More girls than boys want to study after 12th.

NEW DELHI: More girls aspire to continue studying after class 12 than boys, the Annual Status for Education Report, 2023 has revealed.

The report is based on a survey and found that the reasons behind the trend included – the girls’ belief that education would enable them to become better homemakers and also their interest in studying.

In general, boys were able to take or at least shape these decisions: if they were not interested in studying further, they could drop out regardless of their family’s preferences. Among girls, these decisions were often not in their hands, the report said.

“In the ASER 2023 survey findings, a larger proportion of boys than girls reported not wanting to study after class 12. During the discussion, girls discussed wanting to study at least to undergraduate level, while boys talked about the likelihood of discontinuing their education after completing their schooling,” the report said.

“Among girls, shifting social norms with regard to the appropriate age of marriage emerged as a key driver of young women’s ability to study further. Most girls talked about how they expected to get married only at the age of 21 or 22, giving them time to continue to study until then.

“However, even though this perceived increase in the appropriate age of marriage enabled higher secondary and college level studies to be a socially acceptable pathway for these girls, further education was rarely connected to better preparedness for the job market,” it added.