The Nitish government only had to implement the programme, but it failed miserably. Like other state governments, Bihar was also paid by the Union government under the Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan. Though there was no dearth of funds, there was a clear lack of commitment. After some time Nitish turned his attention to some populist programmes, like the shelter scheme. Unfortunately the shelter homes earned notoriety for sexual exploitation of girls. One girl also died under mysterious situation.

The abject decline in the state's education has been unraveled by the Annual Status of Education (ASER) report of 2018. The report points out that education under Nitish has dipped. The report highlights the declining trend in learning levels in government schools, especially since 2016. If 44.6% of class V students were able to read standard II text in 2014, it has come down to 35.1% in 2018. A similar fall is witnessed across all levels.

The 2016 report had also pointed to falling learning outcome, with one out of four children leaving standard VIII without even basic reading skills. The annual status of education report 2018, released on January 16, has underlined the poor state of school education in Bihar, which is marked by low classroom attendance, growing attraction towards private schools and continuing trend of dip in learning outcomes.

This is despite a lot of incentives and improvement in school facilities like provisions of playground, library, toilets and drinking water. The report while underlining the poor state of school education in Bihar also points to apathy of the government department in promoting education.

The most disheartening development is the decline in learning levels in upper primary, the foundation for secondary and higher education in both reading and arithmetic. In 2018, around half of standard VIII children struggled even with simple division. Even after this revelation the state government has not taken any initiative to improve the foundation skills of students for higher grades.

Last year, the report had underlined that even among the 14-18 age groups, the problem of learning outcome, as demonstrated in elementary schools, was a matter of big concern. Its survey in 2017 in Muzaffarpur had shown 22.2% students in the 14-18 age-group could not even read Std II level text, while nearly 35% could not even do division. The 2016 report had also pointed to falling learning outcome, with one out of four children leaving standard VIII without even basic reading skills.

It may sound paradoxical that after the launch of the MDG the standard of education has gone down. The officials are busy making ill-gotten money and least bothered to improve the standard of education. The overall decline in learning levels in almost all grades is a cause of major worry. A decade ago Bihar’s learning levels were above the national average. Bihar was among the top ranking states in mathematics, but that is not the case anymore. The impact of weak foundation was clearly visible in the last three board exams when large number of students failed. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that the government was also contemplating to dilute the standard of questions to improve the pass percentage.

The survey of rural India youths presented a gloomy picture of Bihar on some basic parameters. ASER has selected one district each from the selected states for the nationwide survey. In Bihar it was Muzaffarpur. Like its previous report, the 2018 report raises several worrying questions. Only 50 per cent of students in Class V can read a Class II-level text, reveals the study. Children are also struggling with basic arithmetic skills. More than 56 per cent of children enrolled in Class VIII cannot solve a three-digit by one-digit division problem correctly.

Last year’s ASER report had revealed that only “28 per cent had used the internet and 26 per cent had used computers, while 59 per cent had never used a computer and 64 per cent had never used internet”. The revelations in this year’s report are even more grim. It points out that one out of four children in rural India leaves Class VIII without basic reading skills and over half of them cannot solve a basic division problem. The report also revealed that learning deficit visible so far in elementary school children is now getting reflected among young adults too.

“When your secondary level students are not learning like the elementary students, the problem becomes bigger. It is because of two reasons—one, this 14-18 years age group are ready to enter the workforce and thus has a direct bearing on the economy; second, the families depend more on this young cohort for doing free work,” says Rukmini Banerji, chief executive of Pratham Education Foundation.

ASER team members visited 15,998 government schools in 596 districts in rural India. A total of 3,54,944 households and 5,46,527 children in the age group 3 to 16 were surveyed. Bihar is one of the poorest states in India. The educational attainment is low and the quality of education as measured by learning outcomes very poor. (IPA Service)