Girls have outshone boys in school education in the past decade

Girls have consistently outperformed boys in the last decade across both secondary and higher secondary education, even when government schools were the first choice of parents for girls’ education, data from the Ministry of Education shows.

Between 2012 and 2022, girls consistently outperformed boys, with the margin of students who have passed between girls and boys in secondary education widening from 1.7 per cent in 2012 to 5.1 per cent in 2022. In higher secondary education, the gap went up from 7.84 per cent in 2012 to 8.62 per cent in 2022.

Yet, government schools continued to be the first choice of parents for girls, with quality education and higher spending on the same being markers of choice for boys' education.

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Secondary education data compiled by the ministry shows that 34.1 lakh boys registered for exams in government schools compared to 34.7 lakh girls, and 38.4 lakh boys registered across private schools while only 28.1 lakh girls did.

Of these, 32.4 lakh boys appeared for the exams in government schools as did 33.2 lakh girls. In private schools, 36.4 lakh boys appeared for exams as well as 27.3 lakh girls. In government schools, 26.6 lakh girls passed the exams, while only 24.7 lakh boys did so. In private schools, 32.3 lakh boys passed compared with 25.5 lakh girls.

The pass percentage of boys in government schools stood at 76. per cent while it was 80 per cent for girls. In private schools, the pass percentage of boys (88.6 per cent) was much lower than that of girls (93.4 per cent).

In higher secondary education, more girls (20.9 lakh) registered for exams than boys (19.6 lakh) across government schools, while in private schools the number of boys (30.3 lakh) was considerably higher than girls (24.2 lakh). Among these, 19.3 lakh boys appeared for the exams in government schools along with 20.7 lakh girls. In private schools, 30.8 lakh boys and 25.4 lakh girls appeared for the higher secondary exams.

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More girls (18 lakh) passed the exams in government schools, as compared to boys (15.8 lakh), but in private schools, more boys (25.8 lakh) passed the exams while 22.9 lakh girls did. The pass percentage in government schools among boys was 81.8 per cent, which was again lower than that of girls (87.2 per cent). In private schools, too, girls (90.1 per cent) outshone the boys (83.5 per cent).

In all, students scoring 60 per cent and above in secondary education increased from 33 lakh in 2012 to 98 lakh in 2022, and in higher secondary education, it rose from 35.9 lakh in 2012 to 77 lakh in 2022, the data showed.