ABSTRACT
Access to education as a ‘societal non-negotiable’ good is a basic premise to ensure social justice. The features of positive externality and irreversibility make education uncompromised. Spending on education by households living in poverty is a far cry in many regions of India, including the state of Bihar. This chapter examines the school education scenario in Bihar as an integral component of social justice. Bihar has developed substantially in terms of some crucial input indicators relating to education. The infrastructure development is also visible in different achievement indicators. However, there are considerable variations observed in terms of different socio-economic indicators. Current attendance dwindled, moving from the primary to secondary levels. The quality of education and financial constraints mainly contributed to the lack of enrollment and non-attendance in schools. The chapter concludes that, though Bihar suffers from a paucity of funds, this may not be an adequate reason to suggest why Bihar lags. Therefore, ‘structural-governance issues’ need to be addressed at the policy level.
