11 Women and Education

Sayani Das

Introduction

Women’s educationaims at every forms of education to improve knowledge and skills of girls and women. It includes general education at schools and colleges, vocational and technical education, professional education, and more. Women’s education encompasses both literary and non-literary, formal and informal, adult and life-long education. The importance of education for girls and women are so that they are capable of bringing socio-economic changes. The constitution of India, like almost all democratic countries, guarantees equal rights to education for both men and women.

Until the middle of nineteenth century, girls and women were trained only in traditional household works. It was the social reform movements undertaken by the socio-religious reformers like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, KeshavKarve, Savitri and JyotiraoPhule during British Colonial times; which generated the awareness on and access to education for women and girls. Now, the society is witnessing changes in the role-status of women and therefore, there is a greater emphasis on education for girls and women. The educated girls and women can exercise civil, social, political and economic rights. When a woman (or a girl) is ensured of her rights, the society at large is ensured of its development and sustainability.

Girls in Pre and Primary Education

The principal public initiative: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), aims at responding to the challenge of providing pre-school education for children in the age-group 0-5 years. ICDS also aims at breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality. It seeks to improve the nutritional and health status of children in this tender age-group to lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the children and reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school Drop-out in later childhood years.

‘The Rightof Children to Free and Compulsory EducationAct’ or ‘Right to Education Act’ and also known as RTE, is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, upholding the constitutional provision of equal rights of girls and boys to formal education. Primary education is now a fundamental right for both boys and girls in the age group of 6-15 years.

Primary school enrollment in India has been a success story, largely due to the various governmental programmes and non-governmental drives to increase enrolment of children even in remote areas. Since RTE Act of 2009, enrollment has reached to 96 percent, and girls are making up 56 percent of new students between 2007 and 2013. Therefore, it is clear that many problems of access to schooling have been addressed like the improvements to infrastructure – classroom, toilet, water and sanitation– which have been priorities since decades. India now has 1.4 million schools and 7.7 million teachers so that 98 percent of habitations have a primary school (class I-V) within one kilometer and 92 percent have an upper primary school (class VI-VIII) within a three-kilometer walking distance.

Despite many improvements in primary education, keeping children in school for longer-term is still an issue. Children, especially girls drop-out from schools at a higher rate. Nationally 29 percent of children drop-out before completing five years of primary schooling, and 43 percent before finishing upper primary schooling. This makes India among the top five nations for ‘out-of-school’ children of primary school age. In fact, 8.15 million (4.28%) of 6 to 14 years old children are not still attending school in India, among which girl children population is higher than the boys.For scheduled caste and scheduled tribe girls, the gender gap in education is almost 30 per cent at the primary level and 26 per cent at the upper primary stage. In most remote regions, the probability of girls getting primary education is about 42 per cent lower than boys, and it remains so even when other variables, such as religion and caste, are controlled.

To bridge this gender gap of enrolment, the Indian Government has made female education as a priority. SarvaShikshaAbhiyan (SSA) or “Education for All” is a flagship programme for the achievement of universal primary education. It places special emphasis on female education and the achievement of gender parity, targeted to be attained forthe United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Moreover, with a view to enhancing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among primary school children, the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education was launched in August 1995. During 2008-09, the Scheme was extended to cover children in upper primary classes and the Scheme was renamed as ‘National Programme of Mid-Day Meal in Schools’.

However, in many ways schools are not equipped to handle the full population due to shortage of teachers (almost 6,89,000) in primary schools. Moreover, only 53 percent of schools have functional girls’ toilets and 74 percent have access to drinking water.

According to the NGO Pratham’s Annual Status of Education 2016 Report, the quality of learning is a major issue in all schools and children are not achieving class-appropriate levels of teaching and learning.Close to 78 percent of children in standard III and about 50 percent of children in standard V cannot yet read standard II texts.Only 26 percent students in standard V can do anarithmetic problem. Children cannot effectively progress in the education system without the improvement of quality learning in schools and it is thus the next big challenge for both the state and central governments.

Improving learning will require attention to many things, including increasing teacher accountability (teacher attendance is just 85 percent in primary and middle schools). Better assessments at each standard level, more efficient monitoring and support systems, better management system are also specific needs for improvement in primary education system.

