Notwithstanding tall words mouthed by many a Government mandarin on improving system of education for female child, a recent database published by the Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE 1914-15) has painted a grim picture of the overall education scenario pertaining to the girl child in Bengal.
The report not only points out at a “steep nosedive in the Net Enrolment Ratio” or NER it also highlights the alarming situation so far as dropout rate is concerned. This notwithstanding the fact that Bengal has one of the largest numbers of Government schools in the country.
As per U-DISE report about 92.94 per cent secondary schools in the State are Government-owned against the national average of 55 per cent. At the plus-II level the State has 93.94 per cent higher secondary schools compared to a national average of 59 per cent.
Irrespective of the high rate of government ownership of secondary and higher secondary schools only 50.60 per cent girls get enrolled at the secondary level while the figure further dips in Class XI which records a meager 32.7 per cent enrollment, says the U-DISE data. However, the scenario at the primary and upper primary level is quite impressive and often better in comparison to the national level.
About 91.3 per cent girls get enrolled at the primary level while the NER figure for upper primary is slightly lower at 82.6 per cent the report says.
“low enrolment rate at the secondary and higher secondary level suggest so many things apart from lack of awareness among the parents which is a direct fallout of poor parental education and lack of government-sponsored awareness programmes,” says B Ganguli a social activist and writer adding “social insecurity, falling law and order situation and low level of employment is also a major reason. With rising cases of violence against girls parents are afraid to send grown up girls to schools. Besides they marry off the girls as soon as they find a groom with a job as employment is the last thing you get in this State nowadays.”
Experts like Komal Ganotra, Director Policy Research & Advocacy - Child Rights and You say that “the Right to Education Act 2009 covers children between the ages of 6-14 years, and enables free and compulsory education at the primary and upper primary levels. However,
in absence of any legislation for children above the age of 14 years the scenario at the secondary and higher secondary level unfortunately remain dismal.”
To buttress her point she says quoting U-DISE 2013-14 report that “at the National level the average annual dropout rate for girls rises from 4.14 per cent at primary level to 17.8 per cent at secondary level. In Bengal the situation is almost the same, as the average annual dropout rate for girls rises from 2.37 per cent at primary level to 19.8 per cent at secondary level.”
State Education Minister Partho Chatterjee however says things have far improved from what it used to be even a few years ago. “The Kanyashree project implemented by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has worked wonders in encouraging the girls to continue their education at higher levels. The full result may not be visible immediately but it will bear fruit in a few years time.”
lack of enough secondary and higher secondary schools is another cause of worry, says the report. While about 82.7 per cent schools in Bengal offer primary education and 19.4 per cent offer upper primary education the numbers of secondary and higher secondary schools are far less in number.
Only about 10.5 per cent school offer secondary education while about 7 per cent have higher secondary facilities. “Sooner this situation improves the better” says Ganotra.