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Bihar, Bengal put record no. of kids back in school - Out-Of-School Kids Down From 76L To 45L

Bihar and West Bengal, always the subject of ridicule among policy planners, have created a record of sorts by contributing the maximum in bringing down the national figure of out-ofschool children in the agegroup of 6-14 from 75.97 lakh in March last year to 45.05 lakh in March this year.
What lends further credence to the efforts of these states is that the maximum number of children who have started going back to school are Muslims, SCs and STs.
Take Bihar. The state has paid an immense tribute to the late Madan Mohan Jha, jokingly called a part-time bureaucrat and full-fledged educationist, who died as principal secretary, education, last year and made tireless efforts to drag Bihar from the bottom of the educational heap.
His state has done the unthinkable by bringing down the out-of-school children in the age group of 6-14 to 10.10 lakh this year from a mammoth 21.19 lakh last year.
In March 2008, the Muslim child population in Bihar in the age group 6-14 was 33.06 lakh.
Out of them, only 2.83 lakh were out of school.

By Riti, Section Educations In Bihar
Posted on Thu Jun 05, 2008 at 12:38:53 AM EST

Compare it to March 2007 when the number of out-ofschool Muslim children stood at 4.24 lakh. Now only 8.6% of Muslim children (6-14) are out of school in the state.
A similar feat has been achieved in the case of SC children. Now only 2.71 lakh SC children are out of school.
In March 2007, 4.99 lakh SC children had not been to school. The population of SC children in Bihar stands at 38.10 lakh.
After Jharkhand was carved out, Bihar does not have much of an ST population. Still, the magic continues. Out of the 2.41 lakh ST children in the age group of 6-14, now only 25,901 are out of school. In March 2007, more than 45,000 ST children were out of the education system. All this shows how the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has now become firmly entrenched.
The HRD ministry attributes Bihar's success to a team of dedicated officials who have gone out of the way to improvise education so that it becomes inclusive for all social groups.
West Bengal is on the same pedastal as Bihar. Often chided for its poor record among minorities, the number of outof-school children in the state is now 1.13 lakh, a remarkable decrease from last year's 3.67 lakh. Now only 2.5% of Muslim children population of 45.27 lakh is out of school.
Among SCs, the out-ofschool children now is 1.05 lakh, a sharp decrease from 3.25 lakh last year. Now only 2.8% of SC children population of 37.70 lakh is out of school. The state has also done remarkably well in getting ST children to school. From 92,225 out-of-school ST children last year, only 30,331 remain to get in now.

SOURCE:The Times Of India.
In the case of Muslim children, states like Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have not done well since the number of outof-school children has increased. Performing states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have also not been able to maintain their overall good performance when it comes to Muslim children.
OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN
BIHAR
Muslim child population (6-14) | 33.06 lakh March 2007 | 4.24 lakh March 2008 | 2.83 lakh
No of SC children | 38.10 lakh March '07 | 4.99 lakh March '08 | 2.71 lakh
No of ST children | 2.41 lakh March '07 | 45,066 March '08 | 25,901

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