By: Rabia Aslam
In Pakistan, girls’ lack of access to education is part of a larger narrative of gender inequality. The country has one of the highest maternal death rates in Asia. Rape, so-called “honour” killings and violence, acid assaults, domestic violence, forced marriage, and child marriage are all severe problems for which the government has inadequate answers. According to Pakistani campaigners, over 1,000 honour killings occur each year. Twenty-one percent of females marry while still in their teens. This disparity is also visible in education sector. There is a significant gender gap in every province, with a high number of both boys and girls out of school and glaring problems in the government’s approach to education. The problems young girls are encountered with are double layered. The barriers they face are within the school system as well as outside the school system.
Girls, not only, confront challenges to education outside of the school system but also face barriers in their homes and communities.
To start with the in-system barriers, it is worthy to be noted that the education department itself is responsible for many of the hurdles to girls’ education. The Pakistani government has simply failed to create an education system that meets the needs of the region’s students, particularly girls. The state does not invest enough in education. Pakistan spends a fraction of what the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommends in its education guidance. As a result, there are insufficient government schools to ensure that all students have access to one. Even in Pakistan’s big cities, many children are unable to walk to school safely and in a fair length of time due to a lack of government schools. As children, particularly girls, grow older, there is a “upward bottleneck.” Secondary schools are in lesser quantity than elementary schools, and colleges, particularly for girls, are even more sparse. As children get older, schools are more likely to be gender stratified, and there are fewer schools for girls than for boys. Many girls are forced to abandon their education because they finish one school and are unable to progress to the next grade level.
Many impoverished families who are unable to have ingress to government schools are left with options outside the system. Parents and children must navigate a complex network of private schools, informal tuition centers, NGO schools, and madrasas. Many girls engage in several—or all—of these ranges of learning without acquiring any formal credentials.
There has been voiced dissatisfaction by parents of young girls with the educational opportunities accessible to them. Some others claimed that it was so awful that sending girls to school was pointless. Parents and children in government schools complained about overcrowding, teachers not appearing regularly, and poor facilities. Concerns about poorly trained and unqualified teachers, as well as patchy and unregulated training, were raised in private schools, particularly low-cost private schools.
Girls, not only, confront challenges to education outside of the school system but also face barriers in their homes and communities. Poverty, child labor, gender inequality and detrimental social mores, insecurity and risks on the way to school, are some of these issues. Poverty is the most significant hurdle for many parents when it comes to sending their children to school. Even minimal expenditures can put education out of reach for disadvantaged families, and Pakistan has a large number of them.
Many youngsters, including girls, are absent from school due to employment. Paid employment, for young girls which often comprises home-based businesses such as sewing, embroidery, beading, or assembling products, is sometimes done. Other youngsters, almost typically girls, are kept at home to help with housekeeping or are hired as domestic servants. Some families believe that girls should not be educated or that they should not continue to study after a certain age. Different communities have quite different attitudes towards girls’ education. Families who defy cultural conventions may encounter pressure and hostility in some locations. Gender norms create economic incentives to emphasize on boys’ education. Daughters are expected to live with and serve their husband’s family, whereas sons are supposed to stay with their families, so technically, sending sons to school seems a better investment to them for the family’s financial prospects.
Girls not attending school is both a result and a cause of child marriage. In Pakistan, 21% of females marry before they turn 18, and 3% marry before they turn 15. Girls are sometimes considered ready for marriage as soon as they reach puberty, and child marriage is common in some cultures.
Above all, the girls have to face several manifestations of insecurity on their way to school. Some of which include sexual harassment, kidnapping, crime, conflict, and attacks on education.
Big decisions are required to make big changes. The reforms and actions are needed to be taken at every level. At governmental level, increase in education expenditure is needed that is in line with UNESCO recommended levels. The state should enhance surveillance of provincial education systems’ growth toward gender equality and universal primary and secondary education for all children by mandating provinces to furnish accurate data on girls’ education, supervising enrolment and attendance by girls, and establishing priorities in each province. To address the disparity between the participation of girls and boys in education, the provincial education authority should be directed to make girls’ education a primary concern within the budgetary allocations, in terms of school construction and rehabilitation, hiring and training of female teachers. Effective child labor laws should be made. Tuition, registration and other charges should be abolished by the government. schools. The poor people should be given incentives and rewards for sending their daughters to school. The state and society need to make the environment safe for the girls where they can pursue their education and turn out to be useful young members of the society. Invest in your children, especially, girls so they become fruitful and promising youth in the future. And last but not the least, we must develop a stepwise plan to ensure that all girls and boys receive free, equitable, and high-quality primary and secondary education by 2030, in order to meet Sustainable Development Goal i.e., 4.1.
The writer is an educationist, content writer, and freelance columnist with nearly more than a decade of experience in the field of education. She is an eloquent commentator on women’s rights, education, peace and interfaith harmony. She can be reached at [email protected]
