In a class of their own

Patna, Jan. 15: When he was asked to oversee state universities’ functioning, Bihar governor’s aide Krishna Kumar knew there would be a lot of mess to clean up.

But still the stench at Punpun College, during a “surprise check” a fortnight ago, took the officer on special duty aback. He soon found out why.

“In one classroom, I found cows and buffaloes tied to posts. Another was stacked with fodder and hay,” Kumar said. “There were no teachers or students.”

A show-cause notice to the college, affiliated to Magadh University, has taken care of the problem. “Now the cows have gone and the fodder, too, has disappeared,” said the IAS officer, put up to the job by governor R.S. Gawai, the ex-officio chancellor of state universities.

But academics say Kumar’s biggest success lies not in banishing the cows but in taming the holy cows of Bihar’s education system.

For instance, during Munazir Hasan’s three-year stint as minister in the Lalu Prasad-Rabri regime, his lecturer wife never thought of taking her classes at her college in Arra. But if she thought the privilege would continue when her husband was appointed building construction minister in the Nitish Kumar government, she was in for a shock.

A notice with a suspension threat from Kumar had the minister running to him to save his wife’s job.

“Now she catches the train every day to come to Arra, 60 km from Patna,” said one of her colleagues at the college affiliated to Veer Kuer Singh University.

The lady is not alone. For teachers in Bihar, gaining “VIP” status had always meant a licence to draw their college salaries without working.

Congress leader Ramjatan Sinha, professor of chemistry in Science College, Patna, and former Congress legislator Chandrima Singh, professor of commerce in Patna University, were seldom seen on the campus, students said.

“Kumar has stopped the practice,” said N.P. Sharma, former academic and ex-chairman of the Bihar Intermediate Council, who has written a book titled Bihar Ke Dhahte Vishwavidyalya (Declining Universities of Bihar).

Ramjatan and Chandrima said they were taking their classes regularly.

“You can check. I am regular with my classes,” Ramjatan said, parrying the question why he had not been so earlier. “I did not bunk classes without substantial reasons even in the past,” Chandrima said.

A Raj Bhavan official said Kumar had inspected some 40 colleges and acted against over 60 teachers, lecturers and professors. “It’s done the trick.”

So it has at Punpun College. “Classes are held regularly there,” said Patna University Teachers’ Association general secretary Randhir Kumar.

“A former road construction minister, Shakeel-uz Zamah of the Congress, too had forgotten his students at Guru Govind Singh College, Patna. Kumar stopped his salary in November,” the Raj Bhavan source said.

“I wasn’t keeping well; now I will attend my classes,” Zamah explained.

Sharma said the RJD regime had appointed 1,000 teachers in 1997 and 700 in 2001.

“I have evidence that 500 of them were politically connected and never took classes,” he said. “That was the major reason for the anarchy and falling standards in Bihar’s higher education system.”

“The anarchy will now end,” Kumar said.