Bihar's internal assessment system for students of classes I-VIII has earned accolades from the Centre, education minister Ashok Choudhary said in the Assembly on Wednesday in reply to the budgetary demand of his department.

"The assessment system is in keeping with the grading system introduced at the national level for semester examinations," Choudhary said. "The assessment system enables teachers and guardians to learn about the progress of the students in a transparent manner."

The assessment module involves teachers preparing weekly student performance reports and sharing it with the guardians.

Choudhary said 99 per cent children across the state were attending schools. "It is happening despite the fact that the kids' parents are largely illiterate", he said, adding that they (the parents) prepare their wards for school while conversing in their native tongues such as Bhojpuri, Maithili, Angika, Vazzika and Magadhi. This, he said, was a "big change in the attitude towards education".

Such a happy change at the societal level, the minister said, has happened because of the sustained efforts of the Nitish Kumar government to educate children through "many alluring schemes - mid-day meal, uniform and bicycles to children, scholarship, school buildings with toilets and appointment of the teachers on large scale - that have collectively stepped up the pace of change in the attitude towards education".

The BJP members, however, staged a walkout midway, protesting that the minister's reply was "unsatisfactory".

The government, Choudhary said, has given equal emphasis to higher education as well, with the opening of three universities at Purnea, Nalanda and Munger.

"The government has decided to open three centres under the Aryabhatta Knowledge University - centre of journalism and mass communication, centre of river studies and Pataliputra centre of economics," he said.