Educational Attainment Of Children: A Gender Sensitive Empirical Study In Hailakandi District Of Assam

Abstract

Gender Discrimination in Education is a serious Socio-economic issue to be analysed from the view point of human capital formation in the light of egalitarian norms for both male and female around the globe. Discrimination in terms of gender in educational accessibility and attainment is a hindrance to balanced development of a nation as well empowerment of women. It refers to a tendency to favour either male or female in accessing and attaining education in a given situation. However, it has been found that girls are the victims of such discrimination in different contexts and no studies have been conducted on gender based educational discrimination in the context of Hailakandi district of Assam, one of the backward most district of Assam. This study has been undertaken in Hailakandi District of Assam. The study basically focuses on analysing the relative enrolment status of school going girls from primary to higher secondary level along with investigating the causes responsible for gender discrimination in education by using Logistic Regression model. The study found that, girls have lower rate of enrolment compared to boys especially from upper primary level onwards. Moreover, factors like economic condition of households, Parent’s reading of newspaper, Family size, Parental attitude, involvement of children in farm and domestic works etc. are mainly responsible for gender discrimination in education.