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Gender Disparity in Madhyamik Examination Result
Rumki Gupta
AbstractComparative lower social and economic status of women is reflected in access to educational opportunity. This is true for literacy and all stages of educational level (from primary to University). Out of 17978 examinees for Madhyamik 2000, 1530 examinees were randomly selected from 182 schools and their results were analysed. Among examinees proportion of boys is considerably larger than that of girls (Boys = 58% and Girls = 42%). This implies inequality in educational opportunity at Madhyamik level prevails in the state. On the other hand, a difference between average total marks obtained by girls and boys group is almost negligible. Regional variation in proportion of girls participation is also observed. In the cases of relatively backward districts, this disparity is relatively more than that of relatively advanced districts. Economic conditions with respect to gender also vary.
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Psychology Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute
1
Academic achievement is affected by a host of factors that include individual ability,
motivation, childhood training and experience, parental and teachers expectation and
behaviour etc. On the other hand, the socio-economic-demographic background of the
family is of prime importance. Simultaneously, it is of decisive importance to focus upon
the gender of the student which may also be a factor in determining student performance.
One of the stated aims of education system is to provide a learning environment in which
all students can strive to achieve their potential. Despite that goal, gender inequality still
persist. Moreover, around the world, girls face multiple social and economic barriers to
enrolling in school. Poverty could be an important factor for that. Numerous attempts
have been made to explain this fact. The literature surveys on gender differences in
scholastic performance at different levels show varied results.
Buckingham(1999)observed that boys and girls differ in scholastic performance due to
biological differences, gender biases and socio-economic factors. Even in United States,
after several decades of intense scrutiny and policy change, gender differences in
education linger (Nowell and Hedges, 1998; Ballantine, 2001). Horne (2001) in one of
his study revealed that educational performance at school has also been found to vary
according to the students’ sex. Gender disparity in schooling is also observed among the
younger population, where female school enrolment in basic and secondary education is
less compared to the male children (Tansel, 2002; Erturk and Daylo’ Lu, 2004). Social
inequality in educational opportunity with respect to gender is evident in India also.
Gender differences is reflected in access to educational opportunity, empowerment to
political power and allocation of resources within the household sector as well (Dutta and
Bandopadhyay, 2004). Ramchandran (2003), in an empirical study revealed that if
regularity in school could be ensured in case of girls, they performed as well, if not
better than boys in school. It is observed that gender gap in enrolment persists at all levels
for all the considered years. In a study by Gupta (2004) it has been observed that boys
get opportunity to continue their education in spite of their disadvantaged social family
background because they are considered as assets of family for economic and social
reasons. This is a reflection of social attitude, which definitely indicates bias against girls.
Moss and Brown(1979) concluded that sex differences occur in academic achievement
partially due to biases and stereotypes.
2
Apart from the gender biasness in attaining educational opportunity, differences
in academic achievement has been shown by researchers in case of variation of region
also and these issues of inequalities in the educational attainment of students from
different social locations is gaining importance among the educators (Salili and Hoosain,
2001). In the poorest regions, more girls than boys are out of school, and the gap widens
at the secondary level- even though secondary and higher education for girls is especially
significant in reducing poverty(UNFPA, 2005). Students from rural and remote areas
show poor performance in comparison to the students from metropolitan areas (Cheers,
1990 : HREOC, 2000). Alwin and Thornton (1984) explored the potential role of family
socio-economic factors on school achievement at two particular periods in the life course-
early in childhood and during late adolescence. The authors also focused on the effects of
parental education, paternal occupation, family economic level, maternal employment
and family size in school and achievements of young persons.
The review of relevant literatures show that various studies have been conducted
considering different social parameters which may have bearing with performance of the
students but comparative studies are few, especially in West Bengal, considering two
genders i.e., boys and girls. This present study would consider the gender disparity in
Madhyamik results of the State. Madhyamik Examination, conducted by West Bengal
Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), is the first public Examination taken by large
number of students as the initial door to enter the higher secondary course which will be
followed by various graduation / post graduation / technical / vocational / specialized
courses at the higher level. Though Government of India entails a special thrust on girls
education yet gender disparities persist in enrolment of girls, especially in rural areas and
among disadvantaged class of people. Hence, the aim of the present study is to examine
the effect of gender and comparison of the status of academic achievement due to
variation of gender, region and economic status of the family as well.
