The only two states that have made progress in terms of GER are Kerala and Karnataka, where the numbers have gone up as compared to last two years.
Gross enrolment ratio (GER) of girl students at the primary level has been on a constant decline for the last three years, and is at the lowest in the year 2016-17.
From 101.13 in 2014-15, the GER has dropped to 96.35 in the current year, the latest data shared by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in Parliament revealed. GER is the number of students enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education.
The only two states that have made progress in terms of GER are Kerala and Karnataka, where the numbers have gone up as compared to last two years.
While the numbers at Secondary level have not declined as much, enrolment at primary level has been a challenge for the government. Despite various schemes like mid-day meal, construction of separate toilets for boys and girls, the number of girl students coming to schools has gone down.
According to officials, one of the main reasons for the recent decline is the fear of safety of young girls in schools. "In order to tackle this, HRD Ministry, along with Women and Child Development Ministry, has come up with a number of guidelines for schools to ensure safety of children including installing of CCTV cameras," said a senior official.
The only reason that we can attribute to the lowering GER recently is fear of safety of young girls in schools as a number of incidents of crime against young girls have happened in schools in the recent past.
Apart from ensuring a safe environment for students in schools, Ministry of HRD has been working on increasing the enrolment ratio in schools by linking Anganwadis to Primary schools and introducing a pre-primary level in schools so that students, specially girls are transferred directly from Anganwadis to formal schools.
Drop in Ratio
From 101.13 in 2014-15, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) has dropped to 96.35 this year
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