‘Universalisation of elementary education’ in India targets universal access and enrolment, universal retention, bridging gender and social category gaps in primary and upper primary education, and elementary education of satisfactory quality.

Women in Secondary& Higher Secondary Education

The number of secondary schools (Classes IX & X, age 14-15 years) and higher secondary schools (Classes XI-XII, age 16-17 years) has increased from 1,26,047 in 2000-01 to 2,37,111 in 2013-14. The expansion of secondary and higher secondary schools or sections has resulted in considerable increase in enrolment in secondary and higher secondary education. Between 2000-2001 and 2013-2014, the enrolment in secondary/higher Secondary education has increased by 32 million (from 27.6 million to 59.6 million). The enrolment of boys has increased by 14.6 million (from 16.9 million to 31.5 million) while the enrolment of girls increased by 17.4 million (from 10.7 million to 28.1 million) during this period. The percentage increase in enrolment was much higher for girls (162.6 per cent) than that for boys (86.4 per cent) during the period 2000-2001 to 2013-2014.

The Gross Enrolment Ratio in secondary education has increased by 24.9 percentage points (from 51.7 per cent in to 76.6per cent) during this period. The Gross Enrolment Ratio(GER) determines the number of students enrolled in school at several different grade levels on gender basis. It shows the percentage of student enrolment in secondary and higher secondary schools as well as enrolment in courses offered by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). The Open and Distance Learning Programmes have been initiated as a project in 1979 by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), and now emerged as an important system of education for meeting the learning needs of young boys and girls in India due to transport limitations and mobility restrictions. The increase in GER has been higher for girls (31.2 percentage points) than that for boys (19.4 percentage points) during the period 2004-05 to 2013-14. The Gender Parity Index (GPI) for GER in secondary education (Classes IX-X) improved from 0.79 in 2004-2005 to 1.0 in 2013-2014; while the GPI for GER in higher secondary education improved from 0.80 to 0.98 during this period. However, overall high school completion rate is only 42 percent.

Therefore, a nationwide effort for adult and continuing education was set in motion with the establishment of the National Literacy Mission (NLM) in 1988. The NLM sought to ensure that that the Total Literacy Campaign and the Post-Literacy Programmes are successfully carried on to the continuing education in order to provide life-long learning for people of India, who miss/drop-out formal school education due to variouscircumstances. According to the criteria followed in Censuses in India, a person aged seven years and above with the ability to both read and write, with understanding in any language, is treated as literate. The increased enrolment at the elementary and secondary stages and the expansion of adult education programmes have resulted in substantial increase in youth literacy rate (15-24 years). The increase in youth literacy rate (age 15-24 years) was higher for females (14.1 percentage points) than for males (5.85 percentage points). The gender gap in youth literacy rate declined from 16.44 percentage points in 2001 to 8.2 percentage points in 2011. There is an improvement in gender parity in literacy rates, the number of female literates per 100 male literates has gone up from 71 to 80 during the period 2001-2011.

Despite an impressive increase in literacy rate among population aged 15 years and above during the period 2001-2011, wide gender and regional disparities in adult literacy levels persist. Nationally the gender gap was 19.5 percentage points, 9.5 percent more than the targeted 10 per cent. Only seven States/Union Territories achieved the target of reducing gender gap in adult literacy rates to less than 10 percentage points. These States/UTs include Andaman & Nicobar Islands (9.5 percentage points), Goa (9.1 percentage points), Kerala (4.6 percentage points), Lakshadweep (9.1 percentage points), Meghalaya (5.1 percentage points), Mizoram (4.8 percentage points), and Nagaland (8.4 percentage points).

Women in Higher & Tertiary Education

The issue of women entering in higher education came firmly from the global political agenda in 1998 under the leadership of UNESCO, which prepared The Higher Education and Women: Issues and Perspectives for the 1998 World Conference on Higher Education, specifically focused on the issues related to women. However in India, it was much earlier by the Kothari Commission (1964-66) that had emphasized on equal educational opportunities for women and had also suggested effective steps to achieve it. As pointed out by KarunaChanana, the first two Five Year Plans (1951-56 and 1956-61) acknowledged the problems related to women’s education and tried to link education with employment. It was after the publication of the Report of the Committee on the Education of Women in 1959 that led to a more focused attention, which later got sharpened with the Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in 1974 and women’s education was placed within the broader framework of developmental issues. The National Policy of Education (1986), broadening the vision further underscored the role of education in empowering women that would overcome inequalities and disparities (Chanana, 2005).

