Covid impact: Poor attendance of students, teachers in schools a concern for Bihar govt

The aftereffects of the extended closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic for nearly a year and a half have started getting reflected following the government’s order to reopen institutions

The aftereffects of the extended closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic for nearly a year and a half have started getting reflected following the government’s order to reopen institutions.

Students attend class at Bankipur Girls High School in Patna on Saturday. (Santosh Kumar/Ht photo)

The higher secondary schools were allowed to run with 50% attendance from July 12, while Classes 9 and 10 reopened from August 7. From August 16, schools will function for class 1 onwards with 50% attendance.

However, the department is concerned with poor attendance in higher secondary schools. “Some district magistrates have informed that the number of schools opening is negligible in some districts and it is a matter of concern,“ additional chief secretary, department of education, Sanjay Kumar has written to the director, secondary education.

Kumar wrote that while the poor attendance of students is a matter of concern, more worrying is the attendance of teachers in many of the higher secondary schools. The secondary and higher secondary schools will have their board exams early next year and sent-up exams in November-December, which leaves them with very little time to prepare.

“Poor attendance in schools means that the district Education officers and their junior officials are not monitoring properly,” wrote Kumar, while directing the secondary education director to issue instructions for monitoring of higher secondary schools and making available the attendance status to the directorate.

“The directorate should also be informed about the action taken against truant teachers,” he wrote.

Later, he said that the truant teachers must mend their ways and discharge their duties. “The government pays them for teaching and if that is not done regularly, the entire purpose is defeated. Strict monitoring will be done,” he added.

Director, secondary education, Manoj Kumar immediately complied and shot off letters to the DEOs to monitor schools and furnish attendance details in the prescribed format and action taken against teachers for unauthorised absence.

State project director of the Bihar Education Project Council Srikant Shastri has also written to the DEOs and district programme officers (DPOs) to ensure proper attendance in schools and conduct catch-up courses by teachers to overcome the learning deficit of students due to extended closure of institutions. In this regard, an online meeting will be held on August 11 with all the district officials related to school education to emphasise its importance and work on a plan. Later, DEOs and DPOs will organise offline sensitisation meets with block officials, headmasters and deputy headmasters in small groups.

Learning outcome in government schools has been a matter of concern even during normal times, as reflected through the annual state of education reports (ASER) and this may have gotten further affected due to the learning gap because of the pandemic. Bihar education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary had also admitted in the Legislative Assembly earlier that “due to Covid-19 pandemic, education suffered in schools and therefore, bridge course has been planned to cover the gaps, as many students could not have access to online education”.

A senior teacher of a school said that it would take some time before the situation normalises. “The number of students coming is very less. The government has issued a lot of directives regarding sanitisation, hygiene and proper facilities in schools, but the ground realities are different. There is a lot of monitoring of teachers by those who have the least interest in education, while the basic facilities remain unattended,” he added.

The Patna High Court, while hearing a petition last month, observed that the “education system cannot be improved as it is based on the concept of the segregated system -- one for elite section and other for poor Biharis who have to remain content with mid-day meal, free books, uniform and bicycles with poor teaching or no teaching.” The court sought details of the wards of IAS, IPS and Class-I & class-II officers studying in the government-run elementary and other schools. Following this, the education department started collecting the details. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for later this month.

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