There is enough evidence on why girls’ education is important, and what works in educating girls. Much has been done on policies and programmes for increasing girls’ enrolment in school, retaining, training, and educating them. Yet, the state of girls’ education in some states remains grim, especially in Rajasthan. The recently released report on Key Indicators of Household Consumption on Education in India (2017-18) found that Rajasthan has the second worst overall literacy rates in the country at 69.7 percent and the lowest literacy rates for females at 57.6 percent.
Rajasthan has 3.7 million girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years, which constitute 5 percent of the state’s population. However, as per the recent National Statistical Office survey, 26 percent of these children are out-of-school. Of the total out-of-school children, 24 percent are never enrolled in any school and ~60 percent of those never enrolled are girls.
The incidence of girls’ dropping out of school is also quite significant in Rajasthan. As per the DISE, in 2008-09, there were 1.05 million girls enrolled in Class I. In 2016-17, the number of girls enrolled in Class IX was only 530,000. This implies that half the girls drop out before entering secondary school.
A key factor for Rajasthan’s unsatisfactory performance in providing secondary education is inadequate public spending at the secondary level. Though in absolute terms, the budget for secondary education has increased over years, it is only 10 percent of the total state budget and 3 percent of State’s Gross Domestic Product (SGDP) in 2019-20 (RE).
An analysis by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, a Delhi-based civil society organisation that focuses on public policies and government finances, shows that in 2016-17, per student government spending on school education in Rajasthan was Rs 28,588. This was higher than the all-India average of Rs 22,888. However, it is lower than per student spending of Rs 33,933 per annum in Kendriya Vidyalayas, which is considered a ‘model’ school and a ‘benchmark’ for adequacy by many education experts.
The Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan aims to bridge the gender and social category gaps at all levels of school education. To improve the retention of girls at secondary level, the programme provides for expansion of the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), the government-run residential schools for disadvantaged girls till Class XII.
Last year (2019-20) Rs 7 crore was approved under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan for the same, which Rajasthan could not utilise at all. In fact, against an approved outlay of Rs 106 crore for the ‘gender and equity’ component in the programme (which comprises of interventions such as the KGBV, self-defence training, girl’s empowerment project and sanitary pad vending machine etc.), only Rs 8 crore was utilised. Moreover, per girl spending in the KGBVs is Rs 13,600 per annum, compared to Rs 85,000 in the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), the model residential school of the Union government.
Depriving girls of education, especially secondary education, has dramatic costs for girls themselves, their families, communities, and societies. However, retaining a girl in school also has high cost implication for families, especially when compared to a boy. Thus, a mere provision of resources for girls’ education would not ensure girls’ participation in school unless there is a gender lens in the policy design and budgeting.
Since education at secondary level is not free, parents spend a substantial amount from their pocket for their children’s education. This expenditure differs considerably between a government school and a private school. As parents are more willing to pay for their sons' education compared to their daughters’, government schools indirectly cater girls more. Thus if government schools were to eliminate fees altogether, and reduce additional costs for school uniforms and books, it could make a major difference to girls education.
Evidence shows that monetary incentives such as scholarships, stipends or direct cash transfers, and non-monetary incentives such as bicycle, books, laptops, etc. are strong enablers to bring girls to school and retain them. However, other than pre-matric and post-matric scholarship for girls from reserved categories, and scholarship by agriculture department which provides incentive for girls studying agriculture-related subject at the senior secondary level, there are no other monetary incentives for girl students in Rajasthan.
COVID-19 has shown the disproportionate impact of school closure on girls. There is an apprehension that the pandemic could lead to a thousand more girls dropping out, before they complete their secondary education. This particularly holds true for girls living in poverty, those with a disability or the ones living in rural places.
As a large number of girls are heavily dependent on public provisioning of education, it is high time that the Rajasthan government prioritises girls’ education and invests adequately to ensure universal access to secondary education for all girls.
10 November, 2020