Method
Sample
Multistage stratified clustered sampling was adopted in this study. In the first
stage, districts of West Bengal(WB) were divided into 4 strata. The first stratum was
taken as Kolkata . The other districts were stratified into 3 strata. Stratum 2 comprises the
3
districts located in North Bengal which is relatively backward region. The relatively
advanced districts of South Bengal are taken into the stratum 3 and the rest backward
districts in the fourth stratum . Two districts from each of the strata 2,3,4 were selected
by Rao, Hartley and Cochran (1962) scheme by considering number of schools in a
district as the district size measure. Thus total seven districts were selected in the
following strata:
Stratum 1 Kolkata
Stratum 2 Jalpaiguri and Malda
Stratum 3 Howrah and Hoogly
Stratum 4 Medinipur and Bankura
Fifteen Boys’ schools and ten Girls’ schools were selected randomly(SRSWOR) from
each selected district except that from Medinipur and Kolkata. For these two districts,
twenty four boys’ schools and twelve girls’ schools were selected. As a result, 192
schools were selected for the purpose of this study. The medium of instruction in all
selected schools was Bengali. District-wise numbers of schools and names of schools
were available from a list published by WBBSE. Around ten students were selected
following SRSWOR per school from all the students who appeared in Madhyamik
Examination from that school. Total number of students sampled was 1530. District-wise
no. of schools from each stratum and the no. of students selected from Madhyamik
examinees of selected schools are presented in Table - 1.
Table - 1
Number of schools and Madhyamik students
in sampled districts
Stratum District Number of schools Madhyamik students1 Kolkata 32 2402 Jalpaiguri 23 230
Malda 26 2443 Howrah 22 181
Hoogly 26 243
4
4 Bankura 20 162Medinipur 33 230
WB Total 182 1530
Instruments
Detailed mark sheets of all the 1530 students who appeared in the Madhyamik
Examination were collected from the West Bengal Board of Secondary
Education(WBBSE). The marks obtained by the students in this Examination was
considered as the academic performance score of the student .
Socio-economic information of them were collected through a structured schedule from a
random sample of those students from each selected school.
Results and Discussion
It has been observed from the results that opportunities to access education are not
uniform to different sections of the population. Gender bias is a major concern for
unequal opportunities for acquiring education. It is evident from Figure 1 that percentage
Figure - 1
of girls among Madhyamik examinees (2000) is 42% as against 58% of boys in West
Bengal.
Stratum-wise percentage of girls among Madhyamik examinees are not uniform.
In the case of Kolkata i.e., stratum 1 the difference between boys and girls students
regarding their distribution is 8%. In the Stratum 3, relatively economically and
agriculturally advanced districts have shown minimum difference (4% only between girls
and boys in Madhyamik Examination). In contrast, the difference of 14% is observed for
Stratum 2 which is a stratum comprised of relatively backward districts and for Stratum
5
4, which is also a relatively backward region indicates a difference of about 26%. It is
clearly evident that girls of relatively backward region are more deprived with respect to
net educational (Madhyamik) opportunities.
Stratum-wise estimated distribution of students(in percentage) as against gender are
presented in Table 2.
Table - 2
Stratum-wise estimated distribution of students(in percentage) as against gender
Gender Stratum 1 Stratum 2 Stratum 3 Stratum 4 West BengalBoys 54 57 52 63 58Girls 46 43 48 37 42
Difference 8 14 4 26 16
Regarding academic achievement of students in Madhyamik Examination, it can be
stated that gender difference with respect to percentage of students passed is quite small.
Results are presented in Table 3.