Subsequent Five Year Plans and various committees including the National Perspective Plan (1988-2000) have stressed the need for greater participation of women in higher education. These efforts have resulted in increase in women accessing higher education. According to Educational Statistics published by Ministry of Human Resource Development (2014), the enrolment in education in India has witnessed a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 25.7 percent, in Secondary to Higher Secondary Education (Standards IX-X and XI-XII respectively). The drop-out Rates [ie., the percentage of students who drop-out from a given level of education] between school education have fallen to 18.3 percent from 2000 to 2014. The enrolment in Higher Education has grown at a CAGR of about 44.5 percent with total enrolment in different years of study in Higher Education in India with about 29.6 million students by 2013. According to All India Survey on Higher Education (2012-13) the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) [ie., total enrolment of students in a given level of education] among age group (18-23 years) in higher education in India is 21.1 (Male – 22.3 and Female – 19.8; Gender Gap is 2.5). Gender Parity Index (GPI) [ie., the ratio of girls to boys in a given level of education] for the same age group among all categories of students in higher education in India is 0.89 (SC – 0.89 and ST – 0.79) and in Tamil Nadu is 0.86 (SC – 0.89 and ST – 0.82). Number of girls per hundred boys enrolled in Higher Education in India in 2012-2013 is 81, which is a steep rise from 13 in 1950-1951. Drop-out Rate among age group (18-23 years) in higher education in India is not available and it may be estimated from the available data (AISHE,2012-13) as given in the table.

LOOK AT THE Table: Estimated Drop-out Rate among Age Group (18-23 years) in Higher Education

Among drop-out population 51.5 percent are male and 49.1 percent are female students. Gender Gap in drop-out population is 2.4 percent only. This is due to the fact that male students in the age group of (18-23 years) drop-out to meet the societal or gender stereotypic demand for being ‘bread-winner’ in the family. While female students in the same age group drop-out to meet the societal or gender stereotypic demand for ‘marriage’. We have to notice here that there is a large gender gap of 10.2 percent between the male and female students enrolled in higher education than the population demography and drop-out statistics. This table can explain the social discrimination on women in the age group of (18-23 years) to not enroll in higher education due to priority given on marriage, child-bearing and family care. According to Gandhi Kingdon (2010), the gender gap in educational attainment in India can be potentially explained by differential treatment of sons and daughters by parents. Girls face significantly different treatment in the intra-household allocation and expenses on education and there is a large unexplained component in the gender gap in education attainment.

According to National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), more students choose higher education, but drop-out even more. Survey comparing data from 1991-2000 to 2001-2010 period found that attendance rates in the higher education increased by 71 percent for male students and 110 percent for female students in rural areas. In urban areas, the growth was 40 percent for males and 45 percent for females. Although the rise in percentage terms is a marked improvement over the decades, the data showed that the drop-out rate also kept in pace. In 2009-2010, the attendance rates were just 19 percent for males and 8 percent for females in rural areas; in urban areas, corresponding figures were 33 percent and 24 percent, respectively. This state of higher education compared badly with those in the age group of 5-14 years, where 87 percent of boys and 84 percent of girls were attending school in rural areas, and 91 percent of all boys and girls in urban areas. While current attendance rates indicate a positive trend for the future, existing educational levels of population in the age group of 15 years and above, continue to be dismal. This is much higher than the rural areas where only 3.7 percent of males and a mere 1.6 percent of females have gone up to graduation or beyond. What is even more alarming is that in 10 years between 1999-2000 and 2009-10, the graduate and above segment of the urban population declined by 5 percent among males, although it increased by 10 percent among females. Due to rural-urban differential, the new social demand for education in the rural areas is still driving educational levels higher. The proportion of graduates and above went up by 78 percent among females but only 12 percent in males in rural areas. In urban areas, about 15 percent of males and 11 percent of females are graduates or above. To arrest this trend of drop-out, Central and State Governments are offering scholarships to promote higher education among students, belonging to the weaker sections of the society, who are unable to further their education for some reason or the other. There are a variety of scholarships – merit-based, need-based, student-specific, career-specific and college-specific available for women students.

