In 2015, girls first outnumbered boys in the whole of school education including the Secondary Education Examinations. The trend is sure to continue at least over the next decade. Girl examinees were higher by 998 than boys in the year, which increased to 1,477 in 2016.
In 2015, girls first outnumbered boys in the whole of school education including the Secondary Education Examinations. The trend is sure to continue at least over the next decade. Girl examinees were higher by 998 than boys in the year, which increased to 1,477 in 2016.
Of the total 445,564 examinees who attended the exams this year, 221,682 were boys. Girls outnumbered boys by 2,200.
Records at the Department of Education show the gender parity index at the school level stands at 1.02.
However, when it comes to performance there is little to cheer about. Every year, the performance of girls continues to be poor compared to that of the boys. In 2015, 60 percent of the 145,183 School Leaving Certificate supplementary examinees, who had failed in two subjects at most, were girls.
The SEE results published on Friday also paint a gloomy picture of the girls’ performance. Among the nine levels of GPA categorised by the Central Examination Board, boys outnumber girls in the top four while girls are more in getting the lower five grades.
The boys’ number is significantly higher than girls’ in the GPA above 2.40 but girls’ number is higher when it comes to lower grades. Among the 12,284 students securing the highest grades above 3.60, 7,034 were boys. Similar is the picture for GPA 3.20 to 3.60. The number of boys getting the second highest grade was 24,911 while only 17,516 girls had that achievement.
Education experts say the social practice of involving daughters in household chores and allowing their male children to study freely is one of the major factors of their poor performance. Though the government’s incentives such as scholarships for 50pc girls, an increase in the number of female teachers and separate toilets for girls have led to increased enrolment, there are no extra initiatives for improving the quality of girls’ education.
In addition, the tendency among the parents to choose better schools for their son has also contributed to the poor performance of girls. In the academic year 2015-016, girls’ enrolment in private school was 480,000 while the number of boys was around 30 percent higher at 641,000.
In public schools, the number of girls was 3.19 million while the number of boys was 2.87 million—320,000 fewer boys than girls. Going by the past performance in the School Leaving Certificate examinations, private schools were way ahead in performance compared to public schools.
“The social and cultural inequalities facing daughters at home and in society should be blamed for the present situation. Undoubtedly, girls are equally talented. The only thing is they need to be given equal opportunities and environment,” said Mana Wagle, an education expert.
Binod Ghimire covers parliamentary affairs and human rights for The Kathmandu Post. Since joining the Post in 2010, he has reported primarily on social issues, focusing on education and transitional justice.
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