Over the past few months, the Bihar government has undertaken an extensive process to enhance attendance in government schools by removing the names of more than 5 lakh students in the state.
The primary objective behind this endeavor is to ensure that the state treasury can save a significant sum of Rs 300 crore that would otherwise have been directed toward these so-called "ghost students" in the form of benefits. This proactive measure is poised to reveal the authentic enrollment statistics in Bihar's government schools.
The initiative to "weed out" these students was initiated under the directive of KK Pathak, the additional chief secretary of the state's education department. His decision was prompted by his visits to various government schools in the state, where he discovered that a substantial number of students were consistently absent.
The education department harbors suspicions that many of these "ghost students" might be enrolled elsewhere or attending private schools. To address this issue, a comprehensive approach will be employed, which involves conducting door-to-door surveys and cross-referencing with electoral rolls to pinpoint families whose children are not attending government schools.
In a circular issued to all 38 district magistrates in the state, Pathak emphasized that the Bihar government expends a substantial amount, specifically over Rs 3,000 crore, on benefits distributed through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) program. He further noted that should the enrollment of even 10 percent of these "ghost students," who are ostensibly studying in other schools but are still enlisted to receive benefits, be invalidated, it would result in significant savings of Rs 300 crore for the state.
Additionally, Pathak highlighted that nearly 10 percent of operational government schools in Bihar report student attendance rates of less than 50 percent. Nonetheless, he did acknowledge that the number of such schools displaying these low attendance rates was gradually decreasing.
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