THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Roughly 24 per cent of state’s total population are ‘students’ who attend educational institutions, indicate Census data on education released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner. Although Kerala is known for a sex ratio favourable to women, men outnumber women when it comes to attending educational institutions by a whisker, the data reveal. The state has 79.96 lakh people attending educational institutions in all. Of them, 40.93 lakh are males and 39.02 lakh are females.
As many as 65.18 lakh youngsters go to school in Kerala, of whom boys constitute 33.37 lakh, and girls, 31.80 lakh. The college-going population constitute 9.84 lakh. More women attend college than men; 4.97 lakh women against 4.86 lakh men. In all, 23,181 persons depend special institutions for the disabled, of whom 13,235 are males and 9,946 are females.
Of the population attending educational institutions, 41.50 lakh are in the rural areas and 38.45 lakh are in urban locations. Malappuram, which has the highest population among the districts, also boasts the largest student population: 11.26 lakh persons attend educational institutions in this northern district of whom 9.70 lakh are school-goers while 1.16 lakh are college students.
Among the SC communities, 6.70 lakh persons are students, of whom 3.35 lakh are women. Of the total 4.84 lakh ST population in the state, 1.08 lakh are students, of whom 54,723 are males and 54,181 are females. Kerala has 43.81 lakh people who have not attended any educational institution.