Revision as of 02:57, 10 October 2017

Statistics, higher education

2017: more girls than boys higher education

In a first, more girls than boys enrol in Raj colleges, October 9 2017: The Times of India

For the first time in history , Rajasthan Higher Education department has recorded more girls than boys in enrolments at higher education institutes. For the academic year 2016-17, the department has recorded a total enrolment of 4.67 lakh girls against 4.65 lakh boys at colleges, universities and diploma centres.

“Girls enrolment percentage touched 50.07% while boys at 49.93% in Rajasthan,“ the department's report stated.

Sources said it took 17 years for the state to attain 100% growth in girls' enrolment in institutes. Figures reveal that barely 50 girls were enrolled for every 100 boys in 2000-01.Now, that has doubled with 101 girls against 100 boys in 2016-17. The progress is reflective in the share of girls in all the streams. Girls have superseded boys in humanities with 3,19,935 enrolments while boys with 2,70,745 in the year 2016-17. Girls are also heading closer to boys in the Science stream. Experts have attributed the rise to the exponential growth in the number of girls' colleges from 100 in 1997-98 to 482 in 2016-17.

“The enrolment of girls in Science stream was 43.7% while for boys it was 56.3%,“ read the report. Girls are also fast picking with boys in law and agricultural courses. The data says that 5,412 girls enrolled in law while boys were 12,665 enrolled.

While, the national figures for 2016-17 were not available, it has also shown a considerable increase in girls' enrolment. In 2015-16, 48% girls had enrolled in higher educational institutes, showing a massive growth of 23.92% from the previous year. According to experts, this growth is highest in the country.