Earlier this week, the Bihar government announced that it has been successful in setting up a primary schools at every kilometre, a middle school at every three kilometres and a secondary school at every five kilometres in the state. And now, Bihar government is gearing to bring another major change in the state’s education sector. The state’s education council is soon planning to launch an app to monitor government and government-aided schools in the state.
According to a report by The Times of India, The Bihar Education Council (BEPC) is all set to launch a mobile app– Bihar Easy School Tracking– to monitor students and teachers in government and government-aided schools in the state. The Android app, which has been developed by United Nations Children’s Fund– Bihar, will be launched by Bihar Education Minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma in Patna on March 17.
After the launch of the app, block resource centre coordinators, block education officers, district education officers, and block education officers will be trained to use the app.
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What is the state of education in Bihar?
The Bihar government has been under fire over the quality of education in the state for a long time. The state of government schools is deplorable. These schools not only lack basic facilities such as proper furniture, electricity and toilets but they often function without an adequate number of teachers.
This can be ascertained by the fact that of all the children who took science subject in the state, only 30 percent spassed in the board exams in 2017 owing to a severe shortage of physics teachers in the school (only seven physics teachers in the school with most of them posted in Patna).
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The state government has also been criticised for being unable to curb the practice of cheating in the government and government-aided schools during the board exams.
In 2016, Bihar school examination topper scam shook the nation revealing the extent of corruption in the state’s education system. The scam came to light when Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) Humanities topper Ruby Rai, Science topper Saurabh Shrestha, and third topper in Science stream Rahul Kumar were interviewed by television channels and they were unable to answer basic questions from their respective streams.
To tackle this menace, the state government earlier this month announced a ‘no-shoe rule’ during Class 10 state board exams. As a part of the new rule, the students appearing for Class 10 board exams would not be allowed to wear shoes or socks in the examination hall.
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How will the app help?
The app will help the state government to analyse the overall performance of the government schools in Bihar, which in turn will help in improving the quality of education in the state. The app will also help the Bihar government to go paperless and save time to connect with the schools under its ambit.
More importantly, the app will help the government in monitoring the government and government-aided schools at a more deeper level and provide a platform that will help in resolving the issues faced by the students.
