This story is from September 25, 2018

CM Nitish Kumar for revival of 391 basic schools

CM Nitish Kumar for revival of 391 basic schools
Nitish Kumar (File photo)
PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday asked the officials concerned to take necessary steps to revive all 391 Buniyadi Vidyalayas (basic schools) which were opened in pre-independence period as per Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of providing necessary skill of livelihood to every child at primary level.
Presiding over the fifth meeting of the Development Management Institute (DMI) Society at the CM residence here, Nitish said the revived basic schools would now be named after Kasturba Gandhi, wife of Mahatma Gandhi.
“These schools will be renamed as Kasturba Buniyadi Vidyalaya,” he said.
The MDI, a state-funded management institute, has been given task to revive and develop a cluster of 12 middle schools in Gaunaha block of West Champaran district while keeping in mind the concept of the famous Buniyadi Vidyalaya at Bhitiharwa where Kasturba stayed for a long period during the Champaran satyagrah.
At the meeting, MDA director Hemnath Rao made a detailed presentation before the CM about the work being undertaken by the institute for revival of Bhitiharwa-based Buniyadi schools and 12 other middle schools in its surroundings.
“Bhitiharwa is a very important place in the annals of Buniyadi Vidyalayas. Kasturba Gandhi herself stayed there. The DMI has to do a lot for revival of these schools. Our concept is to revive all basic schools and transform them into model ones,” Nitish told the officials attending the meeting.
The first Buniyadi Vidyalaya was set up by Mahatma Gandhi in 1939 at Brindavan village in West Champaran district. These schools were also known as ‘Mahatma Ke Schools’.

After decades of neglect, during which the quality of education in these schools suffered a lot mainly due to lack of teachers and necessary resources, the ‘Mahatma Ke Schools’ have been struggling for survival. Their major problems include shortage of teachers and necessary resources for imparting vocational training to rural children.
The DMI is also working on a pilot project on ‘Participatory administration through empowerment of panchayat’ at At Amarakh gram panchayat under Kurhani block in Muzaffarpur district.
“Whatever model the DMI presents about the empowerment of panchayats, it will be implemented at other panchayats,” the CM said. He asked the building construction department to start the construction work of the DMI campus on priority basis.
Adviser to CM Anjani Kumar Singh, chairman of DMI’s board of governors and former chief secretary Anup Mukherjee, principal secretary (panchayati raj) Amrit Lal Meena and heads of different departments were present at the meeting.
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