Beaten by girls in academics, boys fare better in basic arithmetic: Report

While girls outperform boys in academics, when it comes to basic arithmetic boys seem to hold a substantial advantage over girls, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2018.    

Nationally, 50 per cent of all boys in the age group 14 to 16 can correctly solve a division problem as compared to 44 per cent of all girls, the report stated.

The ASER covered 596 districts, 354,944 households and 546,527 children in the 3-16 age group.

The survey took into account three major aspects, including school enrolment and attendance, basic reading and math abilities, and school facilities with sports infrastructure. 

According to the report, girls outperformed boys in academics but when it came to basic arithmetic, boys seem to hold a substantial advantage over girls.

For the first time in 2018, the number of children in the 6 to 14 age group, who are not enrolled in school, fell below 3 per cent and stood at 2.8 per cent.

In 2006, the all-India proportion of girls in the age group 11 to 14, who were out of school, stood at 10.3 per cent. In that year, nine major states had out of school figures for girls (age 11-14) above 10 per cent, the report stated.

"In 2018, the overall proportion of girls in the 11 to 14 age group out of school has fallen to 4.1 per cent. This figure is more than 5 per cent in only four states.

"Further, ten years ago in 2008, nationally, more than 20 per cent of girls in the 15 to 16 age group were not enrolled in school. In 2018, this figure has decreased to 13.5 per cent," stated the report.

According to the report, reading abilities of children have also shown gradual improvement.

"The percentage of class 3 children who can read class 2 level text increased from 21.6 per cent in 2013 to 27.2 per cent in 2018. However, the percentage of children being able to solve arithmetic problems remained nearly stagnant.

"Percentage of children in class 3 who can do maths problem went up from 27.6 per cent in 2016 to just 28.1 per cent in 2018," the report said.