The Islampur school could be a far cry from other schools in many villages and towns in Bihar where schools exist in deplorable conditions, where there are not enough teachers, where students don't have toilets, where children are taken away to help their parents in the fields, where girls in the minority community are sometimes withdrawn from school after they reach puberty.

One of the reasons why villagers withdraw their children from school is a commonly held view that once children start attending school regularly, the first thing they do is stop helping out in the chores at home as they did before. They don't want to go to the fields, will not plough, will not milk the cows or rear milch cattle.

"They feel a child who has studied will not do this, but who hasn't will do all this. So parents think education is not proving beneficial for them. Unless the child acquires some skill, for a guardian his education is of no use," says Anjani Kumar Singh, the IAS officer, who is director of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme in Bihar.

"We are making every effort to build the school infrastructure, separate toilets are being made for boys and girls that will be managed by students and teachers," continues Singh, who has a long experience with education in Bihar.

"There have been instances in schools where teachers have kept a toilet locked for their own use or where toilets have gone into disuse. In schools we also have a child cabinet (which consists of student office-bearers), which sees if nails are trimmed and hygiene is being maintained, that toilets are being cleaned. Effective child cabinets do exist in some form or the other in most schools."

Image: The front of the school building. New class rooms are being built adjacent to this building. The Bihar government is scheduled to add 100,000 classrooms in the state this year.

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