Patna/Vaishali: Inside a vast air-conditioned room, 34 men and women are manning phones that ring non-stop with a litany of complaints — there are no teachers in the school, midday meals are late, students haven’t got their uniforms. Eyes glued to their computer screens, they log everything as they troubleshoot the many ailments of Bihar’s education system. This is not a call centre, but the command-and-control hub of the state education department at the Patna Secretariat — the brainchild of IAS officer Keshav Kumar Pathak.
He is like the TN Seshan of Bihar’s education. His tough, no-nonsense, fearless, and swashbuckling image is reminiscent of the former election commissioner of India. He strikes dread among students, teachers, and school administrators. Like Seshan with the electoral system, Pathak wants to overhaul Bihar’s schools, from teaching quality and attendance to learning outcomes. And the method be damned.
In the seven months since Chief Minister Nitish Kumar appointed Pathak as the additional chief secretary of the education department, the 1990 batch IAS officer has ruffled plenty of feathers with what many call his militant and “undemocratic” approach. He has suspended teachers, deducted their salaries, and even struck children off school rolls for absenteeism.
He has also barred teachers from forming unions, prohibited coaching classes from operating during school hours, cut down the number of religious holidays, done away with the domicile requirement for recruiting teachers in state-run schools, strictly enforced the ban on staff wearing jeans and T-shirts to the secretariat, and extended the timings of schools from 9 am to 5 pm where previously it was 10 am to 4 pm.
The government has so far been focussing on boosting school attendance with a bouquet of incentives. Pathak now wants to convert the enrolment and attendance gains to learning, but with a sting in the tail.
“The government has told parents that if you send your child, we will give them bicycles, uniforms, scholarships, and educate them. But in the process of giving, studies have been left behind. If we don’t teach children, there is no one at home to teach them,” said Pathak, while addressing a group of newly appointed teachers in December 2023.
Pathak may be Bihar Chief Minister’s favourite bureaucrat, but his methods, which rely on repercussions rather than rewards, have put him in the crosshairs of his own education minister Chandra Shekhar who even complained to Nitish about his style of functioning and the free hand that he enjoys.
Others, however, view Pathak as a much-needed transformative force.
He is fearless and does not care that the government might remove him. He is a fighter. And now the people of the state also feel that something is really happening, but he should avoid choosing controversial topics
-Vijai Shankar Dubey, former chief secretary
“We are working towards decentralising the education system,” said Pathak’s officer on special duty Ravi Shankar. And the command-and-control cell is the nerve centre. It works like a grievance redressal cell, getting as many as 250 calls a day.
“Where are you calling from? Which school is it? Since when has the teacher not been coming?” an employee at the cell asks through his headphones.
The complaint is from a resident of a remote village in Purnia district. The teacher’s truancy is now logged in the system, the district officials will be notified and action will be taken against him. It will happen within two days, the employee assures the irate caller before moving on to the next call.
“Education in Bihar is in a dormant state. It needs to be shaken up and Pathak is doing just that,” said Tripurari Sharan, former chief secretary of the state.
Bihar’s flagging education system is a boulder to the government’s Sisyphus. In 2007, Nitish Kumar’s incentive of free bicycles to girls was hailed as the magic bullet, and has been adopted in six African countries. Cut to 2023, and Bihar’s primary and upper primary school attendance at under 60 per cent is still far below the national average of around 72 per cent.
Pathak’s entry signifies the end of the carrot approach and the start of the ‘Inspection Raj’. The IAS officer who wanted to bulldoze Nitish Kumar’s ancestral property back in the 1990s for violations could well be the person to turn Bihar’s schools around.
Also Read: Maharashtra’s cluster schools have computers, more teachers. 10,500 schools will be merged
Spare the rod, spoil the school?
Pathak is unlikely to win any popularity awards, and isn’t seeking any either. He hasn’t given a single interview since his appointment as additional chief secretary to the education department. And while many IAS officers are becoming social media celebrities, Pathak is old school. He avoids Instagram, steers clear of Twitter, and shuns Facebook. But his harsh methods have made him a social media sensation in Bihar anyway.
During Pathak’s school inspections, residents and journalists record videos of him scolding educators. The clips frequently go viral, often featuring him wearing sunglasses and his ID card around his neck, accompanied by captions like “Pathak ne school ke principal ki laga di class” (Pathak schools the principal) and “Shikshak ki bhasha sun bhadak gaye KK Pathak” (KK Pathak loses his temper after listening to teacher).
In a widely shared Instagram reel, five well-dressed children are seen going to school, with the caption “KK Pathak ke khauf se school jana pad raha hai (They are going to school for fear of KK Pathak)”. Another video features a woman teacher praising Pathak’s smile, prompting him to burst into laughter. But many smiles have also faltered.
