Introduction
Female
education is a
catch-all term for a complex of issues and debates surrounding education (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education and health education in
particular) for females. It includes areas of gender equality and
access to education, and its connection to the alleviation of poverty.
Also involved are the issues of single-sex education and religious education, in that the division of education
along gender lines,
and religious teachings on education, have been traditionally dominant, and are
still highly relevant in contemporary discussion of female education as a
global consideration. While the feminist movement has
certainly promoted the importance of the issues attached to female education,
discussion is wide-ranging and by no means confined to narrow terms of
reference: it includes for example AIDS. Universal education, meaning state-provided primary and
secondary education independent of gender, is not yet a global norm, even if it
is assumed in most developed countries.
Available materials on girls’
education in Bangladesh are mainly based on the analysis of quantitative data
and EFA-focused indicators. Therefore, there are few opportunities to include
local narratives and gendered learning experiences. Since the 1990 World
Declaration on Education for All (EFA), there has been significant progress
made in addressing gender disparities in access to schooling in Bangladesh
Situation of Girls’ education
Educational
attainment for women in Bangladesh was once among the lowest in the world. The
1991 census indicated that only 20% of women were literate, with a rate of 14%
in rural areas. The enrollment rate in primary schools for girls was 64% in
1990 compared to 74% for boys. The gender disparity was even starker in
secondary education, in which only 33% of enrolled students and 29% of
graduates were girls
Primary level
With a population of 130 million
Bangladesh has around 19 million children of primary school age (ages
6-10). Almost half are girls. Tremendous efforts in the
past decade have been successful in getting more girls into school, resulting
in gender parity in enrolments in primary and lower secondary schools, but the
percentage of girls begins to decline in the later secondary
years. When the girl dropouts are added to the number of girls who
have never enrolled, there are still approximately 1.5 million primary school
age girls out of school. The poor quality of education results in
low achievement levels for girls and boys, and limited options for girls and
women within the greater society exacerbate the problems of inadequate
schooling for girls.
During
the 1990s Bangladesh recorded a remarkable achievement in primary education
with net and gross enrolments and completion rates all increasing by over 20
percent of the total cohort, 10 per cent never enroll, 34 per cent drop out, 28
per cent complete but do not achieve the minimum expected learning outcomes and
only 28 per cent complete with satisfactory achievement.
|
Number of Students
Enrolled in Primary Schools and Percentage of Boys and Girls
|
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Secondary level
As recently as 1991, the
educational attainment of Bangladeshi women was among the lowest in the
world. Eighty percent were illiterate. Equipped with few skills and
uninformed about health care, family planning, and nutrition, they were trapped
in a cycle of dependency.
To
ensure that school-age girls, especially those in rural areas, receive an
education, the Female Secondary School Assistance Project was set up in the
early 1990s by the World Bank and the government of Bangladesh. The
project provided incentives to keep girls in schools and resulted in a sharp
rise in the number of girls enrolled in grades six through ten.
The
girls brought into the program, mainly from poor rural families, receive a
small cash stipend to ease the financial burden of their education. To
further encourage schools to enroll girls, a tuition assistance payment has
also been provided to schools that choose to participate in the
program. In the areas targeted by the project, female enrollment more than
doubled to more than 1 million in 2001 from 462,000 in 1994. The overall
proportion of females who married at an early age in areas served by the
project declined between 1992 and 1995, to 14 percent from 19 percent for
13 to 15-year-olds, and to 64 percent from 72 percent for 16 to 19-year-olds.
