Girl education in Rajasthan has apparently started indicating signs of progress in the form of increasing enrolments and decreasing drop-out rates. Recently, the Rajasthan’s higher education department registered a 23.92% rise in the girls’ enrolment. It’s reported to be the highest across the country.
Girls’ Enrolments Highest for the first time
Talking about these impressive numbers in detail, the state has registered 4.67 Lakhs enrollment for girls in colleges, universities and diploma centres. For the first time in the History of the state, 50.07% girls against 49.935 boys got enrollment. Clearly, it’s a great achievement by the state to take a leap from 50 girls enrolled against 100 boys (2000-01) to 101 girls enrolled against 100 boys (2016-17). Clearly, there are upgrowth arrows involving girl education in Rajasthan.
Enrollments Increased in last 3 years
Talking about the enrollments in general, the government has also focused on the education of secondary and higher secondary schools along with girl education in rajasthan. A report in September 2017 suggested that in the last 3 years, the improvement in quality of education has led to an increase in enrollments in government schools by 17 Lakhs.
Apna Bachha Apna Vidyalaya
The central government’s initiative of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ has been adopted by every state but the Jhunjhunu district administration adopted it in a different form. It launched the ‘Apna Bachha Apna Vidyalay’ scheme to check the dropout rate in schools, particularly for girls. This is a unique scheme for providing back support to girl education in Rajasthan.
This scheme lays focus on improvement in facilities and encourages the participation of community. The policy has already brought a positive change in the number of enrollments in schools, which reportedly witnessed a 15% increase in the enrollments. Many girl students joined back after the construction of toilets in the schools.
Mukhyamantri Rajshree Yojna
It’s not just the present generation is availing benefits from the state’s education policies. The Vasundhara Raje government has even made sure to secure the future of girls from the educational aspects.
Every girl born on or after 1 June 2016 in Rajasthan state is eligible to be benefited from the Mukhymantri Rajshree Yojna. The aim of this program is to provide a better life as well as health to the girl child along with improving statistics related to girl education in Rajasthan. It can be availed by all parents having a girl child. They are given financial aid amounting to INR 50,000 for the health and education of girls. The amount is disbursed throughout different stages like at the birth of the girl child, vaccinations, admission in school, primary education, and so on.
As revealed by the state budget for 2016-17, an amount of INR 99,693 has been allotted for the scheme. Reportedly, Lakhs of girls have been benefited with the Rajshree Yojna. Ensuring that every girl has access to school education till 12th Standard, this scheme is a great initiative towards a progressive society.
Read more: Mukhyamantri Rajshree Yojna Rajasthan – A Step Ahead Towards Women Empowerment In The State
Educational Plans and Reforms by the State Government
SoI with CISCO
Back in January 2017, the Higher Education Department had signed a Statement of Intent with CISCO. This marked the government’s initiative towards introducing digitization in the field of education. It aimed at setting up digital classrooms in girls’ colleges so as to expand employment opportunities for them and support them in securing their career.
Rajasthan Higher Education Dept Reform Plans
The Higher Education Department of the state is working on various reform plans that are aimed at improving the quality of education in colleges & enhancing girl education in Rajasthan. The document called Vision Goals 2022 states the plan states the establishment of new colleges and institutes.
The department aims to set up 2 new universities, 32 degree colleges, 14 new girls’ college, 50 Bachelor of Education colleges, 5 new engineering colleges, and 5 polytechnics.
The aim is to bring gender parity among the young girls and boys with respect to higher education. Besides, the plan is to improve the infrastructure so as to increase the total intake of students from 17 Lakhs to 28 Lakhs.
Other reforms include building smart classes, career counseling, skill development and placement cells, coaching for competitive exams, promotion of start-ups, etc.
Concluding Thought
Not only is the government taking steps in ensuring better education for children, it is also making efforts to remove the discrimination that girls are often subjected to. Girl education in Rajasthan will lead to empowering them and considering the reports, it won’t be wrong to say that change is happening and in a very positive way.