The IAS officer and his team have identified 14,248 teachers who took unscheduled leave for anywhere between a few days to up to six months, and deducted the salaries of 14,242. Even students are not spared. As part of a drive to increase enrolment, he has struck off the names of 23.83 lakh students from the rolls for absenteeism. These included 2.66 lakh students who were scheduled to give either the class X and XII board exams. In a notification on 2 September 2023, he ordered district magistrates to expel students who remained absent for 15 days at a stretch. Daily attendance is sent by the schools to the district education officer.
Teachers, who are now looking at longer work hours, call him undemocratic, while some leaders in the Janata Dal United (JDU) alliance write him off as publicity hound.
I found Pathak sir to be contrary to the tough image. He asked me about the problems of the school and while leaving, he gave me permission to spend the Student Development Fund
– Krishna Kant, principal of Senduari High School
Not everyone is convinced that Bihar’s education system can be resuscitated through force and fear. Not when the state has long suffered a dearth of qualified teachers. In the last six months, over 2 lakh teachers have been hired, but over a lakh are undergoing re-verification due to cases of “imposters” taking positions in schools. In addition, over 150 new recruits have already quit, reportedly citing worsening working conditions. Pathak’s shock-and-awe tactics may shake things up temporarily but it is not the way to bring lasting systemic reforms, many say.
“KK Pathak is just doing patchwork,” said DM Diwakar, former director of Patna’s AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, emphasising that the state needs to consider diverse populations and regions. “Pathak does not have institutional backup.”
Even leaders of the grand alliance government are raising questions about Pathak’s style of functioning. “Privatisation is being promoted in government schools. The order not to form a union of teachers violates Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression) of the Constitution,” said Sandeep Saurav, an MLA from the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist).
On 19 December, a delegation of 25 members of the Bihar Legislative Council met Governor Rajendra Arlekar to complain about Pathak. Thereafter, the governor’s principal secretary shot off a letter to the state chief secretary. “They (MLCs) perceive the orders to be unconstitutional, autocratical as well as a violation of the privileges granted to them under Article 194 of the Constitution of India,” the letter read, although it did not name Pathak.
Then, on 27 December, a delegation of MLCs from the JDU and alliance parties met with Nitish Kumar to complain. “We all met the CM to change the school timings to 10 to 4 pm as before and he accepted our demand,” said JDU MLC Virendra Narayan Yadav. But so far, no official order has come through.
Even Pathak’s supporters within the JDU acknowledge his heavy-handedness. “There is no doubt that KK Pathak is working hard to improve the education system and he is not a person who works sitting in a room. But decisions should be taken through discussion,” Yadav added.
From prohibition to education
Pathak’s refusal to rely on tact or feed egos has resulted in quite a few transfers over his 33 years as a civil servant. He has not exactly matched the infamous transfer record of Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka. But Pathak has weathered a few.
Born in 1968 in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, Keshav Kumar Pathak followed the family tradition when he became an IAS officer. His father, GS Pathak, was a senior bureaucrat in Bihar, serving as the principal secretary of the Minor Water Resources Department. The younger Pathak became famous in the mid-1990s when, as SDO of Barh, he ordered the razing of Nitish Kumar’s ancestral house in Bakhtiyarpur because it was on the national highway. However, then chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav intervened and transferred Pathak before the demolition could happen.
He once again found himself at odds with the government when he was DM of Gopalganj in 2005. This time, he managed to upset Lalu’s wife, Rabri Devi. She was scheduled to inaugurate the children’s ward of a local hospital. But the dates were not fixed, and Pathak got the ward inaugurated by a hospital sanitation worker. In 2016, Pathak sent a legal notice to former Deputy CM Sushil Modi, alleging that the latter made derogatory remarks against him on the issue of prohibition and used words like nirankus (autocrat) and sanki (freak).
KK Pathak is one of the officers who makes quick decisions. He drafted the Act regarding the liquor ban. He doesn’t waste time
-Krishna Paswan, joint commissioner , Bihar excise department
But even as he rubbed the political establishment the wrong way, Pathak stacked up a reputation as a doer. When Nitish Kumar banned liquor in 2016, he appointed Pathak as principal secretary of Prohibition, Excise & Registration Department, entrusting him with the responsibility of making Bihar a dry state. In one year, Pathak detained lakhs of people.
“He got his officers armed with 9 mm pistols as protection against the liquor mafia,” said Krishna Paswan, joint commissioner at the Prohibition, Excise & Registration Department, who worked closely with Pathak. “KK Pathak is one of the officers who makes quick decisions. He drafted the Act regarding the liquor ban. He doesn’t waste time.”
But the arrests and detentions were threatening to upset the political apple cart, and Pathak was given a central deputation in 2017. He returned as principal secretary of the Excise Department in 2021. Now, he is exactly where the chief minister wants him to be.
