PATNA, May 31 -- Buoyed by growing popularity of its initiative to recognise the best teacher, the education department in Bihar has proposed to embark on the project to identify the best school in each block and offer them a cash award of Rs.1 lakh for betterment of teaching infrastructure. Additional chief secretary (ACS), education, S Siddharth said that the scheme would be unveiled in the next few weeks as modalities for selection of the best schools and the kind of incentives doled out to the outstanding institutions are being prepared. "The scheme to award the best schools is likely to be launched once the schools are open after the summer vacation, next month," said the ACS, adding that one school from each block would be selected as the best for the cash incentive. A senior officer of the department said that the idea behind launching the scheme is to develop competitiveness among the schools. "We have the most qualified teachers, good infrastructure to support quality schooling, smart classes, campuses and facilities for games. Students from the government schools, if empowered, can compete with their counterparts in any of the educational institutions, public or private, in the country," the officer remarked. Over the last couple of years, the state government has been spending heavily to raise infrastructure in schools, ensure quality food, ensure punctuality among teachers and arrange upgraded smart classes, library and laboratory. This year, the department has also proposed a capital expenditure of around Rs.4,000 crore with a focus on bettering educational infrastructure. There are more than 72,600 government-rum primary and middle schools in the state, apart from 9,361 secondary and higher secondary schools. "Student-teacher ratio has improved considerably after appointment of the third batch of Teachers' Recruitment Examination (TRE-3) qualified aspirants. "We are close to the national average of pupil-teacher ratio of 24:1," said the officer. Best teachers to get cash incentives After launching the scheme to issue the letter of appreciation as 'teacher of the month', the department is now mulling the provision to offer additional incentive to the outstanding teachers at the block level. "The department cannot offer cash awards directly to the teachers owing to limitations of the financial rules. We are looking into the ways to incentivise the 'teachers of the month' award, which is now becoming quite popular among the teachers," said Siddhart. Another senior officer of the department said that the directorate of primary and secondary education are mulling options like offering attractive projects to the best teachers, arranging exposure trips to them to other states, etc. "Since the scheme would entail huge expenditure, it might require a nod from the higher authorities," he said, adding that the modalities to incentivise the 'appreciation letters' would be decided in the next few weeks....