New Delhi: For long, the educational scenario in Bihar and West Bengal remained a mater of concern for the policy makers. Now, the two states have written history by leading all other Indian states in bringing down the national figure of out-of-school children in the age-group of 6-14 from 75.97 lakh in March last year to 45.05 lakh in March this year.

Adding weight to the feat is the fact that out of the total number of students who have started going back to schools, maximum students are Muslims, SCs and STs.

In the case of Bihar, it has brought down the out-of-school children in the age group of 6-14 to 10.10 lakh this year from 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. Compare it to March 2007 when the number of out-of-school Muslim children stood at 4.24 lakh. Now only 8.6% of Muslim children are out of school in the state.

Like wise, in West Bengal- often blamed for its poor academic record among minorities, the number of out-of-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.

Further, among the SC community in west Bengal, children not enrolled for any schooling now are 1.05 lakh, a sharp decrease from 3.25 lakh last year.