This year, on 15 August, while all of us were celebrating Independence Day, a father died in Bengal. His name was Sheikh Mohammad Mafik. His only “crime” was that his son had exposed the dilapidated condition of a school in their area.
Who killed Mohammad Mafik? Was he killed only by the goons who had come to attack his son, Abdul Hafiz? Or was he also killed by the system whose failures Abdul Hafiz was trying to expose?
Who was Sheikh Mohammad Mafik? A resident of Bankura district in West Bengal, Sheikh Mafik reportedly worked as a labourer in a bread-making factory. After working for years and saving money, he sent his son and daughter to school and later ensured that they completed their college education as well.
He taught his children something else: to stand up for the truth and raise their voices for their rights. It was with this spirit that Abdul Hafiz joined the Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar. Because of his participation in the protest, he allegedly began receiving threats from BJP-linked people in his area.
When the CJP recently launched its “School Thik Karo Campaign”, Abdul Hafiz went to document the poor condition of a government school in his area. It is alleged that on 13 August, a group of goons surrounded Abdul Hafiz and began beating him. When his father, Mohammad Mafik, came to save him, he too was brutally assaulted. Two days later, he died in hospital. The date was 15 August.
And this is not an isolated case.
In 2019, journalist Pawan Jaiswal used a video to show how children at a government school in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur district were being served only roti and salt as part of their mid-day meal. Instead of apologising to the children, the Yogi government filed a case against Jaiswal, alleging that he had conspired to defame the state government. Although the cases against Jaiswal were eventually dropped, he faced several difficulties in his career. In 2022, he died of cancer.
The stories of Mohammad Mafik and Pawan Jaiswal make one thing clear: for some people, exposing the reality of schools appears to be a greater crime than allowing those schools to fall apart. So what exactly is happening in our schools that governments and those linked to them would rather keep hidden? Here are a few incidents and figures.
Who Killed Our Schools?
July 2025: In Jhalawar, Rajasthan, seven children were killed and 28 injured after a government school building collapsed.
April 2025: In a school in Bihar’s Mokama, more than 100 children fell ill after a dead snake was allegedly found in their mid-day meal. Yes, a snake.
February 2024: In Bihar’s West Champaran, 184 children fell ill. It was alleged that kerosene had contaminated their food.
In August 2026, in Bihar’s Nalanda, detergent was allegedly added to a mid-day meal instead of salt, leaving several children unwell.
And on the same day, in Himachal Pradesh, 30 children fell ill after eating spoiled kheer at a school.
Now, some statistics.
According to the 2024 ASER report, in rural areas, more than 70 percent of children studying in Class 3 were unable to read even a Class 2-level text. And forget Class 3: even among students in Class 5, nearly half could not read a Class 2-level text.
Even by Class 8, around 30 percent of children were still unable to read a Class 2-level text.
The situation in mathematics is even worse. Around 70 percent of Class 3 students were unable to perform basic division and subtraction.
This is not the children’s fault. And to a large extent, it is not the teachers’ fault either. The fault lies with the system.
According to 2024-25 data, more than one lakh schools in India have only one teacher. Just one.
Nearly 50 percent of schools did not have computers for students.
Even in Navodaya Vidyalayas and Kendriya Vidyalayas, which are considered quality schools, more than 11,000 posts were lying vacant until last year.
Several states have also adopted another policy that has made things more difficult for children living in tribal and remote areas. Because of low student enrolment, many schools have either been shut down or merged with other schools.
In 2014-15, India had around 11.07 lakh schools. Ten years later, that number had fallen to 10.13 lakh. In other words, while the population of children is growing, the number of schools is falling.
You can find several in-depth reports on education in our State of Education section on The Quint’s website.
Now, education falls under the jurisdiction of state governments. So it would be wrong to say that only one political party is responsible for the poor condition of schools. But naturally, the party that governs the largest number of states will also face more questions.
And finally, a word of advice for the Cockroach Janta Party as well. The “School Theek Karo” campaign it has launched is an extremely important initiative. But what happened to the father of its supporter, Abdul Hafiz, makes one thing very clear: ministers and officials may still be removed from office, but the situation in this country will not fundamentally change until the politics of violence and hatred is uprooted.
Despite Mohammad Mafik’s killing, his family’s commitment to the country remains intact. His son said that he does not want compensation; he wants a world-class school. And the mother of the late Mohammad Mafik had only two words to say: “Inquilab Zindabad.”