Families now realise that educating girls is not a liability, but one of the best ways to invest in the future
Shabistan Gaffar
EDUCATING girls helps break the chains of poverty, dependency, and child marriages in one generation and the next.
During my interaction with students and parents over the years, I have observed that girls are very serious about their education, not only for ambition, but because of a sense of the future they want to build through hard work for a better and more secure life. During discussions with the marginalised communities, I have also seen girls pursuing their education even in hard circumstances.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) last week released the Class 12th examination results, which showed a slight dip in the overall pass percentage compared with last year. The national pass percentage stands at 85.2%, a drop of 3.19 percentage points from last year’s 88.39%. A total of 17,68,968 students appeared in the examination. Girls have once again outshone boys. “The pass rate for girls reached 88.86%, surpassing boys (82.13%) by a significant margin of 6.73%,” a CBSE release said. Over 94,000 students scored above 90%, with more than 17,000 candidates securing marks above 95%. Among the regions, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala leads the charts with a 95.62% pass rate, followed closely by Chennai in Tamil Nadu and Bengaluru in Karnataka. Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh has the lowest at 72.43%. Girls consistently outperform boys across multiple boards in the region. In India’s CBSE 2024-2026 results, girls recorded a pass percentage of 91.5%, significantly higher than the 85.1% for boys.
The number of female students scoring above 60% in Class 12 nearly doubled from 2013 to 2024, reaching 42.8 lakh. Cities like Thrivaderpurium in Kerala, and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, reported near-perfect pass rates (99.9%+) for girls.
Tackling Gender Disparities
Educational access becomes vital as the key to breaking the cycle of poverty by tackling gender disparities and achieving sustainable economic growth.
Many girls who are from marginalised and poorer sections of society are continuing their education amid domestic chores, caring work, economic struggles, and societal pressure for marriage. However, education is now seen by many of them as an opportunity towards freedom and respect rather than just as a qualification.
“Becoming a doctor and rendering my service to the women of rural areas lacking healthcare facilities is my dream,” said 17-year-old Nargis Fatima from a remote area of Madhya Pradesh. Fatima has recently topped her Class 12 examinations despite financial constraints and societal pressure to drop out of school.
Fatima’s educational journey has not been very smooth. After her Class 8, she faced the threat of ending her education at school since she had to travel quite a few kilometres to get to the next secondary school due to commuting hurdles and increasing household chores. At first, her parents thought that sending her to school would pose many challenges for them; some members of the family recommended that her parents marry her off rather than waste money on her higher education.
Fatima stayed absent from school for about a year while assisting her mother at home and looking after her younger siblings. Yet, with time, her performance in her class made her parents reconsider their decision.
“The awareness among my parents has been created to the extent that now they think education for their daughter is also as important as for their sons, because when a daughter gets educated, she not only benefits herself but the entire society,” she shared.
This is the story of many girls all over India who continue to pursue education despite economic constraints, fears of security issues, and societal norms.
There is a huge need for women to work in health services, so if we can educate our daughters, there are lots of opportunities for them. If our daughter goes to work in a hospital, for example, she will not be working just for her family, but the entire community will benefit.
Investment in girls’ education can help eradicate generational poverty, dependency and child marriages
However, eradicating these cycles of oppression requires many hands, as the adage goes. On a visit to one of the villages of western Uttar Pradesh, I had an opportunity to talk to teachers, local authorities and parents. To bring about change in how people think about girls and their rights, they will require the involvement of both family and community. Together, they can work towards changing traditional mindsets and opening doors of opportunities for girls.
Educating Girls is Not a Liability
A mother, while interacting with me, said, “It is said that if sons are educated, there will be hope for the future of the family, but I have observed that my daughter is more diligent in pursuing her education.” This quote was shared by a woman in a village as she talked about education for girls. “How can the family move away from poverty and dependency if girls are deprived of education?”
This statement is indicative of the situation prevailing in South Asia, where numerous teenage girls are unable to pursue their education due to financial constraints, marriage commitments, lack of opportunities, and societal pressures. It should be noted here that girls drop out of schools not because they lack talent or ambition; rather, the environment in which they find themselves fails to provide adequate support when they need it most.
Families now realise that educating girls is not a liability, but one of the best ways to invest in the future.
Some countries in South Asia have shown the results that can be expected from investment in education for girls and. In Bangladesh, for example, there is evidence of the narrowing of the gender gap, which is almost 69 per cent closed by way of women’s participation in the textile industry and in microfinance activities. Nepal has one of the highest participation rates of female labour in the region, with a rate that reaches 79.4 per cent in some sectors. Despite being a smaller economy, Sri Lanka still sustains good literacy and social development rates, whereas the Maldives nears 99% literacy among females.
This finding can be attributed to certain economic facts about South Asia. For instance, research shows that economies that have managed to provide universal secondary education to girls by 2030 will see their GDP rise by an estimated 10%. Moreover, the World Bank predicts that lowering the employment gap between males and females in South Asia would lead to a GDP growth of 13 to 50%.
India is also witnessing major shifts in women’s participation in the economic sphere. Female labour force participation increased from 22 per cent in 2017–18 to 40.3 per cent in 2023–24, reflecting expanding educational access and changing aspirations among women. More and more girls are now entering STEM fields such as engineering, medicine, science, and technology despite social stereotypes that continue discouraging girls from pursuing such careers.
Nevertheless, major challenges still exist. Moving up from Class 8 to Class 9 is the most vulnerable point at which girls tend to drop out in many marginalised areas. Secondary schools are typically situated far away from villages, transport facilities are either unsafe or too expensive, and economic constraints compel parents to send boys to school rather than girls. Early marriage, household chores, and societal norms still hinder the educational progress of adolescent girls in South Asia.
Insufficient Facilities
Facilities in schools also vary greatly. Even though there are toilets in many rural schools, they are poorly maintained and do not have a continuous water supply or privacy. For adolescent girls, particularly those who are menstruating, such facilities impact their school attendance and self-respect. Such situations cannot be captured through numbers alone; they can only be understood when interacting with the students themselves.
Having identified the deficiencies in existing policies, the Government of India has allocated a sum of ₹3,150 crore in the Union Budget 2025–26 for empowering women and ensuring their safety through Mission Shakti. Nevertheless, the true success of such measures would not be defined by announcements made at the Union Budget stage; instead, the success can be considered to occur only if girls residing in rural areas and small cities can attend classes securely.
Thus, one can say that the results of the latest exams conducted by CBSE have a much deeper meaning than just being exam results. Those reflect the commitment of many millions of girls who persistently attend classes despite the fact that the conditions are unequal. Their success is proof against stereotypes and gives a clear signal to the whole South Asian region that with an educated woman, families, communities, and countries are guaranteed security and prosperity.
Investing money in the education of girls is no longer charity or a form of empowerment. This is a strategically sound move. The future of South Asia will not be shaped only in parliaments or policy documents, but also in classrooms where millions of girls are still fighting every day for their right to learn, lead, and live with dignity.
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Dr Shabistan Gaffar is Chairperson of All India Confederation for Women’s Empowerment and ex-chairperson of the women’s cell of National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI). She can be reached at shabistangaffar@gmail.com
