Skip to main content

Gujarat's 24.9% girls in age group 14-16 out of school, double all-India average: Pratham report

School education in Gujarat
By A Representative
In a stark revelation, the Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER), brought out by the high-profile NGO Pratham, has said that Gujarat's 24.9% of girls in the age group 15-16 are out of school, which is the highest among all Indian states with the sole exception exception of Madhya Pradesh (26.6%).
Further, the report shows that the percentage of out of school children in this age group is double the all-India average (13.5%).
Suggesting that most so-called Bimaru states perform better on this score, the data in the report show that, as against Gujarat's 24.9% out of school of girls in the age group 15-16, Uttar Pradesh has 22.2%, Chhattisgarh 21.2%, Rajasthan 20.1%, Jharkhand 11.2%, and Bihar 9.8%. The best performing state is Kerala, with 0.6% out of school girls, followed by 2% Himachal Pradesh.
The report states, "In 2006, the all India proportion of girls in the age group 11 to 14 who were out of school stood at 10.3%. In that year, 9 major states had out of school figures for girls (age 11-14) above 10%. In 2018, the overall proportion of girls in the 11 to 14 age group out of school has fallen to 4.1%. This figure is more than 5% in only 4 states." In Gujarat, there were 3.6% out of school children in this age group.

Comments

TRENDING

Gujarat Sachivalaya blacklists, denies entry to woman social activist: Will NHRC probe?

By Kantilal Parmar*  I have approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into a serious incident that took place at the Gujarat Secretariat in Gandhinagar on August 18, 2026. The matter concerns social activist and women’s rights leader Chandrikaben Solanki, who, according to the information available to me, was denied an entry pass to the Secretariat when she went there to meet Gujarat’s Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Dr. Manishaben Vakil, to raise an issue concerning social justice.

Tibetan activist’s self-immolation sparks fresh concerns over cultural rights

By Kumar Krishnan*  The question of Tibet has once again entered international discourse, raising difficult questions about human rights, religious freedom, cultural identity, language, and the relationship between political power and the rights of indigenous communities. On 20 August 2026, the Kashag and the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile jointly organised a solidarity prayer service and peace march to mark the 49th day since the death of Lobga Rangzen, a Tibetan activist who died after self-immolating on 2 July in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

IMF's policies 'stabilise' external creditors' balance sheets, 'generate' crisis in Africa

By Grieve Chelwa, Vijay Prashad   Across Africa, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) presents itself as the custodian of macroeconomic stability. Its latest Article IV staff reports on Ethiopia . Malawi , Nigeria , South Africa , and Zambia are written for economies with very different histories and institutions. Yet they converge on a familiar prescription: fiscal consolidation, tighter monetary policy, market-determined exchange rates, subsidy reform, deregulation and ‘private-sector-led growth’. No serious economist can dismiss macroeconomic stability.