Types of Schools in Bihar
Unrecognised schools in Bihar
Based on funding and management type, schools in Bihar are of three types, government, private aided and private unaided.
Our research shows that Bihar is one of the few states that is yet to enact a school education act post independence. So private schools are governed mainly by the provisions of Bihar Non-Government Secondary School Management and Control Takeover Act of 1981. The power of the government to grant recognition to schools flows from Article 19 of this act. Interestingly, unlike in most other states, this provision allows not just trusts and societies, but also “individual” and “individuals” to establish a school if they gave an undertaking that they would not seek financial assistance from the government. Even though this provision is applicable only to secondary schools, it does reflect a more progressive outlook towards mobilizing every possible resource to improve access to education for the children of the state.
Government schools are fully funded and managed by the government. The government runs primary schools (grade 1-5), upper primary (grade 1-8/ 6-8) and secondary schools. Government secondary schools are also called Rajkiyakrit Schools and Rajkiya Schools depending upon whether or not they were taken over by the government from private owners in 1981.6 Private Aided (PA) schools are schools that are partially funded by the government but owned and managed by private bodies. The government of Bihar funds religious schools too. Therefore, among the aided schools are some Madrasas and Sanskrit Vidyalayas (Hindu religious schools). Private Unaided (PUA) schools are schools that do not receive any funding from the government. They manage their financial obligations through fee collection, donation and endowment. PUA schools can be either recognised (by the government) or unrecognised. Generally, a student moving from a private school to a government school would require a transfer certificate (TC) from a recognised school. Unrecognised schools are therefore operating within an extra legal sector outside of the laws and rules that appear on paper.
Since the only legislation addressing the issue of recognition is aimed at secondary schools, almost all private unaided primary and upper primary schools are unrecognised. Based on the findings of our survey, we believe that where a primary or upper primary school is recognised, it is a school with permission to expand up to secondary level. We found only four such schools in the city. Available estimate of unrecognised schools Bihar’s unrecognised schools have been greatly underestimated in existing
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