By Sami Ahmad, TwoCircles.net
Rumi Khatoon is an aspiring graduate but the online selection system for admission in the colleges is keeping her running and anxious. She wants admission at the nearest college but she is being allotted a college 60 kilometres away from her house.
She had applied for getting admission in B.A. to the nearest college called Shri Mahanth Satanand Giri at Sherghati. She has a Bihar government scholarship as she got first division in her matriculation examination.
Rumi lives at Mohiuddin Chak or Modinchak in Gurua community development block of Sherghati Sub-division. It is 60 kilometres away from district headquarter Gaya which is 100 kilometres south of Bihar’s capital Patna.
Rumi’s father Jamal Uddin Ansari is a farmworker. Her brother Mohammad Mujahid is a jobless graduate and physically challenged. She has three non-matriculate sisters. Her mother is not even literate.
When TwoCircles.net reached his house he was busy cutting paddy crops of shared farming. He came back to talk. He says that it is difficult to spend money to send Rumi to even the nearest college. “How can we send her to Gaya then? It would not be possible to travel 120 kilometres to attend college and return regularly. We don’t have money to spend to get her a lodge at Gaya.”
Rumi is just one of those thousands of students in Bihar who are struggling to get admission in their nearest college of their choice while seats are vacant there. Four lists of students have been released but such students are still struggling.
Sherghat subdivision has a population of 27 lakhs and there is just one constituent government college for a stretch of around 100 kilometres. It has the Assembly constituency of Imamganj represented by the former chief minister of Bihar Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Sabreen Khatoon is the only daughter of Mohammad Firoz Ansari who is a farm labourer. He used to stitch clothes in New Delhi but had to come back to look after his family.
She has two brothers who could not complete their Intermediate of Arts (I.A. or +2) education. She wants to study history but she has the same problem of not getting a chance to get admission at the nearest college.
There is a government minority girls’ hostel at Gaya but she does not want to live there as she is needed at her home. Her father says that either her daughter gets admission at Sherghati or her dream to be the first female graduate in her family would remain unfulfilled.
Amna Khatoon is also worried if she could pursue her higher study or not. Her father Mohammad Ikaramuddin Ansari is a farmworker. She wants to study Geography but she is clueless what she would do if she is not provided admission at Sherghati college. She would be the second sister to get admission in B.A.
Modinchak is a remote village with a very old Madrasa which is in a very bad condition but that has shaped the elementary education there. It is a village of around 50 Muslim families out of 70 households. The non-Muslim population is comprised of the Dalits namely Thakurs (Barbers), Paswan and Rajaks (Dhobis).
Gulafshan is yet another struggling aspirant to study for her B.A. degree. Her father Shamim Ansari is a small-time tailor. She would be the first graduate of her family if she completes her studies. But she too is facing the same issue about admission.
Mohammad Ghyas Sarwar is a local social worker. He says that there must have been some design to harass the students to help the non-government college’s management. He alleges that many students with a good percentage of marks are being deprived of admission. He is also peeved that the Urdu seats are being regularly reduced. In Sherghati College it has come down to 44 from 180 at its top.
The story of Sogra Naz is also the same. She lives in Patluka, a remote village in Barachatti village, some 20 kilometres away from the Sherghati College. Her father Mohammad Ikram Hussain runs a barbershop. She too wants admission at Sherghati College but the system is allotting her a college in Gaya, some 60 kilometres away from the village.
Dr Madan Mohan Sharma is the admission in charge at this college. He says that the college administration is helpless to do anything for such students. “The admission process should be based on locality preference too. One student had to come from Arrah to take admission. We have conveyed this problem to Magadh University authorities but there has still been no solution,” says a peeved Dr Sharma.
Dr Shamsul Islam says that this system was developed to avoid fraud in taking admission. He adds, “The problem of local students, particularly the girls of the local population should be taken after by the Principal of the concerned college. They can do this in the spot round.”
Sami Ahmad is a journalist based in Patna, Bihar.