Mumbai: In an interesting development, the Bihar madrasa board has emerged as the second highest performer in terms of students' success rate in class 10th examinations, only next to the ICSE board in New Delhi.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has recently come up with a report on student performance in various states in class 10th examination. The report compares the performance of different state educational boards throughout the country.

The findings reveal that the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination in Delhi has the highest toppers with the pass percentage of 94.3%, next by the Bihar state Madrasa Board, which boosts of a success rate of 91.4%. Further, the Central of Board of Secondary Education, Delhi gets the third place with an overall pass percentage of 86.4%. Maharastra gets pass percentage of 57.6%.

The report published last month compares 2005 figures across the length and breath of the country. Founder of educational non- profit Pratham Madhav Chavan said that this report challenges the "stereotype that madrassas are religious training schools." In his view, the recent development justifies "the historical view" that a voluntary process of learning which includes progressive components in a society frequently results in a successful form for formal education.

Contrasting other boards which have huge number of students, ICSE and madrasa board both have lesser number of students giving the 10th STD examination. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal are some of the states where lakhs of students take the 10th STD examination. Former professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and a linguist Peggy Mohan feels that the madrasa board, running on a smaller level, is probably more flexible than "regimented state boards."