For the first time in at least a decade, more girls cleared their Class 12 examination in science than in the arts stream, data from the Ministry of Education on board exam results for 2024 shows.
Ministry of Education data on central and state board exam results across the country shows that from at least 2014 onwards, more girls have cleared the Class 12 exam in the arts stream than in science. This changed in 2024 when 28.14 lakh girls cleared the Class 12 exam in the science stream, nearly 90,000 more than the 27.24 lakh girls who cleared the exam in the arts stream.
While more boys than girls continue to pursue the science stream, the gap has been narrowing. Around 46% of students who cleared Class 12 in the science stream were girls both in 2024 and 2023. This figure was 44% in 2022, and 42% in 2021.
In September last year, based on data from the Ministry of Education, The Indian Express had reported that numbers from 25 school boards between 2010 and 2023, show that of the total students who passed their Class 12 Board exam in the science stream, 45.53% were girls — up from 38.22% in 2010. The proportion of boys in the science stream decreased from 62% to 54% during the same period.
In 2014, the gap between the girls pursuing science and arts was large – around 7.5 lakh more girls cleared Class 12 in the arts stream than in science. In 2017, there were 5.48 lakh more girls in arts than science. This difference increased to 7.94 lakh more girls in arts than science in 2021, before dropping to a difference of 4.03 lakh in 2023.
“Science has been gaining in terms of the number of students choosing the stream, while the other streams have seen a decrease,” an official in the Ministry of Education said. Compared to 2022, nearly 9 lakh more students cleared Class 12 in the science stream in 2024 (around 61 lakh in 2024 vs 52.4 lakh in 2022). In contrast, the Arts stream saw a drop from around 50 lakh in 2022 to 49.2 lakh in 2024. Similarly, commerce registered a drop from 18 lakh in 2022 to 16.8 lakh in 2024.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
