mumbai a survey carried out in the two districts of ahmednagar and satara as part of a national study has thrown up a worrying factgender gap in educational institutions widens with age this means the number of girls dropping out of formal education system increases as they grow olderthe survey carried out by pratham a notforprofit organization that works in the education sector focused on the 1418 age bracket the findings were included in the economic survey report released by the maharashtra government on thursdaythe findings show that while the gender gap is not huge in the age group of 1416 by 18 years fewer girl students remain enrolled in educational institutions than boys in satara 181 girl students dropped out against 7 boys by age 18 in ahmednagar 82 girl students left school against 58 boysfarida lambay founder and trustee pratham said for the survey they decided to focus on the age group of 1418 as it is a critical juncture for all students considering that choices available to them can shape their future lambay said there were several reasons for the high dropout rate among girls either the road to school or the area was not safe or the girls didnt have any ambition due to the absence of any role models said lambay if a family has two kids one male and one female and can pay for only ones education they pick the boy the decision is not based on meritas many as 120 villages covering 1900 households with 2329 youth were studied for the survey which also comments on the quality of education it showed in ahmednagar merely 34 of the surveyed youth could divide using simple arithmetic and 26 solve subtraction sums and in satara 39 and 25 respectively lambay said the next step is to ensure kids understand the usability of knowledge and how to use it