 75% attendance in schools: Bihar govt asks teachers

On Monday, director, mass education, Sanjay Kumar again wrote to all the DEOs and district education officers (DPOs) that while the department has initiated a slew of measures to ensure 100% attendance of teachers in schools, the attendance of students remains unsatisfactory.

“The attendance of students should ideally be 90%, but in the first phase, the objective is to take it to at least 75%. The inspection report, however, shows that there are a good number of schools in the state with attendance below 50% and it is not acceptable. The number of schools with less than 50% attendance must be brought down to zero by the end of August and for this, the strong force of 26,500 education volunteers be utilised to bring children to schools. Their work will start at least an hour prior to the start of schools to move around in their catchment areas convincing parents,” says the directive.

Dropouts a concern

Maintaining that consistent dropout has been monitored class 5 onwards, the volunteers have been asked to contact the parents of regularly absent students to convince them about the importance of education and various government incentives.

They also have to monitor teachers’ attendance in schools and report to the BEOs.

Taking serious exception to low transition of students from middle to secondary schools, the department has also ordered deduction of 20% salary of district quality coordinators of 15 districts.

Earlier, the additional chief secretary (education) KK Pathak had written to all district magistrates (DMs) that during inspections he had found that coaching institutes were drawing students from schools during the school hours, leading to a low attendance across all levels.

Private coaching

Citing the decision of the Bihar School examination Board (BSEB) to make 75% attendance mandatory for students to be eligible for taking board exams, contrary to the practice hitherto to allow non-attending students to take exams, Pathak categorically put the blamed coaching institutions for low attendance in schools.

“There is a law to regulate coaching institutions since 2010, but it has remained ineffective. Soon, the rules will be framed for action against coaching institutions. Till it happens, call a meeting of coaching institutions and direct them not to run their classes during school hours and not involve any teacher from government schools. From August 16, start their inspection and act against the defaulting units,” he wrote.

Incidentally, the BSEB has also initiated steps to provide coaching to students in secondary and higher secondary classes at the government cost by outsourcing teachers from reputed private institutions.

Schools lack basic facilities

A letter from the additional chief secretary (education) KK Pathak to all DMs last month after a month-long inspection of schools in the state highlighting their conditions.

“The condition of government schools in Bihar is not good when it comes to upkeep, provision of basic facilities like drinking water and toilets and academic atmosphere, while over ₹1,400-crore remain unutilised in their various bank accounts apart from the account of Centre’s flagship Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA),” he wrote.

“It is a paradox because the condition of schools remains poor with lack of even lighting and seating facilities despite the availability of funds,” he wrote, urging all the DMs to utilise them.