Table - 3
Estimated percentage of boys and girls passed
Stratum Gender 1st div. 2nd div. 3rd div. P div. Passed1 Boys 28 28 7 6 69
Girls 23 31 9 10 732 Boys 8 20 10 9 47
Girls 9 16 11 8 443 Boys 24 37 10 4 75
Girls 14 41 17 5 77
6
4 Boys 18 32 8 5 63Girls 14 27 10 7 58
West Bengal Boys 19 31 9 5 64Girls 14 31 13 7 65
The following are observed from the Table 3
difference in overall achievements i.e., average percentage of pass of boys and girls of
West Bengal is small. Marginally higher percentage of girls passed the Madhyamik
Examination than the boys.
However, in advanced region i.e. in the districts of Stratum1 and Stratum 3, girls have
exhibited better performance in comparison to the boys. But the results of the students of
the backward region can be viewed in a opposite way from the students of the advanced
region. Barring few instances, girls have shown poor performances in comparison to the
boys for backward regions.
For economically better regions i.e., for Stratum1 and Stratum 3
_ Percentage of girls students passing the Madhyamik Examination is higher than the
boys.
_ However, more students in the boys category passed in 1st Division. The trend is
different for backward regions i.e. for Stratum 2 and Stratum 4. Here percentage of boys
passing the eamination was higher than the girls. However, higher percentage of boys got
1st/2nd Division marks even in this backward regions.
The aggregate achievement for boys is slightly higher than for girls. This pattern
holds true both subject wise and stratum wise. Results are presented in Table 4.
Table 4
Average marks obtained by boys & girls in each of theseven subjects and total
St Gender Beng Eng Math Ph Sc Lif Sc Hist Geogr Total 1 Boys 44.54 38.16 42.80 46.13 49.33 42.08 43.45 42.56 Girls 45.00 35.16 38.16 44.73 52.88 41.37 41.56 41.42
2 Boys 34.57 24.36 29.04 32.32 37.22 32.91 32.91 31.03
7
Girls 36.36 23.16 27.64 32.77 38.67 33.95 31.17 31.13 3 Boys 45.85 34.99 44.61 47.18 53.69 42.71 45.81 43.73 Girls 47.60 32.17 39.35 42.94 52.32 43.93 41.08 41.60 4 Boys 42.42 28.79 37.89 41.92 48.61 37.39 38.67 39.10 Girls 41.60 26.32 33.51 38.73 46.94 37.08 35.16 36.65 WB Boys 42.16 30.38 38.63 42.01 48.16 38.49 40.12 39.24 Girls 43.20 28.53 34.98 39.58 47.82 39.48 37.12 37.83
It is evident from the results presented in Table 4 that some subjects reveal wider gender
gaps in performance. Careful focusing on the subject wise average marks, it was
observed that
girls performed marginally better in subjects like Bengali and History. This pattern is
more or less similar in advanced as well as in backward districts. This could be due to
higher recall ability of the girls. Wilberg and Lynn(1999) explained that as the girls have
better language abilities including essay writing skill, vocabulary and word fluency which
contribute to achieve in History Test.
Boys did significantly better in Mathematics and Physical Science in comparison to the
girls in advanced as well as backward districts. Stipek and Granlinski(1991) indicated
that poor performance in Mathematics were related to the girls’ lower expectations for
themselves because of their inability to do Mathematics. Gill(1994) and Swetman(1995)
identified girls’ negative attitude towards Mathematics.
In English and Geography boys performed slightly better than the girls irrespective of
the region.
However, it is clearly evident that the differences of average marks in different subjects
between boys and girls are almost negligible though the population of girls among
examinees is considerably less as compared to boys.
An attempt has been made in the present investigation to estimate the proportion of
successful students(both boys and girls) belong to both advanced and backward region
and West Bengal by their economic condition. Table 5 shows stratum-wise estimated
average per capita monthly expenditure(in Rs.) of students.
8
Table 5
Stratum-wise estimated average per capita monthlyExpenditure(in Rs.) of students
Stratum 1 2 3 4 West BengalBoys 1055.25 518.11 858.02 471.52 624.10Girls 903.49 831.00 729.05 724.26 761.37
The average per capita monthly expenditure of West Bengal students (in Rs.) is 651.11.
