IMPORTANCE OF GIRL EDUCATION

                     GIRLS EDUCATION

The condition of women in our past was miserable for education. They did not get equal treatment. They were denied the right to education. Many girls in certain communities, girls were not allowed to be sent to school. Education was imparted in traditional Paathshala, Madrassas, Mosques and Gurukuls. However, way back in our past, the life was much harder for majority of the women.

Globally, gender inequality is illustrated from the fact that some 39 million girls of lower secondary age are currently not enrolled in either primary or secondary education, while two third of the world's 796 million illitrate adults are women. In recent decades, there have been large gains, no doubt on comparable levels, in basic rights and opportunities, in life expectancy and enrollment ratio for women. But despite these gains the harsh reality is that there still exist large gender disparities in basic human rights, resources, and economic, opportunity, and in political right all over the world.

There are many reasons for retention and exclusion of girls of schooling of girls. Some of major reasons are given below :-

1. Poverty

2. Compulsion of older girls in families having to look after the home and siblings

3. Bias against the girl child.

4. What is taught in schools is not relevant to life.

5. Parents see limited (economic) benefits in educating their daughters

6. Lack of women teachers and separate schools for girls.

7. Supportive facilities not available(like adequate and clean toilets in schools) and transport facilities to travel to school and back.

8. Girls leave school earlier, especially in rural areas where they are needed to help with domestic and productive work.

9. The lack of transport or of schools located near the home widens the literacy gap by directly affecting girls' school attendance, as parents, tend to worry about the personal safety of their daughters.

10. In some societies, rigid cultural patterns and social rules restrict women's movements outside the home and etc.

All these factors stated above inhibit parents from getting their girl child enrolled. Girls have to stay at home and once they attain puberty, they must be protected till they are married. In addition to this, the commonly held belief that marriage is the be all and end all for girls, leading to early marriage, pregnancy and having children.

The Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India (1974), found that some teenage girls were supporting families of sick and unemployed parents and siblings on their sole earnings. 'It should be noted', the Report said, 'that girls constitute a higher proportion of the unpaid family workers throughout the country, and that is a major reason for their exclusion from school.' 'Fear of alienation of girls from their environment, is another inhibiting factor for not sending girls to school,' said the Report.

Consequences :-

This result in high dropout rates at (upper) primary stage, there is a gap in retention of girls in schools, even if they enroll at the primary stage, in many places of rural areas, where there ate primary schools, there is no scope for studying further, as there are no nearby schools having upper primary and secondary sections and the girls are not sent to far away schools because of this, fear of the girl child's volunerability of often the only reason given, enough opportunities for girls to achieve their full potential im the way as, boys do in the education system and often there are unrecognized, unintended and unknown biases in the minds of the teacher, administrator and peers in schools, which affect girl education.

But now a days status of women in modern age is improving. As we all know the modern age can be referred to the period after independence ofvour country. The article 15 of the constitution guarantees equal rights for both sexes. In the light of the provisions of the constitution, the social legislation has been passed to improv the education, health facilities and economic position. Due to the new socio-economic backgrounds, access towards education, norms and principles, lot of improvement took place in certain areas.

To improve the status and position of women it is necessary factors to have the removal of all the anomalies in the rights of men and women. Tge Hindu Code Bill covered all the aspects regarding the rights of women. Education advancement with the improved social status of women the claim to educational opportunities also received greater attention in the past few decades. The University Education Commission (1948), in its report , rightly pointed out tge impotance of women 's education, both in home and general. The percentage of girls above the age of 14 years attending high schools or university was muvj less compared to boys. The second five year plans suggested improvement in this accord by opening more educational institutions for women for their integrated empowerment.

PROBLEM OF WOMEN IN MODERN EDUCATION :-

Through, India women have come a long way since independence, they are suffering from untold miseries even in this modern age. The chief problems confronted by the modern women are the following:

Dual role : the present day women are educated and outstanding. Hence, she is both, tge bread winner and the home maker. She is expected to perform these roles without making any compromise at any place. As she has to compete with her counterparts in his workplace, she is striving hard to prove herself. At home, she has to do all the household chores and child rearing works, as her husband is untrained or unwilling to take part in her burden. She is the guide, friend, philosoper, advocate and to the whole family members.

Dowry harassment and even dowry deaths :The dowry system is still practiced in our society and women are subjected to untold miseries because of the dowry demand. The women brought less 'Sridhans' or dowry, are harassed by in-laws and husbands. Many homicide also take place because of dowry demands. Dowry problem lead to late marriage and some women have to remaim single if they cannot afford dowry.

Educational Disparities : The literacy rates of men in the country are substantially higher than those of the females. For every hundred literate men, online sixty-two women are literate. Through these figures have been improving over the decades, still today, man's education is given preference to wpman's education. The boys in the family are encouraged for the higher education, whereas girls are discourage to higher education in the rural area and in the urban areas.

Here, one thing is notable that the state of Kerala has higher illiteracy rate and educational level to the women folk as compared with those in other states like Rajasthan and Bihar. Thus women education is viewed as unreproductive compared to male education, as he would earn and support the parents in later life.