TheTableexplains the societal and familial priorities against education for women and thus the stated reasons for drop-out by young women from completing their higher education. Reproductive role of women is so demanding in society that the drop-out from education primarily occurs due to early marriage and immediate pregnancy in a physically and mentally premature age of 18-20 years. Sexual and gender-based violence in public and private places is another major detering factor for drop-out, since young girls are traditionally guarded by family to protect their purity and virginity for marriage. Gender stereotypes are rampant and constraints girls’ and women’s freedom of choice and voice, independence and mobility, development and empowerment. Gender stereotypes are over-generalizations of male versus female characteristics of an entire group based on their gender-roles in society. In every society there is positive stereotype for men, but negative stereotype for women. Girls and women’s domestic work in family and care for members (child/adult/aged) are superimposed as ‘common-good’ against their own needs and development or ‘personal-good’ in a patriarchal society. Hence, they are expected to sacrifice education for economic demands of family maintenance and/or earning/saving for their own, or siblings’ costs of and payments for marriage. Social restrictions and family-time demands constantly conflict with women’s education and development. Lack of support from government (Centre and State), education institution, family and community make it even more difficult for women to continue their higher studies. Health and environment needs for women in education institutions are also neglected leading to their drop-out. Their gender-specific needs like separate common-room or rest-room and toilets are necessity for young women to feel safe and secure when away from home environment. Nonetheless, academic demands are also high in higher education – like: English (foreign) language of instruction, lack of interest in subject due to parents’ choice than their own, and lack of understanding and training to cope with the studying and learning methods for higher education. All these socio-cultural-economically interdependent factors add up to substantial reasons for drop-out by young college/university going women from higher education.

Conclusion

In the words of KarunaChanana, Indian educational policy has failed to integrateits functions, which remain as sectoral aims, even at the conceptual level (Chanana, 1993). Further, in the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic Indian society, the parameters of gender, caste, class, religion and region are crucial in determining access to all levels of education. Again, gender becomes the all-inclusive negative parameter conferring cumulative and competing disadvantages on women. The educational policies and programs are unable to encompass the complex social reality within a single framework and are, therefore, unable to bridge the gap between policy and practice.

Hence the rise of adult and life-long education in India, designed to extend educational option to those adults who have lost the opportunity of formal education but feel the need for learning and joining different types of education programme, including literacy, basic education, vocational education (skill development), equivalency, physical and emotional development, practical arts, applied science and recreation. Upto March 2014, about 154,000 Adult Education Centers (AECs) have been set up, 96.2 million learners have been identified and 24.7 million participants (including 17.8 million women, 5.72 million SCs, 1.17 million STs and 2.02 million Minorities) have been certified by National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS).National Policy on Skill Development (NSDP) launched in 2009 and National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) notified in 2013 continue its role in making ‘Skill India’, with a target for skilling 500 million men and women by 2020.

SUMMARY

The importance of women’s education are briefly summarized below:

1. Economic development and prosperity: Education will empower women to come forward and contribute towards the development and prosperity of the country.
2. Economic empowerment: So long as women remain backward and economically dependent on men, the helpless condition of them cannot be changed. Economic empowerment and independence will only come through proper education and leading to employment of women.
3. Improved life: Education helps a woman to live a good life. Her identity as an individual would never get lost. She can read and learn about her rights. Her rights would not get trodden down. The life or condition of women would improve a lot, if we take a broad outlook in the field of female education.
4. Improved health: Educated girls and women are aware of the importance of health and hygiene. Through health education, they are empowered to lead a healthy life-style. Educated mothers can take better care of both herself and her baby.
5. Dignity and honor: Educated women are now looked upon with dignity and honor. They become a source of inspiration for millions of young girls who make them their role-models.
6. Justice: Educated women are more informed of their rights for justice. It would eventually lead to decline in instances of violence and injustice against women such as dowry, forced-prostitution, child-marriage, female foeticide, and other gender based violence
7. Choice to choose a profession of her choice: Educated women can prove to be highly successful in the fields of life and career. A girl-child should get equal opportunity for education, so that, she can plan to become a successful doctors, engineers, managers, entrepreneurs, leaders, or choose any profession of her choice.
8. Alleviation of poverty: Women education is a pre-requisite to alleviate poverty. This would demand contributions from educated women. There cannot be much social and economic changes unless girls and women are given their rights for education.

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