Govt. Study: Why do the majority of South Board students study Science in Class 11?

A recent research by the Union government revealed significant regional differences in the nation's high school academic stream choices.

Key highlights of the Report:

• The Union government's research found that there are significant regional differences in students' choices of high school academic streams across the nation, with Science being the most popular among students in most southern states and Arts receiving very few applicants.
• Gujarat, West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan were the top five states where Arts was the most popular choice in 2022.
• The PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) will examine the academics participation of the students.
• According to the study, the Commerce stream “has stagnated at the same level over the last one decade”, with around 14 per cent students (national average) pursuing the discipline in high school.

Why was this area chosen by the government for a study?

• The study's goal is to achieve assessment equivalence across various education boards, and it looked into a variety of other factors, including pass percentages and dropout rates.
• However, trends in academic stream selection are the most important, as metrics such as dropout rates can also be gleaned from other sources, such as the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), and pass percentages of several boards are publicly available.