The number of girl students has slightly increased at primary and secondary educational institutions compared to their male counterparts, according to the latest data of Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS).The advancement of female education has been attributed to various milestone initiatives taken by the present government in the past eight years.The key initiatives including free distribution of textbooks, introducing stipends and mid day meal programmme have significantly contributed to increasing girl students at secondary educational instructions, the report added.The BANBEIS sources said average percentage of female students at secondary level stood at 51.18 percent meaning girl students have outnumber slightly their male peers.Female students also did better than male ones at Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations this year.The female students marked slight edge over their male counterparts in terms of pass rate in this year’s SSC or equivalent examinations.A total of 7,10,808 female students passed the examinations with 88.39 percent success rate this year while the number of successful male students is 7,41,797 with 88.20 percent pass rate.The number of female students also has increased at primary level with the percentage of 50.7, the BANBEIS sources added.A total of 1,95,52,979 students are studying at 1,08537 primary schools. Of them, 99,13,884 are girl students and 96,39,095 are male students, it added.Source: BSS