Ê |
Ê Sumon K. Tuladhar |
Background Crystallization of educational started formally in 1950 when the Nepal National Educational Planning Commission was formed to sketch out all educational plan for Nepal after the dawn of democracy. Showing the importance of education, the report of this Commission clearly identified education as a factor to prepare people to be receptive to new developments which call empower them to progress rapidly towards consolidating the democracy gained at that time. The report also reiterated that it is one of the basic lights which each individual child is entitled to possess. However, this report seemed to lack ally cleat. direction about girls' education. Consequently, educational development ill Nepal got lopsided with a distinct tilt towards the promotion of male dominant sociocultural values, until the National Education System Plan (NESP 1971-76) came to the rescue by giving a strong thrust towards promoting and expanding access of girls to education. Within the last two decades, global cognizance of the importance of women's
roles in the development process has brought women's issues to the fore-front
of the governments, academics and activists concerned both at the international
and national levels. Responding to this, numerous approaches were adopted
by various organisations. Among those approaches were the ones followed
at the government level in terms of educational policy and planning, the
ones inside it the international level ill organizing global seminars and
conferences and also the ones followed both at the national level as well
as international levels ill terms of various multi-pronged programs. Both
private and public sector organizations were involved ill initiating innovative
programs for- promotion of girls' education. Efforts for increasing female education in Nepal The international conferences and seminars have led to a greater commitment
on the part of HMG/Nepal and the international donor agencies. A large number
of creative projects were launched and treasures like EGWN (Education for
Girls and Women in Nepal), Cheli Beti Program (Education for Rural Development,
Seti Project), Basic Primary Education Project and others were taken by
the government in Nepal. More than 10 multi-lateral and bilateral donors
like World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP, Asian Development Bulk, Danida. JICA,
and many other Northern NGOs like, Save the Children US, Save the Children
UJK- ('are Nepal, Action Aid, Lutheran World Service, World Education, PACT
are active in promoting girls' and women's education in Nepal. Efforts made by Different Agencies for Increasing Female
Participation in Education
Institutions Actively involved in NFE/Literacy Activities for Women
A study report of CERID (Research Centre for Educational Innovation and
Development), A Profile of Non-formal Education Organisations ( 1995), has
shown that ,more than 80 % organizations offer. programme for, women and
children. As one of the studies of Save the Children US ( 1 996) showed
that more than 90% participants in literacy classes were female. Still there
seems to be a widening gap between the literacy percentage of male and female. Literacy Rates between Male and Female (As percentage to the total population of six years and above) Census* Male* Female* Both* Male/Female Differentials 1971* Ê23.59* 3.91* 13.89* 19.68 1981* 33.96 * 12.05* 23.26* 21.91 1991* 54.10* 24.73* 39.74* 29.37 1997** 66.00* 30.00* 48.00* 36.00 Source: Acharya. M. (1994). The statistical profile on Nepalese Women: An Update in the Policy Context. Kathmandu: Institute for Integrated Development Studies. **MOE Estimate Critical Analysis of Literacy Programs for Women in Nepal One of the studies conducted by CERID, Gender and Secondary Education,
has revealed that, although there are some government policies to increase
the girls' and women's participation in education, there is a wide gaps
in implementation of those policies. Girls and women are still facing a
lot of problem in participating in education. Status of Participation of Girls in Education A recent study entitled NMIS (1995 May-July) pointed out some specific characteristics of a girl as compared to a boy in terms of participation in education. A girl child, compared with a boy child of the same age, is: 2.6 tunes more at risk of bent. kept out of school, 20% more at risk of having to repeat a year, a at age 6, at twice the risk, of repeating the year, 89% more at risk of dropping out, and 2.3 times more needed for house-hold chores. Critical Issues in Girls and Women's Education All the efforts that has been made towards the increment of girls and women education deserves a great appreciation in these two decades. As ally other efforts, there are some critical issues that persisted or developed over. time. These issues Can be broadly categorized as:
Critical Issues in Socio-cultural Practices The status of female members ill the family has a colitinuum from ultra-liberal to the most conservative from one community to another due to their religious and social values, a factor which seem to make a great impact oil educational participation. 1. Social Values: Girls are often considered as only temporary residents in their ]natal homes. They eventually go to join their-in-laws where there house hold skills are more valued than education. With good intention to make their daughters' life a real success, parents tend to focus on equipping their daughters with skills that can make them adept in household chores. In some communities, parents have to pay more dowry if the daughter. has some level of literacy, as it apparently involves taking away their time for learning to read and write from household chores. On the other hand, if a sonis literate /educated, his family can demand more dowry. There are some interesting case studies, documented by Concerned Center for Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN). Among them is a case from Sarlahi district where parents thought that it involves double expenses for the parents to send their daughters to school.. Importantly, they mentioned that they have not seen ally instances of the education of girl, in whose community the leading members have helped in decreasing the bride money. Another worth mentioning case study was from Rautahat district where a woman told her story that she married her daughters off before they were twelve in order to evade their having to pay a high dowry price. However, responding to a new trend to educated girls, she sent her youngest daughter to school. She passed the primary level of education but cannot continue her further studies because the higher level school is located far from the walking distance, and it is not proper to send an adolescent girl to a distant place. Now when she wants her daughter, to get married, but due to her education her dowry charge has accelerated . Thus, she was regretting that she considered to educate her daughter (Voice of Child Workers, Issue No.24 March 1995). 2. Religious Values: Nepal is also a country where various religions co-exist, although it is a Hindu State. With this religious diversity, varieties in sociocultural characteristics is prevalent in communities. Manu Smriti says that if a girl remains unmarried after reaching puberty, the 'father' has failed in his duty towards her. Therefore, child marriage is also one of the social practices which may hinder the girls educational participation. According to UNICEF data given in CWIN journal, Nepal has the highest percentage (40%) of girl child (under 15 years of age) marriage compared to other countries in South Asia. Demographic Sample Survey, 1986/87 shows that nearly 7% of girl children were found to be married before reaching the age of 10. CWIN source also reports that the mean age at the marriage of girls in Terai, Hills, Mountains and Kathnandu Valley are respectively 15.2, 18.0, 18.5 and 18.8. (Voice of Child Workers, Issue No.24 March 1995). It is customary that girls do not continue their schooling after marriage, especially in rural communities rather than for reasons of religion or for belonging to certain ethnic groups. Similarly, Muslims have their own system of educating their children along with some extra rules for girl children. Madrassa, Muslim educational institution, is spread all over the world hi which Nepal is not an exception. Field observation showed that male and female children study together in Madrassa up to 5th grade. However, after 5th grade, ladder for girls to climb up in education in Madrassa system in Nepal seemed to be lacking. There is hardly any correlation between the curriculum of Madrassa and that of general schools. ]]ins, children from Madrassa generally are not encouraged to go to general school after 5th grade, let alone the girls. 3. Parental attitude towards girls' education: With this glimpse of sociocultural
context, parental attitude towards girls' education is obvious which seems
to testify the responses of the head teachers who were interviewed for-
NMIS (Nepal Multiple Indicator Surveillance Cycle 11) - May-July 1995. The
study made by Stri Shakti, mentioned earlier, reported that the attitude
towards the level of education for boys and girls by rural /urban sites
is different. According to their data, 24.5 percent parents hi rural areas
said that they would like to give education to boys as much as the family
can financially support while in case of girls, parents said that they will
give education to girls as long as the girls want. They do not show any
seriousness on the girls' education. Critical Issues in Government Policy Despite all the efforts the government of Nepal has been making in the field of girls' and women's education, here are still some important issues that needs to be addressed by the government. Some of them are as follows: 1. Lack of infrastructure to support the female literary program in the community level: Although gender is one of the major issues in the expansion of female education, government has not developed strong infrastructure for tackling the program. Ministry of Women and Social Welfare is established in the central level, but there is still no channel connected from center to the community level to supervise and monitor the girls' and women's education programme. For example, there is no special unit in the district level and beyond to deal with the issues related to female. Female education has been treated simply as just general education program whereas, due to sociocultural practices, it needs to get preferential treatment. It is specially necessary in rural communities. 2. Lack of supporting programs for government's policy : Government has set a policy to increase the enrollment of girls in the schools and to make education accessible to girls, and women who do not have access to formal education by providing non-formal education. A policy was made to recruit at least a female teacher in each primary school. This policy has not been really successful in rural communities, due to lack of female teachers in the local communities and female teachers from outside the community are reluctant to go to these schools as there is no incentives for them. Partly because, women find it very difficult to leave the house for the job, women teachers do not seem to spread in the rural communities. Another government policy to give scholarship to the girls, are so little that it is not significant enough to make any impact. The facilities like free textbook, uniform and mid day snack are also more like jargon than really making any impact. 3. Lack of alternative programme for school incompleters: Many girls