The amount appears to be underestimated. This might happen because results have been
computed on the basis of statements given by students. However, the figures for boys and
girls are Rs.624 and Rs.761 respectively. The highest is the case with Kolkata boys i.e.
Rs.1055/- and lowest is stratum 4 boys i.e. Rs.471/-.
. This tallies with our usual perceptions since in Stratum 1 i.e. Kolkata region,
higher value of average per capita monthly expenditure is expected against Stratum 4 i.e.
Medinipur/Bankura region. However, even in Stratum 1 and 3(i.e. advanced region)
average per capita monthly expenditure for the boys group is higher in comparison to the
same for the girls group. The reverse trend was observed for Stratum 2 and Stratum 4 i.e.
backward regions.
Attempt has been made to assess relationships if any between Academic
Achievement Vis-a -vis per capita monthly expenditure along with differences if any for
the boys group and girls group. Following table shows the Academic Achievement Vis-a
-vis per capita monthly expenditure for boys and girls.
Table 6
Academic Achievement Vis-a-vis per capita monthly expenditure
Gender Family expenditure category (in Rs.)
1st Divn.
2nd
Divn.3rd
Divn.P
Divn. Passed
Boys Up to 300 13.2% 46.0% 7.3% 2.5% 69.0%301-600 24.0% 26.2% 12.2% 3.3% 65.7%601-1000 25.0% 24.7% 7.7% 3.2% 60.6%1001-1500 38.6% 32.7% 9.7% 1.8% 82.8%
1501 and above 42.0% 10.7% 2.4% 37.3% 92.4%Girls Up to 300 15.0% 38.2% 18.4% 4.5% 66.1%
301-600 19.5% 54.6% 10.0% 2.5% 86.6%
9
601-1000 25.7% 47.5% 8.0% 4.1% 65.3%1001-1500 34.9% 25.4% 11.5% 9.8% 81.6%
1501 and above 44.1% 35.2% 7.1% 2.6% 89.0%
From Table 6 it was observed that
- percentage of students passing in 1st division appears to be positively related with
per capita monthly expenditure for boys group as well as girls group.
- percentage of students passing Madhyamik Examination also appears to be
positively associated with economic conditions of the family for boys group and
girls group.
- For the highest income category i.e. per capita monthly expenditure above
Rs.1500/- and above 42% boys passed in 1st Division. 39.7% boys passed in 3rd
division and P division. In other words, this income category produced either
good students or poor students. For the girls group under this income category
picture was different. Here, 44.1% girls passed in 1st division and only 2.6% girls
students passed in P Division. Possible reason could be that with increase in
family income or per capita monthly expenditure, the priorities are assigned for
quality education i.e. better academic achievement. However, a large percentage
of the boys group could not take advantage of the situation may be due to lack of
seriousness from the parts of students. Girls, however, continued to show
seriousness and possibly due to higher achievement motivation scored 1st Division
and 2nd Division marks.
In the lowest financial category i.e. average per capita monthly expenditure up to
Rs. 300/- maximum students passed in 2nd Division. This is true for boys group as well
as girls group. Possible reasons could be that availability of resources to achieve 1 st
Division marks are inadequate due to poor family income despite students’ apparent
motivation to do well in the examination.
For the mid financial categories i.e. average per capita monthly expenditure
between Rs.301-1000, girls fared well than the boys since percentage of girls students
passing the Madhyamik Examination is higher in comparison to the boys group for
similar financial category. This is possibly due to common belief that middle class girls
10
are more serious in their jobs than their male counterparts and hence tries to have better
utilization of the available resources to do better in their jobs/studies.
Conclusion
It has been found empirically that gender bias is a major concern for unequal
opportunities for acquiring education but as the girls show seriousness in studies and
possibly due to their higher achievement motivation they achieve better in comparison to
the boys. However, further studies may be undertaken like ANOVA etc. to find the effect
of gender on academic achievement eliminating socio-economic factors.
The empirical findings include that girls and boys differ in their abilitiesspecially
for subjectslike Mathematics and Science. Appropriate action plan may be drawn up to
encourage Mathematics and Science among girls students also. However, this may
involve efforts from school administration and also from parents.
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