Do you know what a bora (gunny sack) is? In many government schools in Bihar, it’s still a classroom essential. Children bring their own sack from home, spread it on the floor to attend classes.
Recently, an appeal of a fifth grader from Bihar, Minakshi Kumari, went viral. In the appeal, she is asking the government to build a school for them since they study under the shade of a tree.
When Minakshi’s video went viral, politicians rushed to the village, actors made phone calls, government officials showed up, and in a familiar pattern, the “school” under a tree was hastily merged with a nearby one.
This isn’t just about one child, or one village. Bihar’s education system has been in freefall for decades, and the numbers are staggering.
183 government schools in the state have no building of their own. Classes are held under trees or in open fields. (RTI data: Education Department, Bihar)
2,637 schools have just one teacher each. These schools have a total student strength of 2.91 lakh children.
20,503 schools function without electricity.
69% of schools lack medical facilities.
Nearly 82% don’t have a functional computer facility or internet access.
A recent report submitted by the Bihar government to the Union Education Ministry (April 2025) lays bare the scale of neglect:
2,08,784 teaching positions are vacant in primary schools.
36,035 are vacant at the secondary level.
33,035 at the senior secondary level.
In Sitamarhi’s Rampatti village, a government school has been running for 15 years without a building. Classes are held in a community hall. Similar incidents have marked different areas of Gaya, Lalganj among others.
These are not isolated cases. They are all across the system of education in Bihar.
There’s more numbers to look at:
37,590 schools in Bihar don’t have a library. Only 1.29% have a digital library.
6,376 schools don’t have drinking water.
7,400 schools don’t have functional toilets for girls; 9,500 lack them for boys.
Out of 94,000 schools, 52,000 don’t have a playground.
For nearly two decades, barring nine months, Nitish Kumar has been the Chief Minister of Bihar. For 17 of those years, JD(U) has governed alongside the BJP.
And yet, in 2025, children like Minakshi are still sitting on sacks under the open sky. Forget smart classrooms. They don’t even have a classroom.
The Bihar government allocated 21.7% of its 2025–26 budget to education. The question isn’t how much is being spent, but where it is going.
Will the government only take accountability when the struggles go viral? In this episode of Janab Aise Kaise, we delve into the state of education in Bihar and the systemic lack that has led to inadequate education facilities in the state.