 |
|
| Kathmandu, Sunday April 06, 2003 Chaitra 23, 2059. |
|
25 pc of school-age girls
deprived of basic education
By Nitya Nanda Timsina
KATHMANDU, April 5 : A quarter of Nepal’s
primary school-age girls face a bleak prospect for their education as they never attend
school, according to Department of Education (DoE).
Almost 374,478 girls (6-10 years) never attend
school. Another 5,557,766 (57.51 percent) women (six years and above) cannot read and
write, according to latest official estimates.
The latest statistics on adult literacy show
that women lag far behind their male counterparts in literacy, by almost 23 percent,
illustrating that the gender-gap in education is only marginally narrowed, from what it
was a decade ago. As against 65.5 percent male literate, there are only 42.8 percent
female literate.
Of the total 9,663,234 female population in
Nepal (2001 census), only 4,105,468 can read and write, according to Central Bureau of
Statistics (CBS).
"Poverty is the single most important
barrier against girls’ education. Next, is lack of awareness," said Ram Pyari
Shrestha, deputy director at the Women Education Section, DoE.
Speaking to The Sunday Post on the eve of global
Education for All (EFA) Week, Shrestha said Nepal is struggling against heavy odds to
bridge this gender disparity in education. Women Education Section provides incentives and
scholarships for girls.
While some progress has been achieved in raising
the enrolment rate with the launch of the Basic and Primary Education Programme (BPEP),
basic education is still not universal. Exclusion is higher for girls and the challenge is
daunting to enrol all girls into school by 2005, according to Shrestha.
Nepal was one of the 180 countries during the
World Education Forum in Senegalese capital, Dakar in April 2000, which had promised to
put equal number of girls and boys into school by 2005. Two years to go, 25 percent of the
total primary age girls still remain deprived of their right to basic and primary
education, according to the DoE, statistics section.
Research suggests Nepalis parents in remote
areas are less likely to send their daughters to a boarding school. They prefer to send
sons to boarding schools and confine their daughters to public school, which fare poorly.
The government has incentive-packages like
scholarships and school uniforms for attracting girls to school but the educationalists
say it has become a ‘total failure’.
Dr Mana Prasad Wagle, educationalist, says
unless scholarship covering ‘opportunity cost’ is provided to parents and
residential facilities are provided to girls, government promises to put equal number of
girls and boys to school by 2005, would prove to be a failure.
These girls will be denied a fundamental human
right spelt out in international instruments the Nepal government has signed on to if they
are not enrolled by that date (2005), according to Dr Suman K Tuladhar of UNICEF. She was
addressing a gathering of educationalists at a function organised by Education Journalists’
Group on the eve of global EFA week, which lasts from April 6 -13 the world over.
The UN in Dakar has recognised that every head
of governments must put equal number of girls and boys in school by the year 2005. It has
also recognised that education is one of the most powerful weapons against poverty.
As data shows, the last pockets of deprivation
from education in Nepal are more likely going to be girls and the rural people. Besides,
there are other pockets of inequalities aggravating the situation. There are regional and
ethnic disparities among the districts and among the lowlands and the mountains.
The urban literacy is many times higher than the
countryside. For instance, Kathmandu has the highest literacy rate with 77.11 percent
while Humla, a remote mid-western district has a dismal 26 percent literacy.
The latest figures provided by the Non-Formal
Education (NFE) centre show that Marwadi, Bahun and Newar communities comprise the highest
literate groups with literacy rate 80.0, 74.90 and 71.22 percentages respectively.
Mushahar, followed by Chhamar, Khatway and Chepang do not have even basic skills to break
out of poverty. While Mushahar has five-percent literacy rate, the later three communities
have 14.6, 12.4 and 10.8 percentages respectively.
However, government education officials are
optimistic that Nepal is within reach to provide EFA by 2015.
"We are pretty much sure that we are within
reaching the deadline for EFA by 2015," Ram Balak Singh, deputy director at the
planning section, DoE earlier told The Sunday Post.
According to Singh, the World Bank and number of
donors have plans to invest money on Nepal’s primary education, especially on
decentralising of public primary schools. They have, in the recent meeting, agreed to
increase their financial involvement on education sector and have set 2009 as the deadline
for fulfilling universal elementary education.
Other Stories
|
