Bollywood lyricist Amitabh Verma of PK fame has written a song that will be sung at government schools in Bihar.

The education department will introduce the song after getting people's feedback and the final consent from chief minister Nitish Kumar. The song's opening line is " Aaaja Pukare, Bahae Pasare".

The song will be uploaded on social media soon to help people give feedback. State education minister Ashok Choudhary said: "The song is a motivational one and the idea behind having a school anthem for government school students is to create a sense of pride about the state's ancient history."

He said the idea was conceptualised three months back.

Bihar-born music director Bapi of Bapi-Tutul duo has composed the song. The duo have composed music in Bollywood movies such as Sarkar, Khosla Ka Ghosla and Sarkar Raj.

The song will be sung by a group of students studying at government schools. The education department will carry out auditions and upload the song on the department's website to popularise the song. The lyrics of the song will also be written outside school buildings and sung at radio stations. These steps will be taken after a formal decision to use the song as "School Geet" is sanctioned.

The song's duration is a little over two minutes. The lyrics of the song speak of the state's rich history and cite the glory days when students from across the globe used to visit the ancient universities of Nalanda and Vikramshila in search of knowledge.

Bharti S. Kumar, a former history professor at Patna University, lauded the effort but with a caveat.

"The education department's effort to establish the state's identity in the field of ancient history is good but just by singing a song, students will neither be motivated nor encouraged to know about its glorious past," she said. "Also, the quality of education imparted in government schools will not improve just by singing motivational songs."

Bharti, who served at Patna University for more than 30 years, added that Patna University had an anthem that highlighted the university's glory days. However, the anthem failed to motivate students at the university as the academic standards fell."

Earlier, in 2012, the state government had introduced "Bihar Gaan" and "Bihar Prarthna Geet". Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hari Prasad Chaurasia had composed the music.

While Udit Narayan and Sadhana Sargam sung the anthem, Udit Narayan also lent his voice to the state prayer. The state anthem's lyrics are written by Patna-resident Satya Narayan, a history teacher and state government employee. The state anthem is sung at government functions along with the national anthem.