Over 98% educational blocks in Bihar are backward: Education Ministry

NEW DELHI: More than 98 percent of educational blocks in Bihar are educationally backward, the education ministry said, in reply to a question in Parliament on Monday.

According to the ministry data, 530 out of the 537 educational blocks in Bihar are termed as “educationally backward blocks”. No other state has more than 80 percent educational blocks labelled “backward”.

Jharkhand (76.5%) and Uttar Pradesh (71.17%) follow Bihar as the states with the highest percentage of educationally backward blocks. Uttar Pradesh also has the highest number of educationally backward blocks with 679 such blocks out of the total 954 educational blocks.

The education ministry’s data also revealed that 11 states had more than 50 percent of educational blocks that are backward. These include states like Telangana (66.67%), Madhya Pradesh (63.01%). Assam (55.10%), Odisha (54.75%), Jammu and Kashmir (51.81%), Andhra Pradesh (50.90%) and Chhattisgarh (50.68%).

Kerala and Mizoram had the lowest number of educationally backward blocks with one each. Himachal Pradesh and Punjab are the only other states with percentage of educationally backward blocks amounting to less than 10 percent of the total educational blocks.

Educationally backward blocks were identified as part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which has since been merged into the Samagra Shikshsa Abhiyan. The identification is done on a twin criteria. Educational blocks that have a female literacy rate lower than the national average and a gender gap in literacy lower than the national average are identified as educationally backward.