By: Dr. Mumtaz Naiyer, a Post Doctoral Fellow at Southampton, UK
In today's cut-throat competitive world things have changed in fast pace. Over the past a couple of decade we have seen sea-change into the education system, which has brought positive and negative outcomes. While, India was changing with the world, the underdeveloped states like Bihar continuously legged behind. In order to compete with the competitive world the state of Bihar tried to bring reforms in education system and implemented encouraging projects like Mid-day meal, Dress, Cycle, Books, etc. for students. However, at the same time the attention of government somehow distracted from class room teaching due to many reasons including the lack of qualified teachers. I find the concept of class room teaching in Bihar is almost diminished, which is very alarming (dangerous) and needs urgent attention of the government as well as guardians / parents. While going through today's deplorable education system especially primary, middle and high school education I feel very dejected and ashamed.
In today's cut-throat competitive world things have changed in fast pace. Over the past a couple of decade we have seen sea-change into the education system, which has brought positive and negative outcomes. While, India was changing with the world, the underdeveloped states like Bihar continuously legged behind. In order to compete with the competitive world the state of Bihar tried to bring reforms in education system and implemented encouraging projects like Mid-day meal, Dress, Cycle, Books, etc. for students. However, at the same time the attention of government somehow distracted from class room teaching due to many reasons including the lack of qualified teachers. I find the concept of class room teaching in Bihar is almost diminished, which is very alarming (dangerous) and needs urgent attention of the government as well as guardians / parents. While going through today's deplorable education system especially primary, middle and high school education I feel very dejected and ashamed.
I was one of the students of this old Maktab system. I vividly remember I was directly admitted to standard third in Govt. Middle School Behbul Dangi, Thakurganj after completing my pre-primary and primary education at Maktab in my village. Re-inventing that old Maktab system is bit difficult these days. It requires strong discipline in the family and dedicated teachers which are rare these days. Even if are successful in re-inventing the old Maktab system, the next stage is Middle and High schools. Govt. schools seriously lacking the will to provide quality education to the most under-privileged section of the society. That reflects in the poor student teacher ratio and negligible class room teaching.
I always re-iterated class room teaching is very important for students at school and college level for the overall growth of the students and this remains crucial for grasping and understanding of different subjects. Unfortunately lack of class room teaching is one of the reasons of failures of our students at next stages of higher education. Without classroom teaching students fail to understand what lies ahead for them and they lose interest in studies which result in huge drop-outs even from the financially well off families.
I remember during our time, emphasis was more on class room teaching than the tuitions or coaching etc. It helped me and many like me. A student can never be dependent on tuitions only. Sadly this is the real scenario in Bihar especially in Kishanganj/Seemanchal where students from govt. schools are totally dependent on tuitions etc. Class room teaching remains elusive in most of the govt. run high schools.
During my home trip in 2012, I visited my old alma mater Thakurganj High School, I asked the principal/head master about the number of students in the school. He told me that ~1500 students are registered in the school for class 9 and 10. It’s a huge number. I saw only 3-4 teachers on the day. I asked him questions regarding the teachers. He told me school have only ~12 teachers who often skip schools citing one or other reason. Few of them are contractual teachers. Further I asked him about the class room teaching. The question was very un-comfortable for him and he showed his disappointment for not having enough number of teachers.
I don’t know much about the condition of other three prominent govt. high schools in the district namely Russel High School Bahdurganj, Higher Secondary and National High School Kihsnagnj, I guessed probably the situation will be same like Thakurganj High School. These schools once played greater role in imparting quality education to the poorest section of the society. I was one of them.
My question is why there is no emphasis on class room teaching in govt. run schools? Why our elected representatives from “Panchayat to Parliament” never raised such issues and tried to solve the problem with state govt. and policy makers? Why no one ever asked them regarding the shortage of teachers in govt. schools. Why govt. failed to recruit quality teachers? The 10% elite can send their children to private and English medium schools but what about the remaining 90% of population.
I sincerely request education minister of Bihar Mr. Ashok Chaudhary to strengthen the govt. run high schools across the state by recruiting quality teachers and putting emphasis on class room teaching.
Thanks!
~Dr. Mumtaz Naiyer
Southampton, UK
