Education minister Krishnanandan Prasad Verma set off for Bettiah on Wednesday to start a series of shiksha chaupals (education meetings) for gathering feedback on the state of affairs in government schools.

Before setting out, Verma said: 'There has been marked improvement in different government sectors such as power, roads and law and order, but despite the state government's efforts and huge expenditure, school and higher education still needs improvement.'

So, he will hold meetings with teachers, parents and students in high schools across the different blocks and district headquarters in Bihar. He will seek feedback from them about quality of education and measures that should be adopted for improving school education. He will also find about teacher shortage, infrastructure facilities such as availability of classrooms, laboratories, urinals, libraries and other facilities provided to the students.

The 'chaupal' at Bettiah, around 210km northwest of Patna, will be held at the town hall at 10am on Thursday.

Depending on the feedback he receives, the department will initiate measures to improve school education. Sources said the education department decided to launch the shiksha chaupals because in spite of the government spending nearly 16 per cent (Rs 25,251.39 crore) of total budget, school education has not yielded desired results.

The quality of education is at such a level that only 35.25 per cent students cleared this year's Intermediate exams - the lowest pass percentage in Intermediate results in the past two decades.

Teachers' associations in the state are, however, sceptical about the outcome of the 'chaupals'.

Bihar Secondary School Teachers Association general secretary Shatrughan Prasad Singh said: 'We fail to understand what feedback and information the education minister wants to gather from students, parents and teachers by holding the shiksha chaupals. The education department has all information about teachers' shortage, lack of infrastructure facilities, and unavailability of books among other matters. It would have been better if the education minister took serious measures to improve school education instead of holding such chaupals.'

Felicitation

Earlier in the day, minister Verma felicitated seven teachers who have received the President's Medal on Teachers' Day for their contribution to education. The teachers received Rs 30,000. Nand Kishore Singh, headmaster of Philip High School in Bariarpur, Munger, was among those felicitated. 'I assigned my teachers the job to provide quality education to students and increase the enrolment rate. The outcome was that three years ago, there were only 400 students at the school; now we have 760 students.'