Girl dropouts in Rajasthan still higher than national average

JAIPUR: Every one girl out of five girls in the crucial age group of 15-16 dropped out from the schools

in Rajasthan

. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) report says that over 20.1% girls dropped out from schools leading to a sharp decline in girls’ enrolment in the higher educational institutes. The national average of out of the school girls recorded in the survey was 13.5% explains the reason for the state having its gross enrolment ratio of 21.7%, less than the national average of 25.8%.


The figure may be fifth highest in the country but the state has reduced the out of school ratio from 25.4% in 2016 to 20.1% in 2018. “Most of the girls in this age group are either enrolled in secondary or senior secondary classes. Even if we have made a slight improvement, the rate is very high. Dropping out in this age-group means that returning to schools is very bleak. The survey explains why Rajasthan is not getting away from the vices of early marriages and low share of women in the workforce,” said Rashmi Jain, vice-principal of Maharani College.

Besides out of school, the wide difference between the boys and the girls in terms of learning outcomes is also alarming. Report says that in the age group of 14-15 years, 62.5% girls can do at least subtraction while 70.3% boys can do the same task. When it comes to reading in the age group of 14-16 years, 80.4% girls can read the text of standard II while 83.1% of the boys can read the same text. This is for the first time the ASER has introduced parameter based on the gender.

When it comes to the advanced task, the gender gap becomes wider. Barely 20.2% girls in the age of 14 can calculate discount while 34.5% of the boys can do the same task. The gap is widest in solving the financial decision making. Barely 37% of the girls in the age of 14 are able to take a correct financial decision while the 50.8% boys made the correct calculation of the financial task.

Shahzad Khan, an educationist in Jaipur, says that those dropping out come from a economically poor and marginalized communities. "Almost 50-70% of the girls enrolled in the schools located inside the parkota (walled city) dropped out by the time they clear Class XII. Government may have come up with several schemes but that has not changed the mindset of the people," said Khan, who runs a learning school for girls in the Ramganj area.