Universities for Optics, Schools for Silence: The Broken Arithmetic of Bihar’s Education Politics

On 4 October 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for academic and research facilities worth ₹160 crore in four universities of Bihar — Patna University, BNMU Madhepura, JPU Chhapra, and Nalanda Open University. The announcement, made under the PM-USHA scheme, was framed as a leap forward in implementing the National Education Policy 2020. Laboratories, hostels, and multidisciplinary centres were promised for over 27,000 students. But beneath the ceremonial optics lies a deeper question: who will repair the broken school walls?

Since 2014, Bihar’s literacy rate has climbed from 61.35% to 74.3% in 2025. Yet this aggregate hides a brutal truth — districts like Purnia, Katihar, Madhepura, and Sitamarhi still hover around 52–55%, and female literacy statewide remains stuck at 51.5%. In Darbhanga, Bhagalpur, and Saharsa — the very regions invoked in the PM’s speech — girls still walk miles to reach schools without toilets, electricity, or teachers. Between 2014 and 2025, Bihar added just 3,829 government schools, rising from 74,291 to 78,120. Meanwhile, private schools surged by 179%, revealing a silent privatisation of basic education.

The Prime Minister’s ₹160 crore university push comes in the wake of years of allegations against Bihar BJP leaders — many of whom reportedly lack basic educational grounding. Some flaunt honorary doctorates and D.Litt degrees from obscure American institutions operating in Bihar’s shadow zones. The sudden investment in higher education feels less like reform and more like compensation. If universities existed, was it the absence of funding that kept them hollow? Or was it the absence of political will?

In October 2025, just months after the Lok Sabha elections, the Prime Minister announced ₹62,000 crore in youth-focused schemes. These included PM-SETU (₹60,000 crore to upgrade 1,000 ITIs), 1,200 vocational labs, and ₹7,880 crore in interest-free loans for 3.92 lakh students under the Bihar Student Credit Card. Scholarships worth ₹450 crore were promised for 25 lakh students in Classes 9 and 10. But while higher education gets a facelift, primary and secondary schools remain in ruins. Over 46,000 schools lack playgrounds, 31,000 lack libraries, and 70,000 lack computers. In 2025, 2,760 schools still operate without electricity, and 1,045 without drinking water. The dropout rate in secondary schools is 14.1%, and retention beyond Class 10 is below 50% in many districts.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha manifesto, PM Modi promised new IITs, IIMs, and AIIMS, a 100% Gross Enrollment Ratio, and digital expansion via PM e-Vidya and SWAYAM. But there was no mention of extending the Right to Education Act to Class 12. No roadmap for repairing broken classrooms. No audit of how many schools merged, closed, or were left to rot. The promises were rhetorical, not structural.

Election season in India is the grandest festival. ₹10,000 in every woman’s account, new universities in every district, smart schools in every block — these flood the airwaves. But when the dust settles, the paper trails lead to nowhere. Democracy in India is not just governed by numbers — it is consumed by them. Electoral arithmetic decides policy priority, and infrastructure becomes a campaign prop.

So the question remains: is Bihar being educated or being electioneered?

When ₹62,000 crore is announced just before polls, and when universities are built while primary schools collapse, it’s not reform — it’s choreography. Bihar’s children don’t need more manifestos. They need electricity, toilets, libraries, and teachers. They need a government that walks into a village school — not just onto a stage.

The foundation stone is not the beginning — it is a reminder. A reminder that real reform begins not with ribbon-cutting, but with accountability. Not with ₹160 crore announcements, but with ₹160 questions asked in every village school.