Girls better at languages: Study

MUMBAI: Shattering the notion that girls are not good at maths, the recent edition of the national achievement survey conducted by the Ministry of Human Resource

MUMBAI: Shattering the notion that girls are not good at maths, the recent edition of the national achievement survey conducted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development shows that in Maharashtra they are on an equal footing with boys.

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However, it bolstered the perception that girls are better at languages. The survey of over 2.7 lakh students across India from different boards was released this week. Maharashtra’s Class 8 girls and boys stood on a near-equal footing with scores of 241 and 243.

In social sciences, both scored an equal 250, once again more than the national average. In languages, girls were better than boys.

Similarly, in mathematics, girls and boys had the same scores in the state at 262.

Class 3 girls soared ahead of boys in languages with 273 compared to 270 scored by boys in the state and 258 by girls across the country.

“Girls are good with budgets. Boys, on the other hand are equally good with calculation. That just makes both the genders do well in Mathematics,” said Kalyani Arumg am, principal of SIES School, Matunga.

Some principals felt it was a cultural reflection.

“I can clearly see that girls are better in language which is due to their inkling towards arts, creativity and analytical sense. I feel, it’s more of a cultural bias that makes girls do well in things like languages, where it’s more about expressions,” said Rashmi Choudhri, principal of Podar International School, Nerul. She explained that boys are culturally exposed to things that have more importance physically.

The survey also finds that state’s performance in mostly languages and to some extent in maths was higher than the national average.

In both math and languages, Maharashtra was among 14 states that performed above the national average of 252 and 257.

Math had 12 states scoring much below the average and languages had 15. The rest scored almost the same as the average. The score was on a 0 to 500.

Chhatisgarh was the lowest in the two subjects. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir also lagged behind.

For reading comprehension, Maharashtra girls outperformed boys scoring 270. Boys were close behind with 264.

Their performances were better than the national average of girls (249) and boys (246) in the subject.

Similarly in science, girls and boys from the state had 245 and 253, higher than the national score of 252 and 251.

Among Class 3 students, it is significant that students from rural areas scored more than urbanites.

In languages, rural Maharashtra soared with 275 and urban areas recorded 264. In math, too, they secured 266 marks, when the urban and national averages remained low at 248 to 253.