“Whatever KK Pathak is doing, he has the full support of Nitish Kumar,” said a senior IAS officer who did not want to be named. According to RJD MLC Sunil Kumar Singh, the chief minister uses bureaucrats like Pathak to “tame” political leaders of other parties, and control ministers.
The chief minister has not reined Pathak back—yet. “He is doing a good job but some people speak out against him,” said Nitish Kumar in November while distributing appointment letters to teachers in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan.
Anjani Kumar Singh, who was Pathak’s boss and former chief secretary of Bihar considers him the best person for the job, despite his abrasive side.
“Even in the IAS lobby, there are different opinions about him, but Pathak is an officer who sticks to his stand. This is the reason why he is not able to stay in one department for a long time. His nature is a little impatient,” he said.
Inspection Raj
The teachers at Rajauli Primary School in Hajipur near Patna have first-hand experience of Pathak’s impatient side. After a surprise inspection in August, he ordered that their salaries be withheld for a month. “The toilet in our school was closed when sir came. He scolded us a lot,” said one of the teachers.
But the incident seems to have been a turning point for the better. Since the inspection, the school has been functioning at full capacity. On a foggy December morning, as many as four schools in Hajipur reported full attendance—something unheard of until a few months ago. It’s the fear of Pathak and his inspections, admit several principals. Whenever any vehicle enters the school, teachers think it’s the IAS officer on the prowl.
Krishna Kant, the principal of Senduari High School in Hajipur recalled a day in August when Pathak along with other officials reached his school around ten in the morning.
“I was shocked when vehicles entered the school ground one after another, and KK Pathak suddenly came into my room,” he said. But his conversation with the top bureaucrat was an eye-opener.
“I found Pathak sir to be contrary to the tough image. He asked me about the problems of the school and while leaving, he gave me permission to spend the Student Development Fund,” Kant said. A few days later, the school got ten computers.
In other schools too, Pathak has given permission to principals to spend up to Rs 5 lakh from this fund on improving infrastructure as they see fit.
However, a visit to another school in Senduari took an unfortunate turn. Pathak reportedly lost his temper when he saw sports equipment scattered on the floor. He railed at the teacher in charge, fat shamed him, and called him an idiot.
Over the last seven months, Pathak has left his mark on hundreds of schools across Bihar, from Vaishali, Sheohar, and Khagaria to Banka, Sitamarhi, and Bhagalpur. His surprise visits never fail to grab local headlines— “Naye saal mein bhi KK Pathak ka chalega danda” (Pathak’s crackdown to continue in the new year), “KK Pathak ka dikha kadak andaaz” (Pathak shows his harsh side), and “Coaching me padhane vale shikshako ki ab khair nahi” (Teachers moonlighting in coaching centres are not safe now) are just a few recent examples.
“Children of labourers come to study in schools. It is our responsibility to ensure that they do not become labourers. If this happens then we will be responsible for it,” he said while addressing teachers at a school in the last week of December.
Ravi Shankar, Pathak’s OSD, told ThePrint that one of Pathak’s first priorities was reviving the defunct inspection system. For decades, no one monitored the schools, he said, but now there’s a system where each school is inspected by the local district education officer every two days.
Pathak’s name evokes fear in Bihar, but it’s also associated with hope. For helpless but aspirational parents, Pathak may just be the answer to a failing education system.
Saryu Singh, a labourer from Hajipur, said he is pleased with the changes he is witnessing in the government school where his son Rakesh studies in the sixth standard.
“How can we send our children to private schools? We have hope from government schools only, but education does not take place there either. But now there is a change. Hopefully my child will also study,” he said. Rakesh, 11, added that he is more regular than he used to be at school. “Earlier we used to come occasionally, but in the last few months the strictness has increased and studies are also done, so now we come every day,” he said.
Even Pathak’s supporters now say his approach may yield diminishing returns, and the rumblings are growing in Bihar’s corridors of power. The one word of advice his friends have for Pathak is ‘caution’.
Rushing towards reforms
The cracks in Bihar’s education system run deep. When Lalu Prasad Yadav first became CM in 1990, permanent teachers were recruited for the last time in three decades. In 2003-04, teachers were recruited at the panchayat and municipal level, causing concerns about quality.
“This was the time when private schools started mushrooming in the state and now have spread to every village,” said DM Diwakar, adding that contractual recruitments “destroyed” the state’s school system, resulting in low educational attainment levels.
Many students currently rely on private coaching institutes to keep up with studies. According to government data, the state has 12,761 coaching institutes with over 9.9 lakh students enrolled across 38 districts.
