Bihar: Govt-run schools have more than 3,000 fake students

More than 3,000 students in government-run schools have been found fake and their admission have been cancelled in Bihar's Kaimur district after it was revealed that they took admission in more than one school for getting benefit of government-sponsored schemes for school uniform, cycle, scholarship.

"All those students were found to be studying in different schools but they took admissions in government-run schools for getting benefit of schemes provided by the state government to poor students," said Satyanarayan Sah, a district education official.

Sah told rediff.com that the matter came to light when the Bihar Educational Quality Mission conducted an inquiry into government-run schools in Kudra block in Kaimur. "It is a racket in which some school teachers were also found to be involved," he said.

According to Sah, admission of 3,085 fake students of different schools were cancelled. "Most of these students were found to be studying in private schools," he said. He said that admission of more students will be cancelled as an inquiry is still on in different schools.

A senior official in state education department said that it was a part of a big fraud in Bihar's schools. Earlier this month, the Bihar Educational Quality Mission identified at least 380 schools in the state where fraud in mid day meals was rampant.

The mission had sent an inquiry team to 1,310 schools. The team revealed that in 380 schools only 25 per cent students were present while the number of students mentioned for the mid day meal was much more.

The government has directed the concerned official to initiate action against such schools and their officials.

Under the Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojna" (Chief Minister's Bicycle Program for secondary school girls), which was later extended to schoolboys as well, a student gets a cheque of Rs 2,500 upon passing class VIII to buy a bicycle so that he or she can go to school every day.

However, it has come to light that hundreds of students have stopped coming to schools after getting the money for bicycles. Similar fraud has been found in the case of school uniform in different districts.

The Central Monitoring-cum-Data Centre has done an inquiry which says that during 2010-201, hundreds of cycles were allotted in the name of two or more students where the name of not only students but their father's name and address was identical.

Such cases were found more prevalent in the districts of Gaya, Shehar, Rohtas and Katihar.

Last year, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had launched the 'Samjho Sikho' campaign, which will cover nearly 71,000 elementary schools across Bihar.

The campaign is a joint effort of the Bihar Education Project Council and United Nations Children's Fund. The state government is spending Rs 50 crore on the project.

According to Census 2011, Bihar has a literacy rate of 63.8 per cent, against the national average of 74 per cent.