Bihar has shown the way. The enrolment in government schools has gone up in the state while more and more students are opting for private schools in the rest of the country.

The enrolment in government schools has gone up from 72.2 per cent in 2005 to 83.6 per cent in 2008. Not only that. Eighteen lakh school dropouts (in the 6-14 age group) of a total of 25 lakh in 2005 have been brought back to school till date.

The project director of the Bihar Education Project Council, Rajesh Bhushan, attributed this to the 'School Chale Hum' programme under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SAA) launched by the Nitish Kumar government.

Taking note of Bihar's success story, the Centre has increased Bihar's budgetary allocation for SAA, earmarking Rs 4,299 crore for the year 2009-10. Uttar Pradesh on the other hand had been allocated Rs 3,800 for the same purpose, Bhushan said.

According to ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) 2008, which carried out a survey at 997 villages of 35 districts on three basic parameters -- school enrolment, reading skill and arithmetic skills, Bhushan said that the proportion of out-of-school girls in the state had also dropped from 20.1 per cent in 2005 to 2.92 per cent in 2009.

BEPC sources said that the maximum number of children who have returned to schools were Muslims. In March 2008, the Muslim child population in the state in the age group of 6-14 was nearly 33.06 lakh and of them only 2.83 lakh were now out of school.

... contd.