Educate The Girls

Although the African proverb, “If we educate a boy, we educate one person, if we educate a girl, we educate a family – and a whole nation,” sounds like a cliché, it is an ultimate reality. An educated pool of girls can make a huge impact in the development process of any nation.

This fact has been reflected in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number five which emphasizes “Gender Equality.” SDGs are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations to be achieved by 2030.

Since the Education for All (EFA, 2000 - 2015) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000 - 2015) were set forth a lot of improvements have been achieved in girls’ education. For instance, the enrollment rate of girls in primary as well as in secondary level education has increased, the number of girls outside of primary school has been significantly reduced and girls are, on average, completing more years of schooling. However, there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality.

The government of Nepal has taken several initiatives to encourage girls’ education at community schools, such as providing them with scholarships, implementation of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ( WASH) programme and recruiting more female teachers. Yet, their participation in the education sector remains relatively low.  As a result, there is a dire lack of women particularly in leadership roles in almost every sphere of life. Well educated girls can bring unprecedented changes firstly in their lives, families, communities and nations.

Different reports show that children of educated women are less likely to suffer infant mortality; the women who are well informed about health care are less likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or at the postpartum phase. The problem of child marriage is still acute in Nepal; to discourage this, first of all, the girls need to stand up for themselves and education helps them to do so. A research study reveals that on average, for every year a girl stays in school past fifth grade, her marriage is delayed by a year. Educated girls usually marry later, when they are better able to provide and care for their offspring. Such an aware bunch of girls can help control population growth as well because they prefer not to have many children for the welfare of their family. They will be capable of participating in politics or take up higher level decision-making roles. Most importantly, educated women have a greater chance to escape poverty by involving themselves in income generating work. This way, they can improve the standard of living for their children, families, communities and eventually their nations. 

We can say that without educating girls at the maximum level it is hard for a nation to prosper. Therefore, there should be more effective programs to bring all girls to school, to help them continue and complete schooling and encourage them to go for higher studies. Once they are able to take all the informed decisions related to their life independently we can say that the “girls’ education” mission is complete and this will contribute to the achievement of SDG 5 “Gender Equality.” Gene B. Sperling et. al. are right to say “No Nation can afford to NOT educate its girls” because investing in girls can give rise to unimaginable returns.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, Dec. 29, 2017 ) 

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