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Chandigarh tops country in higher education enrolment
Girls fare better, with 75.4% being enrolled for higher education compared to 56.8% boys, All India Survey on Higher Education shows
At 64.8%, Chandigarh topped the list of UTs and states for gross enrolment ratio (GER), All India Survey on Higher Education report released by the Union ministry of education showed. The city was far ahead of the national average of 28.4% as well as the national capital Delhi, which scored 49%.
The GER, which covers the 18-23 demographic, is a key indicator of the level of participation in higher education within a given population. Higher GER values indicate greater enrolment among the specified age group. GER for AISHE 21-22 has been calculated on population projection derived from the 2011 census.
UT girls fare better in the numbers, with 75.4% being enrolled for higher education as compared to 56.8% boys. While GER for girls is highest among all states and UTs, Puducherry’s 61% figure for boys tops the charts with Chandigarh coming in second.
For the city’s Scheduled Caste youth, the total GER is 53.4% — 53.7% for boys and 52.9% for girls. The figure for scheduled castes is not the highest, with Mizoram and Meghalaya having a score of over 100%, implying that more SC students are enrolled in higher education institutes in the two stages than were counted in the 2011 census and its projections.
‘A culture’
Speaking about the findings, Post Graduate Government College for Girls, Sector 42, principal Nisha Aggarwal said, “It’s the culture of Chandigarh, where the parents of the children are also educated and encourage their children to study. There are many awareness programs also held in the villages of the city, to encourage students to study more.”
When asked about why the GER was higher for girls than boys, she added that Chandigarh has multiple colleges only for girls, while the rest are co-educational colleges. That, she said, contributed to fewer seats for boys.
UT director higher education Amandeep Singh Bhatti, meanwhile, said he was yet to go through the report.
GER slightly lower than 2020-21
While the GER of the city was the highest in India, it was down from the previous years. For 2020-21, Chandigarh had a ratio of 66.1%, marginal higher than the 2021-22 figure.
The ratio had hit a low of 50.6% in the 2018-19, but has stayed between 50-60% since the 2014-15 session.
As per officials, students who studied in Chandigarh schools but later migrated to other cities to complete their higher education can be a factor for this. Over the years, the ratio has meanwhile improved.
