Mr.
Ashok Mahindru after carefully going through the Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation, Government of India has seen the encouraging data of an
improvement in school enrolment of girls in recent times. This shows the
encouraging trend of the growing outreach of the schools to the girls. Following
are the excerpts from the report Mr. Ashok Mahindru underlines:
The
share of girls in the total enrolment at primary and upper primary level was
19% and 46.5% respectively in the year 2005-06; this increased to 48.5 and 48.1
at primary and upper primary levels respectively in 2009-10.
Gender
parity index (GPI) has also shown significant increase, particularly at the upper
primary level. Gender Parity Index (GPI) in enrolment at primary and secondary and
is the ratio of the number of female students enrolled at primary and secondary
levels in public and private schools to the number of male students. In
general, at the national level, the number of girls enrolled in all levels, i.e.
primary, secondary and higher education is less than their counterparts.
However, the female-male ratio in education has been steadily improving over
the years. In primary education, the GPI ratio has gone up from 0.76 in 1990-91
to 1.00 in 2009 -10 showing 31.6% increase and in secondary education the
increase is from 0.60 in 1990-91 to 0.88 in 2009-10 thereby showing 46.7% increase.
As
on 2009-10, the GPI at Primary level ranges from 0.87 in Bihar to 1.13 in Damn
& Diu. At Primary level, 7 State/ UTs have gender parity.
As
on 2009-10, the GPI at Secondary level ranges from 0.64 in Rajasthan to 1.36 in
Damn & Diu. At Secondary level, 21 States has gender disparity while only
one State (Karnataka) has gender parity, and for the remaining States/ UTs have
gender disparity against male children. The increasing level of dropout rates
in higher classes as evident from table 5.6 is a cause of worry.
The programme and policy initiatives like
Sarva Shikha Abhiyan (SSA) and Right to Education (RTE) have contributed to the
universalize elementary education in the country and are expected to infuse new
life in the schooling system in the coming years.
However, the issue of drop outs continues
as a major issue in all levels of education. Also the Net enrolment Ratio in upper
primary level is far from satisfactory. Urgent and more focused measures are required
to address and tackle these enduring issues in the education sector of the Country.
Mr. Ashok Mahindru feels there should be
further improvements in these data in the next report if both government and non-government
institutions work towards it cooperatively.
