Bihar fails miserably in school education

Sanjay Singh in New Delhi
Aug. 11.— Bihar can boast of being the worst-managed state in the country. And when it comes to school education, the situation is "pathetic" despite the government claim that it is doing wonders. The state has failed miserably in utilising the funds meant for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, aimed at achieving universal primary education in the country. It has second highest number of children out of school.
According to officials, Bihar has 20.51 lakh children out of school but the state government utilised only 60.93 per cent of the total Rs 560 crore available to it in 2004-05 under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The state also has the dubious distinction of having less than the national average of gross enrolment ratio both in the primary and upper primary levels.
By contrast, even Jharkhand fared better as the former utilised 88.4 per cent of the Rs 330.88 crore available to it. Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest number of 25.17 lakh out of school children, performed much better and utilised about 97 per cent of the Rs 1293.72 crore sanctioned to it. The amount included Rs 878 crore released by the Centre and the remaining money came from the state government.
West Bengal, which has 9.97 lakh children out of school, utilised about 83 per cent of the Rs 615 crore funds available to it under the SSA. The state had received Rs 460 crore from the Centre during 2004-05.
Punjab utilised 77 per cent of the Rs 126 crore available to it while Orissa utilised 77 per cent of the Rs 364 crore available to it during the period.
The Centre has termed SSA a National Mission for Universalisation of Elementary Education and enhanced the outlays for the programme from Rs 3057 crore in 2004 to Rs 7156 crore in 2005-06. The plan allocation for elementary education and literacy has also gone up to Rs 12531.76 crore in 2005-06 which is an increase of about 109 per cent over the allocation of 2004-05.
Thus in successive Plans, India spent just around 1.9 per cent of Gross Domestic Product or about two-thirds of what was needed to educate all its children, on primary and elementary education.