But in reality the government is not serious about giving it a concrete shape. In the budget session of the assembly Nitish Kumar reiterated his government's commitment to strictly implement the Right To Education (RTE) Act especially in terms of admission of the children of poor families in 25 per cent seats in public schools, but the fact remains that the government did not bother to remit funds to city schools for educating children of poor under the Act.

It is irony that a government committed to the empowerment of the poor and dalits does not have the correct data about the students admitted under the Act. This in fact was confessed by the education minister on the floor of the house. He said his department was in the process of compiling data about enrolment status on 25 per cent seats meant for students of poor socio-economic backward and action will be taken against those public schools not adhering to the RTE Act norms. Though he assured to take action against the public schools, most of these schools have minority status and obviously they cannot be forced to implement the RTE Act.

It was on January 23, 2015 the failure of the scheme was brought to the public domain by Brishen Patel, the former ministerial colleague of Nitish Kumar. Speaking at the two-day 8th Bihar Educational Conference organized jointly by the East and West Educational Society and Voluntary Forum for Education at Patna University Patel had admitted that the provisions of the Act could not be properly implemented in the state due to lack of resources. Since the government had committed itself to empower the students from the poor section, it ought to have been alert in fulfilling its financial commitments to the schools.

According to rules, schools are supposed to reserve 25 per cent of their seats for such children for whom the state is supposed to pay the fees. The government has to provide Rs 400 per child per month to the school concerned. Shamael Ahmad, president of Private School and Children Welfare Association, said that the private schools in Patna did not receive funds from the government in the past two years. Around 100 private schools in Patna are registered under the RTE Act. But in the past five years, the district education officer inspected only 30 per cent of the schools. Ahmad said; 'The 2015-2016 financial year is ended on March 31 but no school has received funds for the corresponding academic session for which free admission had to be given under the 25 per cent quota rule of RTE Act.'

Most of the schools received the funds till 2013-14. It is not that the state government was facing the financial crunch. It was the amnesia of the education department towards improving the quality and approach of the education that was responsible for it. It is shocking that the department even did not try to find out whether the schools were filling the 25 per cent quota fixed for the students belonging to the weaker and disadvantaged groups. In fact on March 18, the education minister told the Bihar Legislative Council; “The quota for 25 per cent students belonging to weaker and disadvantaged groups in private schools across the state has not been implemented effectively though the government is serious about it'. Incidentally no official has been held responsible for it.

The government has not been alert too in paying the scholarships to the SC and ST students. Barely a couple of months back around 60 SC/ST students of Bihar studying in the Rajdhani Engineering College, (REC) of Bhubaneswar were forced to leave the college due to failure of the state government to pay their stipend. These students had threatened to commit suicide after the Bihar government allegedly stopped paying their college stipends. The students had taken admission in the College in 2014 under the Dalit stipend scheme of the Bihar government. The college administration provided them free education, boarding and lodging for more than a year but later refused to carry with free services. The stipend which Bihar government has to give to these students is approximately Rs 1,10,000 per student annually. The Bihar Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognizance of reports of SC/ST students of the state compelled to leave an engineering college in Bhubaneswar due to the alleged failure of the state government to pay stipend to them. A sum of Rs 70.9 crore had been sanctioned for 43,047 students of Bihar studying in 4,348 Engineering Colleges throughout the country.

Though there has been a substantial increase in the state budget on education, it continues to be low. Per child expenditure in the state is among the lowest in the country. The reason behind the low quantum of spending is that the state continues to rely on low-cost alternatives.

The major reason for the disinclination of the schools managements to admit the poor students under the 25 per cent quota has been the reluctance of the parents to allow their kids to share the space with the disadvantaged students. It is feudal mindset that has been the primary barrier. It is shocking that the government has no data bank on this. This has been happening in the backdrop when the state governments have to ensure that all children, particularly girls belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to free and compulsory primary education of good quality.

The budget for implementation of the RTE Act throughout the country is just half of the amount spent on the 2010 Commonwealth Games, so funds are scarcely the problem. Why is there a resistance to complete implementation of the Act from states, centre and civil society? What is intriguing is the Hindi-speaking states, including Bihar have been the most half-hearted when it comes to implementation of the RTE Act, despite the fact that 67% of out-of-school children are from these states. (IPA Service)