Schools sans Education

By Dr. Shah Ali Adnan, Director, Institute of Tax Accountants

Government schools in Bihar are meant to provide education, but over the years, they have also become key centers for running various government welfare schemes. Schools are increasingly functioning as administrative arms of the government, executing welfare schemes tailored to the ruling party’s agenda, often at the cost of their fundamental educational responsibilities. While these programs are important, they often add extra responsibilities to teachers who are already struggling with limited resources. As a result, teaching time gets reduced, teachers face more stress, and in many cases, this leads to absenteeism. All of this affects the quality of education and holds back student learning. This clash of responsibilities makes it difficult to maintain a high standard of education. Education is a basic right for all children aged 6 to 14 under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution, supported by the Right to Education (RTE) Act of 2009. Bihar has about 72,663 government schools serving 30 million students, but many of these schools still lack basic facilities like benches and desks. On top of these issues, Bihar faces major development challenges. It has the lowest per capita income per annum in India — just ₹60,337  in 2024, compared to the national average of ₹2,11,725 per annum. Its Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.577 in 2022, which is below the national average of 0.636, indicates that the challenges faced by schools go beyond pedagogical concerns.

Government Schools as Hubs for Public Welfare Activities:

In Bihar, government school teachers are burdened with many non-teaching tasks that take away valuable time from the classroom. They are regularly asked to do jobs like conducting population and animal surveys, helping with elections, supporting health drives like Pulse Polio, promoting social campaigns against alcohol and dowry, verifying family documents, and even checking sanitation in villages. Teachers also run the mid-day meal scheme and spend 10 to 15 hours every week entering data into systems like Unified District Information System for Education(UDISE)+ and Student Database Management System (SDMS). Altogether, these extra duties take up 20% to 30% of their time, leaving less time to teach students and hurting the quality of education. This happens because the government relies heavily on teachers as an easy-to-reach workforce in every village. For the sake of convenience, their role as educators is often ignored. The Supreme Court in 2016 and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 have both clearly said that teachers should not be overloaded with such duties. Yet the practice continues. The problem goes back to colonial times and became worse after the state took over private schools in the 1970s and 80s, often putting untrained officials in charge. Fixing this requires more than just policy. It needs real change on the ground. To further illustrate the breadth of these responsibilities, the following table outlines the key non-educational duties assigned to government school teachers in Bihar:

 Duties of Government School Teachers in Bihar

Duty Category	Specific Examples	%age of time devoted
Teaching and Academic work	Classroom teaching, lesson planning, assessments, student counseling, exam duties	50-55%
Non-educational Duties	Breakdown below (45-50%)
Census & Surveys	General Census, Cattle Census, Other Government Surveys	3-7%
Election Duties	Election Booth Duty, Duties related to local self-governing bodies, state, and central elections	5-15%
Public Health Campaigns	Pulse Polio Campaign, Open Defecation Monitoring ("Toilet Duty")	3-15%
Social Awareness & Reform Drives	Anti-Alcohol Campaigns, Child Marriage Campaigns, Dowry Campaigns	2-5%
Administrative & Data Management	Family Record Verification, Student Attendance Tracking, UDISE+/SDMS Data Entry, Report Preparation	8-12%
Social Support	Mid-Day Meal Management	10-15%

Consequences for Educational Quality and Teacher Well-being:

In Bihar, teachers are spending 45-50% of their time on non-educational work like running elections, helping with census surveys, managing mid-day meals, supervising toilets, and entering data. This leaves less time for actual teaching and hurts both students and teachers. With 32% of teaching positions vacant and a student-teacher ratio of 47:1, the workload is just too much. Teachers are overworked, stressed, and many are absent due to burnout. One study showed a teacher absence rate of 37.8%. This stress lowers teaching quality, weakens student learning, and pushes the education system into a deeper crisis. While student enrolment is high (98.1% for ages 6–14), learning outcomes remain poor, and dropout rates are still high. Less than 2% of schools meet all the basic Right to Education (RTE) norms. Many schools lack playgrounds, boundary walls, electricity, clean water, and toilets. For many children, the mid-day meal is the main reason to attend school, showing how poor teaching and weak infrastructure affect motivation. The real problem is long-term underinvestment. Fixing education in Bihar needs more than new rules. It needs real money and commitment to building better schools and hiring well-trained, qualified teachers who can focus on what matters most: teaching.

Remedial measures for Better Learning

In many government schools, teachers are often pulled away from their main job of teaching and to do tasks like running elections, collecting census data, and managing welfare schemes. This hurts both teachers and students. These tasks should be handled by a separate team of trained local staff, not educators. Both the “Courts and NEP 2020” support keeping teachers focused on teaching, but these rules must be enforced properly. Also, all teaching and non-teaching staff should be hired through Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) to ensure only eligible, well-qualified candidates get the jobs. Right now, nearly 32% of teacher posts are vacant. Many schools also lack basic facilities like toilets, benches, clean water, and electricity. We urgently need a fully funded plan to recruit enough teachers and upgrade infrastructure as per the RTE Act. Teachers also waste too much time on data entry tasks like UDISE+SDMS and managing the mid-day meal scheme. Hiring trained data staff, cooks, and supervisors can fix this. Teachers should get administrative support and regular training. Their performance should be judged based on student learning—not unrelated government duties. With the right support, teachers can focus on what really matters: helping students learn and succeed.

References:

1.      Government of India. (2009). The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Ministry of Law and Justice.

2.    Government of Bihar. (2024). Bihar Education Department Annual Report 2023-24. Education Department, Government of Bihar.

3.     Ministry of Education, Government of India. (2020). National Education Policy 2020.

4.     NITI Aayog. (2022). National Multidimensional Poverty Index: Baseline Report based on NFHS-5 (2019-21).

5.      Reserve Bank of India. (2024). Handbook of Statistics on Indian States 2023-24.

6.   Kumar, A., & Singh, R. (2023). Administrative Burden or Systemic Reliance? The Historical Entrenchment of Non-Academic Duties on Teachers in Bihar. Journal of Education Policy and Practice, 18(2), 145-162.