The dominance of girls on our campuses is on the rise. The past decade witnessed a consistent fall in the number of boys reaching the campuses, particularly the conventional, non-professional college campuses.
The steady increase in the number of girls in proportion to the fall in number of boys has been due to many socio-cultural factors. Today, most co-education campuses in Kerala have more than 60 per cent girls. On some campuses, the predominance of girls is so high that boys are reduced to one fourth or less. College principals and teachers have begun to realise the importance of maintaining a balance in the ratio of girls and boys for a healthier campus.
The most obvious reason for the dominance of girls is that the method of curriculum followed by our universities befits the more studious and disciplined nature of girls than boys. When boys get oriented more towards professional streams, girls increasingly are finding it happy with conventional educational programmes.
“If this trend continues, I'm afraid our college will turn into a girls-only campus in a few years,” said A. Kuttialikutty, Principal of Farook College, Feroke. He may be half-serious in his comments; but Prof. Kuttialikutty throws light on a phenomenon that has upset the gender equilibrium of our co-ed campuses.
The principals, however, agree that the dominance of girls on conventional campuses does not indicate that the boys are inferior. They point out that most boys scoring good marks land on professional campuses, and those with average marks fail to reach any recognised conventional college. This is where girls swarm in. Most girls who do not reach professional campuses have invariably better marks than boys to get admissions to conventional degree programmes.
Student admission to government colleges is invariably on merit basis. Admission to aided management colleges too is on merit basis, except to the 15 to 20 per cent seats reserved for the management. In self-financing colleges, half of the seats are filled from merit list. “When it comes to merit in a conventional college, girls outnumber boys. And boys with average and poor marks invariably end up in parallel colleges,” said Prof. Kuttialikutty.
Most ranks of conventional courses are invariably bagged by girls. Teachers say the continuous evaluation method adopted by the colleges is beneficial more to girls than boys. “Girls take more strain than boys. They stick to the syllabuses. Naturally they score better marks, pushing the boys behind,” said Rajan Vattoli, history lecturer at Government College, Malappuram.
“And marks are the only criterion — except perhaps in sports quota — to get admission to a college.” All the 18 students admitted in sports quota for the nine academic programmes at Government College, Malappuram, are boys. But for them, the presence of boys on that campus would have been poorer.
Convenience is a reason for girls to opt conventional degree programmes. For a large number of girls, attending a college for a degree programme is a stop-gap arrangement till marriage. Many continue their studies even after marriage. The increased family support and motivation for girls bring them to conventional campuses.
A good number of parents too choose conventional courses for their daughters because discontinuation of the course after marriage may not be an issue. Discontinuing a professional course often may mean loss of a great amount of money.
The increase in married students attending conventional campuses too has led to the imbalance. “We have dozens of married students on our campus. Out of the 38 students in our BA History class, 19 are married. And all of them want to continue their studies,” said Mr. Rajan.
The dominance of girls is more felt in science subjects, particularly botany, chemistry and zoology. Even in B.Com. classes, which used to be a male domain till a few years ago, girls have begun to outnumber boys. The Government College, Malappuram, has 26 girls and 14 boys in its B.Com. class. The ratio of girls and boys in its BA history class is 39:10, and most B.Sc. classes 24:5.
“The situation used to be different when we had pre-degree batches. It was almost 50-50. Now the gender ratio is skewed to such level that we have only three boys to 15 girls in our B.A. English class,” said Nishi Prem, principal of Government College, Thripunithura.
The imbalance is often so acute that the number of boys is reduced to one or two. There have been instances of boys discontinuing their studies because of being a loner in a group of girls. Rajendra Prasad, a student of BA English main, dropped out of the Government College, Thripunithura, for this reason two years ago.
“Although the tendency is there to drop out, we goad them and wheedle them into continuing,” said Mr. Rajan. But Ms. Nishi avers that the gender imbalance does not create any problem on the campus. “They get along very well on the campus. And it does not bring about any change in the campus atmosphere,” she said.
But for most boys we spoke to, it is not fun to be a loner in a class full of girls. “It is not exciting to be among girls. I was upset in the beginning. Now I got used to it. After all, we come to a campus for studying and not for dating,” said Shaji K., a student of Government Arts and Science College, Kozhikode, seeking not to divulge his class. The dominance of girls has begun to be felt in some professional courses as well. For example, 16 out of the 20 students undergoing the Master's degree programme in journalism at Kerala University are women. Last year, the university had 13 girls to seven boys for journalism. The case is not different at Calicut University too.
“When we were studying, there was only one girl in the class. Today more and more girls are coming forward to opt journalism. Maybe because they are enticed by the projected glamour of visual journalism,” said Subhash Kuttan, head of the Department of Mass Communication, Kerala University.
The dominance of boys in competitive examinations, however, continues. It is reflected in the National Eligibility Test (NET) conducted by the University Grants Commission. More men than women qualify to become college teachers every year.
