Patna: Girls have created history by securing top ranks in Class 10 examination conducted by the Bihar Madrassa Education Board, officials here said.

Nasra Khatoon, of Dakhi village of Madhubani district, has secured the first rank in Class 10 (Fauquania) level examination and Umme Eman of Baunsi village of the same district has bagged the second rank, a board official aid after the results were declared on Wednesday.

Maulana Ajaj Ahmad, chairman of the Madrassa Education Board of Bihar, told the sources here that these girls have made a new beginning.

"They have proved that girls can also top examinations conducted by the madrassa board like the CBSE, ICSE and the Bihar State Examination Board," he said.

Girls studying in madrassas have taken the lead not only in the Class 10 level (Fauquania) but also in other examination conducted by the madrassa board.

In the Fauquania exam, 66,988 girls passed whereas the figure for boys stood at 43,233. Similarly, in Maulavi exam (Class 12 level), more girls -- 37,391 -- passed as compared to 33,332 boys.

"Girls have outperformed boys in the Class 10 examination of the madrassa board," Ahmad said, adding that this year, of the 27 students who shared the top ten ranks n Fauquania examination, 21 were girls.

In the Madrassa board exams, girls have been doing better than boys for the last few years, he added.

Bihar has over 4,000 madrassas, including over 1,118 state-run Islamic schools. There are 2,459 unaided madrassas and hundreds of others operating at different places.

According to the first ever status paper brought out by the Bihar State Madrassa Education Board, there are only 32 madrassas for girls under the government-aided category and 576 in the unaided category. Bihar Muslim women have a low literacy rate of 31.5 percent only. IANS