65 per cent gram panchayats in Bihar have no secondary schools

In an indication of shortage of academic infrastructure in Bihar, about two-third of all gram panchayats did not have secondary schools, a minister admitted today.
Out of 8463 gram panchayats, 5500 of them did not have secondary schools, the Education Minister P.K. Shahi said in the assembly in reply to a starred question by the BJP MLA Ramnaresh Prasad Yadav.
He said that the state government has proposed to set up 1000 secondry schools from 2013-14 onwards to meet the target of one secondary schools in each gram panchayat of the state.
The state government has also undertaken work for upgradation of middle schools into secondary ones to ensure that the students did not have to walk over a distance for studies, the minister said.

Shahi criticised the central government for not providing its share for construction of basic educational infrastructure under the National Secondary Education programme under a secondary school has to be constructed within a radius of five kms.