UNESCO Report Flags Gender Gaps In Global Education Outcomes, Leadership
According to the findings, boys continue to lag behind girls in reading proficiency worldwide. On average, only 87 boys attain the minimum proficiency level for every 100 girls. The gap is even wider in middle-income countries, where only 72 boys meet reading standards per 100 girls.
In Mathematics, gender parity has held for two decades, but recent data from the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic may have disrupted this balance. Girls in countries such as Brazil, Chile, England, Italy, and New Zealand have shown notable setbacks in performance compared to boys.
Leadership roles in education also reflect entrenched gender biases. In India, women remain under-represented as principals across all school types. At the higher education level, only 5 per cent of women held vice-chancellor or director roles in 189 national institutions in 2021. In a broader sample of 1,220 universities, women made up 9 per cent of vice-chancellors and 11 per cent of registrars or chief administrative officers.
The situation in Pakistan and Balochistan is similarly restrictive. Gender segregation in schools limits women's eligibility for leadership posts to girls' institutions only. In Balochistan, where headteacher posts in girls' schools are reserved for women, only 29% of schools in 2021 were for girls.
By contrast, Vietnam reported relatively better representation, with women occupying 28% of university leadership positions in 2019-though only 8% served as presidents or rectors.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
13 minutes ago
- Business Standard
US national debt reaches record $37 trillion, Treasury Department reports
The US government's gross national debt has surpassed $37 trillion, a record number that highlights the accelerating debt on America's balance sheet and increased cost pressures on taxpayers. The $37 trillion update is found in the latest Treasury Department report issued Tuesday which logs the nation's daily finances. The national debt eclipsed $37 trillion years sooner than pre-pandemic projections. The Congressional Budget Office's January 2020 projections had gross federal debt eclipsing $37 trillion after fiscal year 2030. But the debt grew faster than expected because of a multi-year Covid-19 pandemic starting in 2020 that shut down much of the US economy, where the federal government borrowed heavily under then-President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden to stabilise the national economy and support a recovery. And now, more government spending has been approved after Trump signed into law Republicans' tax cut and spending legislation earlier this year. The law set to add $4.1 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. Chair and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Michael Peterson said in a statement that government borrowing puts upward pressure on interest rates, adding costs for everyone and reducing private sector investment. Within the federal budget, the debt crowds out important priorities and creates a damaging cycle of more borrowing, more interest costs, and even more borrowing. Wendy Edelberg, a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution said Congress has a major role in setting in motion spending and revenue policy and the result of the Republicans' tax law "means that we're going to borrow a lot over the course of 2026, we're going to borrow a lot over the course of 2027, and it's just going to keep going." The Government Accountability Office outlines some of the impacts of rising government debt on Americans - including higher borrowing costs for things like mortgages and cars, lower wages from businesses having less money available to invest, and more expensive goods and services. Peterson points out how the trillion-dollar milestones are piling up at a rapid rate. The US hit $34 trillion in debt in January 2024, $35 trillion in July 2024 and $36 trillion in November 2024. We are now adding a trillion more to the national debt every 5 months," Peterson said. "That's more than twice as fast as the average rate over the last 25 years. The Joint Economic Committee estimates at the current average daily rate of growth an increase of another trillion dollars to the debt would be reached in approximately 173 days. Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said in a statement that hopefully this milestone is enough to wake up policymakers to the reality that we need to do something, and we need to do it quickly. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
India, China likely to resume direct flights
New Delhi India and China are in advanced negotiations on resuming direct flights and trade through selected border posts as part of efforts to normalise their relations after the end of the four-year military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The latest indications of the thaw in bilateral relations come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expected visit to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit on August 31. (REUTERS) There has also been 'forward movement' on restrictions imposed by China on fertiliser exports to India, the people said on condition of anonymity. The latest indications of the thaw in bilateral relations come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expected visit to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit on August 31. The resumption of direct flights and border trade – both suspended since 2020 – figured in several meetings held since Modi and President Xi Jinping met in the Russian city of Kazan on October 23, 2024, two days after an understanding to end the faceoff on the LAC, and decided to revive several mechanisms to normalise relations and address the border dispute. External affairs minister S Jaishankar raised China's restrictions on fertiliser exports when he met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing last month, the people said. At the time, Jaishankar said the two sides should build on 'good progress' in normalising ties by avoiding 'restrictive trade measures' and addressing issues related to the border. The modalities for resuming direct flights, including the finalisation of an updated air services agreement, are yet to be completed, though Indian carriers have been asked by authorities to begin preparing to fly to China as early as next month, the people said. One option being considered is the resumption of flights without updating the air services agreement, they said. Authorities have asked IndiGo to start preparing for flights, hinting at the resumption of air connectivity with China, at least two officials with knowledge of the development said. 