{"id":33036,"date":"2024-07-21T04:58:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T23:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33036"},"modified":"2025-04-19T18:08:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T12:38:50","slug":"gender-gap-in-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/gender-gap-in-education\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Gender Gap in Education?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in the News?<\/li>\n<li>Global Gender Gap Report<\/li>\n<li>Global Gender Gap 2024 Report<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why in the News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The World Economic Forum (WEF) report of 2024 on global gender gaps recently ranked India at <strong>129 out of 146 economies<\/strong>, with a decline in the education sector being one of the reasons for India\u2019s rank slipping a couple of places this year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Global Gender Gap Report<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The World Economic Forum&#8217;s Global Gender Gap Report is an annual publication that <strong>evaluates the progress towards gender equality worldwide<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Established in 2006, this report offers a comprehensive analysis of gender-based disparities across four key areas:\n<ul>\n<li>Economic Participation and Opportunity,<\/li>\n<li>Educational Attainment,<\/li>\n<li>Health and Survival, and<\/li>\n<li>Political Empowerment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Key Components of the Report:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Economic Participation and Opportunity<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>This dimension assesses gender disparities in the workplace, including labor force participation, wage equality for similar work, and the presence of women in high-ranking roles across industries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Educational Attainment<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>This category measures the gap between men and women in terms of access to education.<\/li>\n<li>It evaluates literacy rates and the enrolment levels in primary, secondary, and tertiary education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Health and Survival<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>This area examines life expectancy and sex ratio at birth to understand the disparities in health outcomes between genders.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Political Empowerment<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>This dimension looks at the representation of women in political decision-making positions, including the proportion of women in parliamentary seats and ministerial roles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Methodology:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The report uses a scoring system ranging from 0 to 1, where 1 indicates full parity between men and women and 0 indicates absolute disparity.<\/li>\n<li>Countries are ranked based on their scores in each of the four categories, and an overall rank is assigned to each country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Global Gender Gap 2024 Report<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The World Economic Forum 2024 report on global gender gaps <strong>highlights significant disparities in education, ranking India 129th out of 146 countries, partly due to a decline in educational attainment indicators<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This represents a drop from the previous year, where India had a perfect score in educational parity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Key Findings and Statistics w.r.t Education Attainment:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Enrolment and Literacy Rates:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Despite high enrolment rates for women in primary, secondary, and tertiary education, the literacy rate gap between men and women stands at 17.2 percentage points.<\/li>\n<li>The latest figures show that girls constitute 48% of the school population, with a slight decline in secondary education but a higher retention rate at the higher secondary level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Higher Education:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for women in higher education is 28.5%, slightly above the male GER of 28.3%.<\/li>\n<li>Female enrolment has increased by 32% since 2014-15.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Influencing Factors:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Infrastructure Development:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Building more schools, especially since the mid-90s, has significantly boosted girls&#8217; enrolment.<\/li>\n<li>However, regional disparities persist, with some states lagging in secondary education infrastructure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Female Teachers:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The presence of women teachers positively impacts girls&#8217; enrolment.<\/li>\n<li>Schools with only male teachers face lower enrolment of girls due to parental concerns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Transportation and Sanitation:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Free transport and the provision of cycles have helped increase enrolment.<\/li>\n<li>However, inadequate sanitation facilities, particularly for menstruating girls, remain a major barrier.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Future Challenges:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Higher Secondary and College Education:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>While some states report higher enrolment of girls in higher secondary education, concerns are rising about boys dropping out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>STEM Education:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Women make up only 42.5% of students in STEM fields, highlighting the need for targeted encouragement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Adult Literacy:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The 2011 Census data reveals a significant gender gap in adult literacy, with only 64.63% of women being literate compared to 80.88% of men.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Recommendations:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Improving School Infrastructure:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Continued investment in building and maintaining school facilities, especially in rural areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increasing Female Teacher Presence:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Recruiting and retaining more female teachers to create a comfortable learning environment for girls.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Enhanced Sanitation Facilities:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensuring proper maintenance of washrooms to prevent dropouts among older girls.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Focus on Foundational Literacy:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Strengthening foundational literacy programs and extending education to rural women to bridge the adult literacy gap.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>By addressing these challenges, India can make significant strides toward closing the gender gap in education and achieving greater gender parity in the coming years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><strong>Q1. When was the Right to Education Act enacted?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21a of the Indian Constitution<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Q2. Who is considered \u2018Literate\u2019 in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In census, a person aged seven years and above who can both read and write in any language, is treated as &#8216;literate&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/education\/what-is-the-gender-gap-in-education-explained\/article68426990.ece#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWhile%20the%20shares%20of%20women,said%2C%20recording%20a%20score%20of\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>What is the gender gap in education? | Explained<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Gender Gap Report evaluates the progress towards gender equality worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}