‘Real beginning of migration’: Modi on past education collapse in Bihar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the Kaushal Deekshant Samaroh at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital on October 4, claimed that schools in Bihar were not opened and no recruitments took place under the Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) regime. He described Bihar’s education system as “devastated,” arguing that this neglect forced children to migrate to other states. While this captures part of the truth, the state did face serious governance gaps in earlier years, the reality today is more mixed than the rhetoric suggests. Official Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) data and the recent central UDISE report show a clear rise in recorded schools and teachers and wider use of student-level administrative data since 2022–23, indicating improved enrolment and staffing on paper.

However, increased access has not automatically translated into strong learning. Independent surveys such as Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 record modest gains in basic reading and arithmetic across many districts but also underline that large learning deficits persist, and many children attend school without mastering grade-level skills. These findings point to progress that is real but incomplete, with learning quality lagging behind increased attendance.

Integrity and credibility remain serious concerns. High-profile scandals, from the 2016 intermediate “toppers” examination fraud to later cases where recruitments involved forged documents, demonstrate that corruption and irregular hiring have repeatedly undermined trust in the system. Such episodes show that recruitment and governance problems have been intermittent but consequential obstacles to delivering reliable education services.

On the policy front, the current government has made sizable, visible commitments: on October 4 the Centre launched Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs (PM-SETU) and a new skill university, and Bihar has expanded the Bihar Student Credit Card (BSCC) scheme and announced interest-free loans and large recruitment drives. These are concrete steps that could reduce outward migration if they are implemented transparently and reach the students and employers they intend to serve.

In short, Bihar’s education story is not a simple before/after. Administrative expansion and bold skilling and financing announcements mark real change, and while some of these initiatives come ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, they do show that at least something is changing on the ground. Persistent shortfalls in classroom learning, school infrastructure, and the legacy of exam- and recruitment-fraud remain challenges, meaning the state’s long-term success, and any sustained reduction in migration, will depend on hard improvements in teaching quality, credible recruitment, and robust implementation.