Kolkata, Feb 28 The number of female students appearing for the higher secondary examinations conducted by the West Bengal state board has drastically reduced, raising questions about whether they are increasingly reluctant to appear for the exam.
This question was fueled by the comparative figure of female aspirants appearing for the “Uccha Madhyamik (Higher Secondary)” examination conducted by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) in March this year to the corresponding figure of female aspirants in the “Madhyamik (Secondary examination)” conducted by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) in 2023.
The Madhyamik aspirants in 2023 are the Uccha Madhyamik aspirants this year.
As per figures from the state education department, the number of female aspirants in the 2023 Madhyamik examination was 3,42,902. However, the number of female aspirants in the Uccha Madhyamik examination scheduled for next month this year is 2,77,992. A total of 64,910 female students have opted out.
This means that the number of female Uccha Madhyamik has declined by 19 per cent from a similar figure in the 2023 Madhyamik examination.
Educationists believe that the logical conclusion from this decline is that a major section of such female aspirants has dropped out after passing out “Madhyamik” education, while a small section might have migrated to different boards.
Some other figures also corroborate the trend of declining interest among female aspirants in the state to go for higher education after secondary examination.
The first is the declining number of monthly allowance recipients under the Kanyashree Prakalpa, which is the state’s own dole-cum-development scheme to encourage young girls to pursue higher education, where the monthly allowance is Rs 1,000.
In the 2023-24 academic year, the number of recipients of the monthly allowance under this scheme was 20.69 lakh. However, with just a month remaining for the ongoing academic year of 2024-25 to end, the number of recipients stands at around 15.75 lakh, as per the figures of the state education department.
In the state budget proposals for the financial year 2025-26, the proposal for budgetary allotment for higher education in West Bengal had shown a marginal increase over the corresponding figure of 2024-25. The proposed budgetary allocation for higher education for 2025-26 is Rs 6,593.58 crore, marginally higher than the figure of Rs 6,401,11 crore proposed for 2024-25.
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