children from disadvantaged groups drop out from the school as they grow
up to be all adolescent. Girls get married and the boys go to earn. As there
is no alternative program for them to continue to study and get through
SLC (School Leaving Certificate), their investment in formal schooling gets
relapsed into illiteracy. On the other hand, there is a dearth of female
teachers in primary schools, specially in rural communities. If there is
all alternative system to encompass these immature school drop outs to lead
them to SLC test, there is a big chance that female teachers call be easily
available ill rural communities, too. Critical Issues in Girls' and Women Literacy Program Level Literacy programmes fol. girls and women has been organized by many national and international organizations in Nepal. It has helped immensely to bring quantitative development in the country and some definitely oil quality, too. However, these are some issues which needs attention. They are as follows: 1. Logistics of the program operation: Literacy programs, not only for women, in general are running as a "second class education", which is very discouraging to the participants. One of the studies on out-of-school children program have shown that one of the reasons, children aspire to choose school over the literacy classes ill rural areas was the venue of the class. Literacy classes, mostly, run in all open space, some one's porch or even in cow-shed, whereas all the schools, at least have a building and a secured room for children. Although similar situation is true with the adult literacy classes, there has not been any study to see how adult literacy learners feel about it. Literacy classes are run in non-formal system, however, participants have access to that class only in certain two-hour time of the day/evening. Anybody cannot make oil that time, are left out. These participants, by nature, need more flexibility in many things including time. Unless there is a fixed place or system, which runs as a drop-in center, these educationally disadvantaged girls and women will still be out of the education loop. 2. Textbooks: Most of the women's literacy classes use the Naya Goreto (A set of literacy primers developed as a national package in 1970s). Some NG0s are starting to develop literacy materials, like Women's Rehabilitation Center (WOREC) and HEAL Project of World Education Nepal. Women Education Program (WEP) of BPEP have developed three primers and a supplementary book for the facilitator for providing three levels of literacy classes. Supplementary materials to make learning interesting and provide a continuum for ]earners are still missing. One of the surveys done by CERID to identify the literacy materials in Nepal showed that there were 43 major organizations who have been producing literacy materials. Altogether 350 were counted. Among them about 70 of them were developed for women. As MOE has recently produced a blue print for literacy program, there is no systematic grading in these materials and going in every direction. Language Issue in Textbooks: Textbooks assume all learners speak Nepali in all parts of Nepal, while the census shows that there are more than 30 different language spoken mother tongues. Language issues becomes more acute as one moves into the rural and poorer community where the formal school cannot even reach. Those are the places where the disadvantaged groups as well as more illiterate women are concentrated. They may need materials which is developed based oil local context and their local language as a budging course from their everyday life to literacy classrooms. However, the ultimate goal of the literacy class is to make them functional literate in Nepali language. Thus, reaching Nepali as a second language is also a necessary approach the material developers as well as the facilitators need to be trained in. Centrally Developed Textbooks: All 2800 WEP classes are using the same textbooks all over the country. One of the important difference of NFE from formal education is flexibility and local adoption according to the need of the learners. Local adaptation of the centrally developed textbooks or development of textbooks in the local level is a quite challenging task. Thus, in order to serve this flexibility, training has to be provided to the personnel in how to develop participatory curriculum. Thus there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in the textbook development for women and specially for those who do not speak Nepali as a second language. 