For Bihar, Education Must Be Priority

by Indra

July 28, 2007

Bihar hopes to see the following educational institutes established in the state soon that will be image builders by itself:

1. AIIMS- the medical and education facilities on the line of AIIMS, New Delhi.
2. IIT
3. Chanakya Law University
4. Nalanda International University
5. National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) in Hajipur initialized by Shri Paswan
6. The IIM standard management school approved by the steering committee of the Planning Commission.
7. Indian Institute of Information Technology

The state must facilitate the executions by appointing some senior administrative officer of integrity and mission such as Kunal Kishore or Abhayanand to coordinate the work, and must never create speed breakers for political gains as reported frequently.

Interestingly, the list of approved projects of the state government on the website of Bihar government includes about ten or more medical and engineering colleges. I don't know if the promoters are serious and have started execution. I request the state government and CM in particular, to get a positive commitment about the timeframe for getting the projects running, when the government has given all the approvals. A close watch will be essential particularly initially, otherwise the institutions will fail to serve the community and just be commercial units.

I agree that the present government has initiated many a good projects and the environment for investment in education has improved. I was pleasantly surprised to know today that AMRI Hospitals, a joint venture between Emami and Sharachi groups, has a plan to set up a state-of-the-art hospital and a medical college in Patna with investment of Rs 110 crore.

However, I shall also appeal to the state government to get at least one science college with graduate and postgraduate facilities established in the headquarters of all districts,48 in number. MPs and MLAs of the district may be requested to fork out from their MPLAD fund for these educational institutes.

I have some more requests and suggestions:

All the universities and educational institutions must have its own websites. Unfortunately, even some of the universities and institutions appearing on Bihar Government official websites don't have it.

All the institutions must provide to its students an access to its own or franchised finishing schools for improving proficiency in English or other foreign languages in demand and working knowledge of computers for improving employability.

All the institutions must establish its active alumni associations and get them involved in development of the institutions.

All the institutions must create an advisory board of successful persons from the field in which the institution wishes to build its reputation.

All professional institutions must have close tie-ups with the reputed enterprises and take the mutual advantages to make the institutions contribute effectively in the progress of the state.

Bihar can't compete with other advanced states particularly of South without rapidly establishing professional colleges: Chennai has over 300 colleges, Bangalore even more, 350, and Hyderabad over 200.

And then only, perhaps the prediction of historian Ram Chandra Guha in the latest issue of Outlook may come true one day. "Who knows: a few decades down the line, perhaps historians will be asked to explain why Bihar is so much more prosperous and peaceful than Tamil Nadu."
 

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