Education Most Important, Not Religion or Caste: Bihar Students

The general feeling was that neither religion nor caste but education needs to be discussed.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj and Vishal Kumar

The state of Bihar will be voting in all seven phases of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But what are the issues that will be on the top of their minds when the people of the state go to cast their votes? The Quint reached Darbhanga, the heart of 'Mithila', to speak to students and professors of a law college ahead of the polls.

The principal of the college complained that there was a shortage of teachers in several colleges in Bihar, adding that in that very college, there were 12 teachers for 836 students.

Manoj Kumar Yadav, an LLB student of the college, pointed out that no party manifesto speaks about the main education system, even though education is important for the development of Bihar.

Shalini Kumari, another student of the law college, also reiterated this point, saying that education should be an election issue.

The general feeling was that neither religion nor caste but education needs to be discussed.

Students complained that there is no development grant given for college infrastructure and that whatever money comes from the government only covers the salaries of faculty and staff.

Arvind, a student told The Quint that the government needed to focus on education rather than religious issues, adding that people wanted a different government to be formed.

On unemployment, students said they felt it is a very important issue in the state. Satyam, a student, said that the state of employment would have been better if campus placements were there.

One student said that they hoped that Nitish Kumar would continue working for the education sector the way he had.