Bhutan

MDGs Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and to all levels of education no later than 2015

Bhutan has made impressive progress towards ensuring gender equity in education. The number of girls to boys at the primary and secondary education levels are now virtually at par. The achievement of complete gender parity at these levels is well on track and the target for these levels is most likely to be achieved by 2005. Attainment of gender parity at the tertiary education levels by 2015, however, presents a more serious challenge, even as the long-term prospects for this are extremely bright.

The ratio of girls to boys has been steadily rising from 69 girls to every 100 boys in 1990 to 95 girls to every 100 boys at the primary level. This represents only a very small gender gap that remains to be covered. This achievement has largely been on account that female enrollment in primary schools has been growing faster by an average of 2.4 % each year over male enrollment during the last decade. The student survival rate for girls up to the end of the primary cycle has also been consistently higher with the rate climbing each year. In 2003, the student survival rate for boys was at 73.2% as compared to 85.5% for girls. Gender parity at the secondary education level has now reached a level where there are 96 girls for every 100 boys. Given the current higher enrollment rates and better efficiency indicators for girls at the primary levels, gender parity at the secondary level is likely to be attained very quickly and way ahead of 2015.