Chief minister Nitish Kumar, education minister PK Shahi and food and consumer protection minister Shyam Rajak inaugurate the Shiksha Divas programme at Gandhi Maidan on Monday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday showered Rs 3,000 monthly hike on librarians but expressed his inability to help tola sevaks financially in absence of a government scheme.

During his inaugural speech of National Education Day function at Gandhi Maidan, Nitish said: “Tola sevaks (education volunteers from Mahadalit community) should not come under the influence of others as neither there is any central government scheme nor a state one under which the job of tola sevaks is converted into a government job.” Several tola sevaks raised a demand at the venue for a hike in their monthly honorarium of Rs 3,500.

With the pay hike of Rs 3,000, around 1,500 librarians working in different state libraries would now be around Rs 11,000 — on a par with contract teachers in government schools. On Independence Day, Nitish announced a pay hike of Rs 3,000 per month for contract teachers with effect from September this year and also a scholarship for all the girls studying in Classes I to X.

Stressing on Mission Manav Vikash, Nitish said the state could be developed only through education. Nitish listed out the various schemes being introduced by his government for promotion of girl education in the state. “If the woman in the family is educated then the entire family will be educated automatically. It will help solve many social maladies such as female foeticide, child marriage and other social ills,” said Nitish.

Education minister P.K. Shahi also highlighted the various schemes being run by his department. Shahi said: “The state government is committed to bring improvement in elementary and higher education and in this respect, 130 colleges have applied for the NAAC accreditation.”

The function also coincided with the government awarding 274 elementary schools as “performing schools”. Education department principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha said: “We had sought self-assessment report from all the schools which considered themselves to be eligible for ‘A’ grade in their respective schools.”

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Education Award was jointly presented to Sudha Verghese for her contribution in Dalit education, KP Jaiswal Research Institute director Vijay Choudhary and the entire team of two Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas at Jehanabad.

National Education Day is celebrated as a tribute to Azad, the first education minister of independent India, on his birth anniversary.