Pathak is trying to change all of this. Under his leadership in the last few months, more than 2 lakh new teachers were recruited through the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exams. On 2 January, he issued an order asking for a list of teachers who are teaching in private coaching institutes from all district education officers, presumably to take action against them.
If teachers cannot stay in the village, then they should not waste their time. You have proved your intelligence by passing the exam, now prove your fidelity
-KK Pathak in a speech to new teachers in Muzaffarpur
“The education system in Bihar collapsed long ago. But it is good that someone is now trying to improve it. Pathak is a dynamic officer and a man of integrity,” said DN Gautam, former DGP of Bihar, who met Pathak when he was a junior officer.
Pathak is now taking on one of Bihar’s bigger challenges—lack of infrastructure in schools. He wants to use prefabricated structures for classrooms, build more libraries, and improve computer literacy.
No matter where he is, or how busy his schedule is, Pathak holds two video conference sessions every day with district education officers to discuss attendance, infrastructure, vacant posts, and other problems.
But Bihar’s education problems cannot be solved by the sheer force of will. The Government Middle School of Sabalpur, around 16 kilometres from Patna, encapsulates all that is wrong with the state’s education system, from lack of infrastructure to dearth of teachers. It was also not ready for one of Pathak’s reforms.
With only four rooms for 1,212 students from standards 1-12, classes were staggered in shifts, but Pathak’s decision to change school timings resulted in chaos when all the children showed up at the same time.
“So many children came on the first day. Only after asking the district education officer, permission was given to run the school in three different shifts as before,” said Deepak Kumar, who teaches in this school.
Teachers too are unhappy with KK Pathak’s orders including a ban on forming unions and media interaction.
Amit Vikram, state president of Bihar State School Teachers’ Union, is among the 500 teachers in Bihar who were suspended with salary cuts after participating in protest against the new recruitment policy in July. The teacher who is still under suspension warns that discontent is brewing “on the ground”.
According to him, lack of infrastructure is the biggest problem, but Pathak is targeting teachers instead. He alleges that 5,400 schools do not even have their own buildings and that RTE rules are not implemented properly in most schools.
“But the education department, especially Pathak, has formed a perception about teachers and action is being taken on that basis. It is necessary to reform the education system but an undemocratic approach will take them back from the goal. There may also be political complications,” he said.
Also Read: Odisha is becoming an IAS state. Patnaik-Pandian combo is changing grammar of governance
Corridors of power
Pathak’s methods may have shaken the education system out of slumber, but now the early gains are being eclipsed by widespread criticism of his abrasive manner of working. Even his supporters now say his approach may yield diminishing returns, and the rumblings are growing in Bihar’s corridors of power. The one word of advice his friends have for Pathak is ‘caution’.
At least two videos of Pathak verbally abusing junior officers have surfaced, with many calling for his dismissal. The latest controversy arose this week when Dr Ajay Kumar, a prominent doctor in Patna and a former Indian Medical Association president, alleged that Pathak called him in December and unleashed a barrage of insults. A purported audio clip of the incident is now circulating widely and Kumar has said he will pursue legal action against Pathak. The IAS officer’s anger reportedly stemmed from the doctor describing him as “mentally abnormal” and “crazy” in a September interview.
Vijai Shankar Dubey, former chief secretary of Bihar, commends the IAS officer’s “fearlessness” but suggests that it be tempered with diplomacy.
“He is fearless and does not care that the government might remove him. He is a fighter. And now the people of the state also feel that something is really happening, but he should avoid choosing controversial topics. The administration is there to serve the people and not to preach. Everyone should be taken along,” said Dubey, who met Pathak a few times while the latter was posted as an SDO.
The Bihar Administrative Services Association (BASA) too has been demanding his dismissal.
“He does not have much to do with rules and regulations. He considers himself above the law. He is a man of unsound mind,” said Sunil Kumar, general secretary of BASA.
But Pathak rarely responds to these allegations. For now, he’s busy filling vacant posts. Most of the newly appointed teachers are being given postings in village schools. “If teachers cannot stay in the village, then they should not waste their time. You have proved your intelligence by passing the exam, now prove your fidelity,” Pathak said while addressing newly qualified teachers at Rambagh Teacher Training College, Muzaffarpur. On 13 January CM Nitish Kumar will distribute joining letters to 25,000 freshly appointed teachers in Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan.
Meanwhile, in a nondescript primary school in Banka district’s Mahuadih village, teacher Savita Kumari wearily watches a handful of students play in the compound. With her co-teacher on maternity leave, she shoulders the entire responsibility for educating students in standards 1-5.
Some of Pathak’s sweeping changes have reached her school. These don’t involve additional staff or infrastructure, but cumbersome new reporting duties and a daily trek to the district education office.
“It is a very difficult task to handle everything alone,” she said. “Every day I travel several kilometres to the office of the district education officer to give the details of the whole day.”