'In an internal communication, the ministry of civil aviation asked IndiGo to start making arrangements for resuming India-China flights,' one of the officials said. However, the people acknowledged that lack of adequate aircraft is a factor that is being considered by Indian authorities. Non-stop flights to China stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic and this continued after border skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops in April-May 2020 took bilateral ties to a six-decade low. Both sides arrayed close to 50,000 troops each in Ladakh sector of the LAC before the understanding last October on disengagement of forces at the two remaining 'friction points' of Demchok and Depsang. Before this, Air India, IndiGo, Air China, China Southern and China Eastern operated direct flights. IndiGo and Air India didn't comment on the development, and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) didn't respond to a request for comment. The resumption of border trade through the designated points of Lipulekh pass in Uttarakhand, Shipki La in Himachal Pradesh and Nathu La in Sikkim figured in recent meetings between the two sides, the people said. Trade through these routes was stopped in 2020. Minister of state for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh told Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question last week that India has 'engaged with the Chinese side to facilitate the resumption of border trade through all these trade routes'. On the issue of China's restriction on fertiliser exports, the people said there had been 'forward movement' since the matter was raised by Jaishankar with his Chinese counterpart in mid-July. Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that India, the world's top importer of fertilisers, could take as much as 300,000 tons of urea. Almost half of China's fertiliser exports in 2023 headed to India, but it halted sales to all countries last year. Beijing relaxed the ban in June but kept its restrictions on India until now. India's imports of urea from China fell to about 100,000 tonnes in 2024-25, compared to 1.87 million tonnes a year ago, according to the Fertiliser Association of India. Last month, India finalised long-term agreements with Saudi Arabia for 3.1 million metric tonnes of DAP fertiliser per annum for five years to cope with the restrictions imposed by China. Di-ammonium phosphate or DAP is the second most widely used crop nutrient in India. There was no official word from the Indian and Chinese side on these developments, which coincided with substantial strain in India's relations with the US after President Donald Trump imposed a reciprocal tariff of 25% on Indian goods and a punitive tariff of 25% for purchases of Russian crude. The Indian side has proceeded cautiously in normalising relations with China, with the two sides agreeing in April to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to the Tibet region for the first time since 2020, and India resuming tourist visas for Chinese nationals in July after a five-year gap. Efforts to normalise relations, however, hit a bump over China's support to Pakistan during four days of hostilities with India in May after New Delhi launched Operation Sindoor to target terrorist infrastructure across the border in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians in April.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
Growing size of surcharge, cess swells govt kitty: CAG
NEW DELHI: Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on Tuesday tabled a report in Parliament on the union accounts for 2022-23 and 2023-24, in which the auditor has, among other issues, pointed out how cess and surcharge collections have been going up over the years and become a significant part of tax revenues - at Rs 4.7 lakh crore in FY2022-23 and Rs 4.9 lakh crore in 2023-24, they contributed almost 12-14% of the total gross tax collection. The cess and surcharge collection saw a significant increase of Rs 1.7 lakh crore between 2018-19 and 2022-23. The collection increased massively during Covid years and reached around Rs 5 lakh crore in 2021-22. Surcharge, or tax on tax, alone increased by 207% from Rs 40,800 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 1.25 lakh crore in 2022-23. However, the auditor has raised concerns over govt not using the excess levy collected from citizens for the intended purposes. "Test check of records revealed aggregate impact of short transfer of Rs 3,69,307 crore, till March 2024, to the designated reserve funds," it said. Cess is an additional tax levied to raise funds for a specific purpose. These revenue streams are not shared with states, except GST compensation cess. "Total collection under cess and surcharge during FY2023-24 was Rs 4,88,316 crore. This was 14% of gross tax receipt, a marked reduction from its peak in FY2021-22 when it was 20.23%," CAG said. "We found that in respect of four reserve funds, Centre collected Rs 2.4 lakh crore through cess/levies/deposits from FY2018-19 to FY2022-23, but transferred only Rs 344 crore into the reserve funds. Short transfer has an impact of understating the revenue deficit," CAG observed. The reserve funds are Oil Industry Development Fund, Investor Education and Protection Fund, Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Fund and Senior Citizen Welfare Fund. The auditor also pointed out that Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had recommended in its 69th report that cess should have a well-defined purpose with a sunset clause for discontinuation if the objectives have been achieved. The major burden of cess & surcharge collection is on excise (27.38% of collection), Customs (8.35%), GST (26%), Income Tax (17.6%) & Corporation Tax (17.9%). GST compensation cess is expected to be phased off by 2026.
