‘More girls in govt schools, boys ahead in pvt institutes’

Jaipur: Girls’ enrolment has again superseded that of boys in government schools for the academic year 2020-21. Data released by the ministry of education said 45.91 lakh girls were enrolled against 43.63 lakh boys. On the contrary, girls are much behind the boys in private schools with 35.81 lakh girls against 51.51 lakh boys. The two scenarios present a clear case of parents’ differential choice for girls’ and boys’ education. “The figure proves that in a family, a boy goes to a private school while a girl goes to a government school. The former provides free education is stereotyped as centres providing poor education and infrastructure,” said Shahzad Khan, a founder of Aaghaz learning centre. Explaining the issue sociologically, Rashmi Jain, head of department, sociology, said majority of the students in government schools generally come from lower and lower-middle-class families.KB Kothari, former policy planner, UNICEF calls the trend as robbing girls of the opportunity.