NEW DELHI: It is crucial that society invest more in the education of the girl child, according to the Union Secretary of Education and Literacy, Sanjay Kumar.
Taking part in the interactive session, `Delhi Dialogues’ with The New Indian Express in Delhi on Thursday, Kumar highlighted the scenario in CBSE schools to illustrate it, saying, “There are two types of CBSE schools, one is run by the government and the other is private. In the government CBSE schools, girls outnumber boys. Whereas, if you look at private CBSE schools, then boys outnumber girls by a huge margin.”
Data shared by the Education department in this connection revealed that as on April 5, 2024, the number of boys attending private CBSE schools was nearly 25 lakh more than the number of girls attending them –1,16,22,447 boys versus 91,70,484 girls.
In comparison, the number of girls attending government schools stood at 19,14,859 as against the figure of boys at 17,96,817.
Elaborating on the preferential treatment accorded to the male child, Secretary Kumar said, “There is a message for the society in this – we need to invest more in the girl child. We are more inclined to invest in boys than in girls. That is primarily for the middle class.”
He added that this aspect needs to be incorporated into public discourse so corrective action can be taken.
As a case in point, he explained that three years ago, the difference in admissions between boys and girls in Kendriya Vidyalayas was around 1 lakh.
“We spoke to the KV administration and sensitised the principals that boys and girls were equally important for us. The difference between the two genders is now reduced to 40,000. Boys are still in the majority, but it has come down from almost a lakh.”
Stating that the threshold for mental resilience has dipped drastically, the Secretary said that 13,000 out of 1,70,000 suicides in 2022 were that of students, which represents 7.6% of the total.
Shockingly, half the suicides in the country come from five States – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh.
The reasons for it need to be assessed. “It needs research and requires sociologists and perhaps even economists to look into,” Kumar felt.
“The coaching culture has put an immense amount of pressure on our children. And so has social media.”
Emphasising that “No child should be out of school”, the Secretary said that the process of learning must be a joyous experience. “Every morning when a child wakes up, they should look forward to going to school.” The National Education Policy 2020 aims to have every student eventually learn three languages. Learning in the local language is extremely important, and research shows that it improves children’s cognitive abilities, he said. “You start in your local language, and this is where you pick up things. And then, when you are proficient in one language, you pick up the second one. And this could be English or any other language. The NEP states that of the three languages you learn, two should be Indian languages.”
The story is reported by S Lalitha for The New Indian Express