3. Training package is lacking gender sensitivity: Training at this moment is more focused in using the primer rather than raising, awareness on gender issues that is existing in the sociocultural practices in the communities. Training should not be just focused for the facilitators, it should rather be focused for all the personnel who are connected with and women's education programme from central level to community level. 4. Lack of effective monitoring and supervision System: Regular supervision of the classes are done by local supervisors, but these supervisors are not trained to deal with the problems of women. Supervision has to change its model from "police" work to counselor" work to the facilitator. This requires training from DEO level to local supervisors so that the paradigm of supervision and monitoring call be changed. Separate blaming packages have to be developed for DE0s (District Education Officers), Resource Persons, and Local Supervisors. 5. Evaluation Svstem still based on formal system: WEP tests are still like the one that is given to children in the primary classes or in out-of-school children's program. As these are grown up women learning to read and write, a separate system for evaluating their achievement should be developed. 6. Lack of research on real issues of female: Very few researches has been done on the real issues of women and the disadvantaged groups on the reason for their low participation in the literacy classes. Many innovative ideas are going on in the country, however, disadvantaged groups of people are still not able to participate in the programs. Thus, programs like, "POP" (poorest of the pool) are still suffering from appropriate level of participation. 7. Focus of women's only in practical needs than in strategic needs: Income-generating programs designed for women are mostly in sewing and knitting, or some local based skills. This type of program has been in a big fad for agencies who are doing women's program. The products of these income-generating programs either lack marketable quality or become too expensive for the local market. Thus, it needs to be evaluated seriously. 8. Backlash of the income-generating activity: A case study in a typical
village in suburban area in Nepal, has; demonstrated an interesting issue.
Income generating activities are being a pet program for- most of the program
implementing organisations, who believe empowerment of women lies in economic
development. Thus, loan for women program was launched in a village to give
women access to income-generating, activities. Women raised cattles for
milk. As there is a division of labour in every family, male members went
to market to sell the milk. They made more money. Families were able to
buy more cattle, which yield more milk. However, as the cattles increased
in number, they needed more food for the cattles. Usually, women manage
the food not only for family but also for the animals. Thus, they have to
spend more time to bring food to the cattles. They needed more human resources.
As practice in the families, girls get to help their mothers in this mission.
Families got more attracted in economic progress they were making. Thus,
girls had to quit schools to help the family. Conclusion Girls and women's participation has been a much talked about area nationally and internationally. Ministry of Education, other government orrganisations, national and international non-government organisations have been making abundant efforts to increase the female participation in education, through literacy classes, income-generating activities and loan programs. Still the gap between the literacy rate of male and female is widening. The reason for this is because there are some apparent causes and some real causes. Apparent causes for less girls in the school may be loaded household works, poverty and geographical distance, but the real cause is lack of acute sensitivity to towards female of the parents and the authorities in the political hierarchy. In other words, illness priests are sensitized to send their girls to school, no treatment to apparent cause is going to work. Unless there is a strong political commitment from the government, 'window decoration' policies to increase female participation is not going to effect ill the implementation level. Another level of real cause is the nature of education, which is more domesticating than liberating. Therefore, even educated people are going round the vicious circle of gender- bias in the society. Launching programs for any disadvantaged group including women and girls,
need to have a faresighted vision than short-sighted ones. One single program
cannot impact on the chronic situation of the disadvantaged group. Therefore,
there should be all integrated program launched along with literacy program
for women or any other disadvantaged group. References Acharya, M. (1994). The Statistical Profile on Nepalese Women: An Update in the Policy Context. Kathmandu: Institute for Integrated Development Studies. Ministry of Education (1971 ) National Education System Plan (NESP 19 71-76). Kathmandu: HMG, Ministry of Education, Nepal. CERID. (1995). A Profile of Non-formal Education Organisations . Kathmandu: Author Save the Children US (1996). Save the Children/US: 15 Years in Nepal. Kathmandu: Author Concerned Center for Child Workers in Nepal. (March 1995). Voice of Child Workers. Kathmandu: Author, Issue No.24. NMIS (Nepal Multiple Indicators Surveillance Cycle 11) - May-July 1995. |
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