Central University of Bihar vice-chancellor Janak Pandey on Sunday expressed concern over the poor condition of education in villages.

Delhi Public School organised an idea development seminar at Indira Gandhi Planetarium where Class XII students had to share the problems they faced during visits to several villages. The students were also required to come up with ideas to help facilitate rural development vis-à-vis the problems villagers face because of lack of development.

At the seminar supported by non-government organisation, Parivartan, Pandey said attention should be first paid to education and population growth in villages before tackling issues such as women empowerment and domestic violence in the rural areas.

“It is very unfortunate that rural areas have now become the subject of research because of their lack of development. The areas where we need to keep tabs on are education and population growth. There are also minor issues like empowering women, domestic violence, child labour and child marriage in the rural areas. Villagers in Bihar still believe in myths and the pseudo-cultural rituals like supernatural powers,” he said.

Diksha, a Class XII student, said: “It was a challenge for us to make people in the villages understand the problems they were facing unknowingly. The language barrier made it more difficult for us.”

On that, Pandey told the students about his research days. He said language barrier was a big problem when he visited villages near Masaurhi in Patna district for his research on horticulture. Another problem was understanding the topography, as he was not familiar with the places he visited. He, however, advised the DPS students to observe the behaviour of villagers to understand what they try to say.

Nikita, another student, said: “We had an opportunity to interact with members of the local institutions, including gram sabhas, cooperative banks and anganwadis. They offered us insights into their lives and problems that came handy in the interactive session.”