Bihar fertility rate reduced by boosting education among girls, says Nitish Kumar

Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said that education of girls has a direct bearing on fertility rate in Bihar, where it has gone down to 3.2 from 3.9 earlier. Kumar, who was speaking at Teachers Day function in Patna, said it has been found in studies in the country that if the wife is a matriculate than the fertility rate will be two and this has been the situation in Bihar. [caption id=“attachment_3859437” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Nitish Kumar. PTI[/caption] If the wife has passed the intermediate examination the fertility rate is 1.7 but it was 1.6 in Bihar. “On the basis of this, we thought that we have found the solution to control population. If all the girls in the state study up to class 12 we can achieve the national average in terms of fertility rate or do even better than it…. As a result, we decided to open a plus two school in every village.” He said senior secondary schools were opened in more than 5,000 village panchayats and in the rest too it would come up soon. In order to boost girls education, the state government has launched several schemes like bicycle programme, free uniform as well school bag and shoes. Kumar said his government is giving topmost priority to education for which more than 20 percent of the state budget is earmarked. As part of the sustained efforts to increase literacy among girls, their enrollment in Class IX is now almost equal to that of boys in Bihar. “Earlier the number of girls studying in Class IX was only 1.7 lakh and now it has reached nine lakh. The enrolment of girls in class nine is almost equal to that of the boys,” he said at the function, where he awarded meritorious teachers. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said that the state government spends Rs 14,434 crore every year as salary to teachers. Out of this, Rs 2,925 crore is spent on salaries for college teachers, Rs 4,852 crore for primary school teachers, Rs 1,997 crore for middle school teachers and Rs 4,600 crores for fixed pay teachers. “When the government spends this much it becomes duty of teachers to become role models for students to inspire them for studies,” Sushil Modi, who is also the Bihar finance minister, said. Three new universities are coming up from the next session in the state. Patliputra University would be carved out of Magadh University, Purnea University from B N Mandal University and Munger university out of Tilkamanjhi Bhagalpur university, he said. In view of the shortage of teachers in science and English in 1000 secondary schools, virtual classes would be run in them, he said.