Bihar has been presented as a challenge in the execution of any action plan. In the 90s, all the indicators related to education in Bihar were negative. Enrollment rate was very low, especially among girls and those below the poverty line, and the dropout rate was the highest compared to the national ratio. The education system in the state was crippled due to community and administrative apathy towards schools. To deal with these difficult circumstances, the Government of India, Government of Bihar and UNICEF jointly accepted the challenge of universalization of primary education and in April 1991, the outline of an educational program called “Bihar Education Project” was designed. For the implementation and operation of this project, an autonomous statutory body “Bihar Education Project Council” was established on 13th May 1991 under the administrative control of the Education Department, Government of Bihar and a senior officer of the Indian Administrative Service was made its State Project Director.
The main objective of the Council is – “To speed up the all-round development of Bihar through educational reconstruction.” The Council has seven core principles for managing and conducting the educational programs, namely - Education is a medium of change, everyone's support, teachers are the pivot of educational development, equality towards women and their empowerment, social justice and not administration but a mission.
Under the banner of Bihar Education Project Council, the educational program named “Bihar Education Project (BEP)” was first launched in the year 1991-92 in three districts of the state, namely Ranchi, Rohtas and West Champaran. In fact, this project was India's first project for “Education for all” in the field of basic education. In 1992-93, the scope of the project was extended to four other districts, namely Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, East Singhbhum and Chatra. The tenure of this project was till 31 March 1998.
Under the banner of the Council itself, on 2 October 1997, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, a new central scheme “District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)” was launched in the state, whose area of operation was extended to ten other educational districts along with the above mentioned seven districts. Thus, the District Primary Education Programme operated from October 1997 to 31 March 2005, covered 17 educational (27 revenue) districts of the state - (1) West Champaran, (2) Sitamarhi (including Sheohar), (3) Muzaffarpur, (4) Rohtas (including Kaimur), (5) Chatra, (6) Ranchi, (7) East Singhbhum, (8) Purnia (including Araria and Kishanganj), (9) Darbhanga, (10) Vaishali, (11) Bhojpur (including Buxar), (12) Gaya, (13) Munger (including Jamui, Lakhisarai and Sheikhpura), (14) Bhagalpur (including Banka), (15) Dumka, (16) Hazaribagh (including Koderma), (17) West Singhbhum.
After the division of Bihar on 15 November 2000, under the District Primary Education Programme 11 educational districts (20 revenue districts) remained in Bihar state and the remaining 6 educational districts (7 revenue districts) went to Jharkhand state. While the “Bihar Education Project” was being implemented entirely with the grant of UNICEF, the “District Primary Education Programme” was implemented by the Central Government with the help of soft loan from the World Bank (85 percent share) and the joint efforts of the Bihar Government (15 percent share).
In the year 2001, the Central Government started the “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)” programme to achieve the goal of universalization of elementary education in all the districts of all the states of India, the responsibility of implementation of which in the state was given to the “Bihar Education Project Council”. Thus, the scope of the BEPC expanded from 20 districts to 534 revenue blocks in all the 38 districts of Bihar state. From 1 April 2010, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Elementary Education Act, 2009 has been implemented throughout India and given legal validity. To meet the standards, norms and conditions of the Right to Education Act, some standards of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan were changed.
The education system of India is divided into many sections such as early childhood education, primary education, elementary education, secondary education, higher secondary education etc. and large scale dropouts are seen during admission from one faculty to another. To deal with this situation, in the financial year 2018-19, the Government of India brought all educational schemes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and teacher education under one umbrella so that education from early childhood education to class 12 is conducted and made available to children under one system and the structure of schools is also developed in the same manner. This centralized scheme, operating in the name of “Samagra Shiksha”, is expected to prove to be a milestone in the field of education in India. Also, “Samagra Shiksha” will prove vehicle for the successful implementation of National Education Policy 2020.
The main works done under the programmes implemented in different phases by “Bihar Education Project Council”, namely, Bihar Education Project, District Primary Education Programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Samagra Shiksha are- (1) Teacher training for joyful teaching and cluster level orientation for remedial teaching, (2) Free textbooks, (3) Formation/Reorganisation and Empowerment of Village/School Education Committees, (4) Grant to School Education Committees for school development, maintenance and teaching learning material, (5) Grant for bench-desks to middle schools, (6) Establishment of Apna/Angana Vidyalaya, Utpreran, Utkarsh, Unnayan, Residential/Non-Residential Special Centres for alternative education, (7) Establishment of Lok Shikshan Kendras under Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS), (8) Training/Empowerment of Balwadi Centre, Balvarg in Schools and Anganwadi Centres under Early Childhood Education, (9) Block Resource Centre (BRC), Cluster Resource Centre (CRC), School Building without Building, Additional Classroom, New School Building, Girls Building, Toilet, Boundary Wall, Mahila Kutir, Kitchen Shed, Renovation of School Building, Innovative Construction, Construction of Anganwadi Centres under Civil Works, (9) Establishment and Operation of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), (10) National Programme for Education of Girls at Primary Level (NPEGEL), (11) Enrolment, Retention and Quality Education to Unenrolled and Disabled Children, (12) School uniforms for children from class 1 to class 8, (13) Planning, training and salary payment of Panchayat, Prakhand and Nagar teachers through Panchayati Raj Institutions in proportion to the enrolled students, (14) Availability of inclusive education and equipment to disabled children, (15) Collection, analysis and diagnostic action of educational data, (16) Operation of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose hostels, (17) Availability of LEP/FLN kits to children/schools, (18) Self Defence Martial Arts training to girls, (19) Vocational education in schools, (20) Ratification and empowerment of officers/employees.
Along with the establishment of the council, its operational memorandum and rules were formulated in which it was clearly stated regarding the creation of necessary posts in the Bihar Education Project Council and their salaries that “the pay scale in respect of the posts to be created by the Executive Committee will be in accordance with the pay scale of the Central Government or the State Government”. But the irony is that the personnel working in mission mode in the Council are working on the fourth pay scale fixed in February 1998 and are deprived of the fifth, sixth and seventh pay scales. After the implementation of the Right to Education Act, the Government of India made many changes in the framework of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and a plan was made to integrate the Education Department and the Implementation Society to strengthen the management structure.
Before the implementation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan program, the management structure of the Bihar Education Project Council was completely different from the Education Department. After the implementation of the program, during the integration of both the institutions, officials of the Education Department started getting posted in the Bihar Education Project Council, but the officials / employees of the council were not posted on departmental posts. As a result, due to the departmental posts being vacant on a large scale, the work of the Education Department is affected from the state level to the block level.