UN reports huge gender gap in education
A new United Nations reports shows a majority of the 115 million children worldwide who are excluded from receiving an education are girls. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries with the widest gender gaps in education. The Progress for Children report states that barriers to achieving gender parity in education include poverty, HIV/AIDS and conflict. Though the report shows that more children are attending school overall, a quantum leap and an extra $5.6 billion a year in aid are needed to reach the Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015.
According to the Executive Director of UNICEF Carol Bellamy, The goal of universal primary education with equal opportunity for girls and boys is realistic. It is affordable, it is achievable and whats more, its our childrens birthright. Education is about more than just learning. In many countries its a life-saver, especially where girls are concerned. A girl out of school is more likely to fall prey to HIV/AIDS and less able to raise a healthy family, reports UN News Service.
Girls education definitely plays a very important role in the development of any society – it can solve many of the seemingly non-related social problems. But whats a major barrier to this is often the culture and mindset of the people – lets hope the the UNICEF and the Millenium Development Comm will be able to change that for the better..
I wonder if the matriarchal traditions in Kerala had anything to do with the higher literacy rates…
I don’t think there is much of a doubt that education of females will improve the quality of any society (not necessarily in economic terms – e.g. Kerala)
Interesting I had left a comment on another post by Sanjana on status of a women whose husband had left her coz she gave birth to a girl. You might want to take a look at it here: http://learnintoblog.blogspot.com/2005/04/pray.html
Interesting post indeed..
the black background is really hard to read – so am just gonna post a small comment to ur comment here..
>>role of women in furthering this situation..
i don’t think thats really true.Maybe in some cases, some women feel that "I went through this, so should she". But by and large, I feel women are supportive of each other.
And I have to disagree when you say in Kerala context, mothers more often say No to their daughters – except when it came to me leaving India, my mom was very supportive of all the non-traditional things I did…And I have heard similar stories from my girl friends too..You could check with your sis, if you have one – most girls get things done (and their father’s approval)Â through their mothers, esp so in Kerala.
I entered the working world with a lot of apprehension about women coworkers – women in finance being infamously known for being b****** – but i have seen that when the rubber hits the road, women do support each other – and the idea of women playing a bigger role in bringing misery to other women is something men tell themselves to feel less guilty.
But I completely agree with you that men and women are different and we need to accept the differences, instead of wasting energy on finding out whats equal….afterall, two halves need to complement, and not overlap, to make the whole.
ok, maybe the comment should rightfully be posted over there – screw my poor eyes..