The Bihar government?s move to mandate quality accreditation for all primary and secondary government schools and those schools receiving aid from the government by tying up with the Quality Council of India will help improve the quality of education in the state. The earlier steps to improve access to education, through incentives like free bicycles to girl students passing the eighth standard, have helped reduce dropout rates of girls from 18% in 2006 to just 6% in 2009. Enrolment has also improved, with the share of students receiving mid-day meals in schools now touching 49%, as indicated in the most recent education survey of the NSSO (for 2007-08). This is marginally higher than the 43% students who received meals at the all-India level. The reach of the new quality improvement initiative is quite extensive as government-run schools account for 91% of the primary schools, 92% of the middle schools and 90% of the secondary and high schools. The shift in focus to the quality of education is well overdue as the NSSO report shows that Bihar has the necessary basic infrastructure with about 98% of the urban and rural populations having a primary school within a distance of 2 km. The government has also ensured that 87% of the primary school students in the state get free education as compared to just 71.2% at the all-India level. Only in the case of secondary schools in the rural areas is Bihar still disadvantaged, with almost half the students having to travel a distance of 2-5 km to reach the school as compared to the 36% share at the all-India level.
The gradual improvement in the quality of education in the state is evident from the latest ACER report for 2009, which shows that although the share of rural children who can recognise numbers in the lower classes is less than the national average, it is better than that of neighbouring UP. Indeed, the share of children in Bihar who can do subtraction in standard three and four and division in standard five are even better than the national average. However, the same cannot be said of reading skills where the Bihar numbers still lag the national average. The major problem in school education identified in the NSSO survey is the poor attendance ratios, of 74% in the classes I-VII in Bihar as against 96% in Himachal Pradesh and over 80% in all other states. Improving quality of education will only further enhance the human resource potential and further accelerate growth rates in Bihar.