Gaya: Girls outnumbered their male counterparts in the Bihar School Examination Board's Class X exam across 66 centres in the district and sub-divisional headquarters despite an unfavourable sex ratio in the district.

As per statistics by the district public relations officer, on Wednesday, out of 83,480 examinees, 43,000 were girls. The maximum number of exam centres (46 out of 66) are located at the district headquarters. There is no block-level exam centre. Sherghati, Tekari and Bathani sub-divisions have 10, 6 and 4 centres, respectively.

Nasim Ahmad , who teachers economics at a degree college in the district headquarters, said: "The participation of girls is more impressive than what statistics reveal. Gaya has a very unfavourable sex ratio which has to be considered while analysing exam-related statistics." According to Ahmad, as per the last (2011) census figures, the sex ratio in Gaya was as low as 937 women for 1,000 male population.

Ahmad added: "While the high ratio of girl examinees is a positive achievement, on the flipside there is a decline in the district's sex ratio. As per the 2001 census, there were 938 women for every 1,000 men. A decade down the line, it slid to 937. Though the slide is not very much, it is still a decline."

Kusum Kumari, former director, department of women's studies, Magadh University, said: "The high turnout of girls is unlikely to reflect higher enrolment in colleges. There is no infrastructure for post-school women's education in the district. There is only one government-funded women's college in the district. Apart from girls in Gaya, this college also takes in girls from Jehanabad and Arwal districts as there is no constituent college for women in these districts."

She added: "Though statistics are not available, the dropout ratio on account of non-availability of colleges for women is much more as compared to boys. This aspect of post-school education for girls has to be addressed."