Rajasthan schools rank last in terms of gender parity in senior classes: Report

GPI for gross enrollment ratio (GER) is the ratio of girls to boys enrolled in schools, and is a measure of the relative access to education. A GPI of less than 1 suggests girls are more disadvantaged than boys in terms of access to school.

The GPI value in Rajasthan is 0.89 for the secondary level (classes 9-10), which is the second-lowest in the country after Gujarat, which has a GPI value of 0.86 in the same category, the report indicates.

At 0.94, the GPI value for upper primary schools in Rajasthan is also the second-lowest after Lakshadweep, where the GPI value for this level is 0.92.

The GPI value of Rajasthan for the primary (Classes 1-5) and elementary (Classes 1-8) are relatively better at 1.01 and 0.99 respectively, the report says.

Among other parameters, the report shows that with 1.79 crore students enrolled in schools from pre-primary to Class 12, Rajasthan ranks fifth in the country in terms of total enrolment. With 4.58 crore students, Uttar Pradesh has the highest enrolment in the country.

Rajasthan is also ranked fifth when it comes to the highest number of enrolments (85.21 lakh students) in government schools.

According to the UDISE+ report, at the primary, upper primary and secondary levels, Rajasthan has dropout rates of 2.9, 1.5 and 12.3 per cent respectively. While the dropout rates for boys at the primary and secondary levels are higher than that of girls, at the upper primary level, the dropout rate of girls is more than double that of the boys.

The report reveals that at the upper primary level, the dropout rate for boys is 1.1 per cent while the figure is 2.1 per cent for girls.

The report also adds that 69.93 per cent of government schools in Rajasthan have electricity connection and 68.52 per cent have a functional electricity connection. The report further indicates that 91.22 per cent schools in Rajasthan have functional drinking water facility.

The UDISE+ report reveals that the pupil-teacher ratio in Rajasthan for primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary stands at 24.8, 12.0, 11.4 and 15.1 as against the national figures of 26.5, 18.5, 18.5 and 26.1 for the same categories.