News from Social Media; The Boy Who asked for education from Bihar Chief Minister.

A social media video of a young kid managing to get the attention of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, in which the kid talks about the quality of education in Bihar was doing rounds on Twitter on Sunday. The video has been shared by various verified Twitter users with some of the users claiming that the boy's reply highlights the condition of education in Bihar.

Status of enrollments in Bihar.

The chief minister was on his visit to his native village Kalyan Bigha in Nalanda on Sunday, when a young boy walked up to the Chief Minister and said “Sir, Please accord me the strength to study, I want to study but the guardian does not want me to study”.

ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) report 2021, released by NGO Pratham,  which is a citizen-led household survey that provides nationally representative estimates of children’s schooling status and their foundational reading and arithmetic skills -  for rural areas, says that in the age group of 6-14 years in Bihar, 78.2% boys and 82.9% girls are enrolled in government schools. 6.7% of students in the same age group are out of schools in Bihar currently, the report says.

Between 2018-21 saw a spike in enrollment in government schools, the enrollment in government schools increased from 64.3% in 2018 to 70.3% in 2021. The same period saw a drop in enrollment in private schools, the number fell from 32.4% in 2018 to 24.4% in 2021, a comparison of the ASER Survey between the periods by The Hindu says.

ASER Report on Private Coaching In Bihar.

The boy Sonu Kumar, talking to media persons later, said that his father is a drunkard, who spends the entire money on alcohol. Sonu Kumar, a student of class six, regrets saying “I teach students from class one to five at an Anganwadi centre, but even that money is taken-off by my father”. On being asked what he wants from Chief Minister, Sonu Kumar says, “Sir, My demand is to get an education”. There is no education in government schools, that I know.” He adds.

The ASER report 2021, talking about the private coaching culture, reveals that the dependence on private tuition among students in Bihar increased in 2021 as only 26.5% of all school-going students depend solely upon school teaching, and the remaining 73.5% are dependent on private tuition for studies. This number was 64.3% in 2020.

Sonu kumar told media persons that the chief minister upon listening to his request told a person (official) to see to it that my education gets done. The Chief Minister instructed an official, the boy added.

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