Aggregate secondary enrollments, 1995–2005, by grade
and gender
|
Year
|
Sex
|
Grade 6
|
Grade 7
|
Grade 8
|
Grade 9
|
Grade 10
|
Total
|
|
1995
|
Total
|
1,426,399
|
1,209,619
|
1,009,321
|
782,371
|
630,899
|
5058,610
|
|
Girls
|
699,939
|
591,840
|
475,374
|
341,361
|
264,328
|
2,372,842
|
|
|
% of girls
|
49.07
|
48.93
|
47.10
|
43.63
|
41.90
|
46.91
|
|
|
1996
|
Total
|
1,575,237
|
1,335,684
|
1,114,419
|
863,862
|
696,604
|
5,585,806
|
|
Girls
|
775,021
|
655,252
|
526,307
|
377,890
|
292,604
|
2,627,073
|
|
|
% of girls
|
49.20
|
49.06
|
47.23
|
43.74
|
42.00
|
47.03
|
|
|
1997
|
Total
|
1,727,103
|
1,464,455
|
1,221,858
|
947,146
|
763,763
|
6,124,325
|
|
Girls
|
861,899
|
728,703
|
585,304
|
420,250
|
325,404
|
2,921,560
|
|
|
% of girls
|
49.90
|
49.76
|
47.90
|
44.37
|
42.61
|
47.70
|
|
|
1998
|
Total
|
1,841,802
|
1,559,274
|
1,308,464
|
1,102,025
|
957,513
|
6,769,078
|
|
Girls
|
951,782
|
812,855
|
685,637
|
557,078
|
457,390
|
3,464,742
|
|
|
% of girls
|
51.68
|
52.13
|
52.40
|
50.55
|
47.77
|
51.18
|
|
|
1999
|
Total
|
1,931,857
|
1,706,516
|
1,408,810
|
1,139,710
|
1,050,046
|
7,236,939
|
|
Girls
|
1,003,007
|
891,146
|
744,220
|
597,816
|
522,634
|
3,758,823
|
|
|
% of girls
|
51.92
|
52.22
|
52.83
|
52.45
|
49.77
|
51.94
|
|
|
2000
|
Total
|
1,957,398
|
1,722,863
|
1,524,492
|
1,348,770
|
1,093,362
|
7,646,885
|
|
Girls
|
1,023,700
|
914,050
|
843,088
|
699,164
|
540,235
|
4,020,237
|
|
|
% of girls
|
52.30
|
53.05
|
55.30
|
51.84
|
49.41
|
52.57
|
|
|
2001
|
Total
|
2,008,565
|
1,767,903
|
1,564,350
|
1,406,242
|
1,139,950
|
7,887,010
|
|
Girls
|
1,064,312
|
950,312
|
876,536
|
736,135
|
568,802
|
4,196,097
|
|
|
% of girls
|
52.99
|
53.75
|
56.03
|
52.35
|
49.90
|
53.20
|
|
|
2002
|
Total
|
2,079,712
|
1,831,573
|
1,618,924
|
1,445,296
|
1,186,629
|
8,162,134
|
|
Girls
|
1,106,329
|
987,708
|
910,537
|
765,425
|
590,479
|
4,360,778
|
|
|
% of girls
|
53.2
|
53.93
|
56.24
|
52.96
|
49.76
|
53.43
|
|
|
2003
|
Total
|
2,052,219
|
1,832,685
|
1,616,291
|
1,440,158
|
1,185,009
|
8,126,362
|
|
Girls
|
1,052,498
|
974,348
|
899,735
|
765,272
|
630,715
|
4,322,568
|
|
|
% of girls
|
51.3
|
53.2
|
55.7
|
53.1
|
53.2
|
53.2
|
|
|
2004
|
Total
|
1,926,409
|
1,700,118
|
1,517,666
|
1,364,296
|
994,758
|
7,503,247
|
|
Girls
|
1,001,007
|
904,147
|
812,256
|
706,788
|
500,917
|
3,925,110
|
|
|
% of girls
|
51.96
|
53.20
|
53.52
|
51.81
|
50.36
|
52.31
|
|
|
2005
|
Total
|
1,976,729
|
1,685,056
|
1,481,110
|
1,294,110
|
961,547
|
7,398,552
|
|
Girls
|
1,030,127
|
881,506
|
779,147
|
675,859
|
501,375
|
3,868,014
|
|
|
% of girls
|
52.11
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bangladesh
has made impressive strides in a relatively short time in terms of achieving
gender parity at both primary and secondary levels. The country has now
surpassed target 4: Eliminate gender
disparity in primary and secondary school of the gender-related MDG 3 (Promote
gender equality and empower women). It should be noted here that the broader
goal of promoting gender equality and empowering women has certainly not been
achieved, and the target 4 does not necessarily indicate progress towards the larger
goal—especially as it focuses on enrollment rather than educational outcomes.
Higher/Tertiary level
Tertiary education in Bangladesh takes
place at 34 government and 54 private universities. Students can choose to
further their studies in engineering, technology, agriculture and medicine at a
variety of universities and colleges.
The benefits of educating
girls have reached far beyond increasing individual opportunity. Higher
education levels for girls have been shown to alleviate problems such as high
birth rates, poor health practices and high maternity and infant
mortality. This project is providing continued support to a very effective
effort on the part of the Bangladeshi government to enable poor rural girls to
improve not only their own lives, but the well-being of the country.
Now-a-days girls enrolment
is almost equal or more than boys in higher education in Bangladesh.
Barriers, Cause, Strategies and Possible Intervetion in
girls’ education
An Action Aid nation-wide
study on gendered violence in education, which included responses (n=856) from
adolescent boys, girls, teachers, parents, and civil society groups, found that
86% of girls reported that they faced harassments on the way to school, and 97%
of boys reported that they harassed girls on the way to school. While this is
obviously intimidating for girls, 78% said that they felt intimidated while 54%
stated that it would not stop them from studying. Parents, however, did not
necessarily agree. With the burden of marrying off their daughters firmly in
mind, 73% said that ‘eve-teasing’ was the reason enough to stop education of
their daughters. Household data from Education Watch 2005 found that 4% of
drop-outs among rural girls are due to security concerns. Moreover, if the
distance to school is too far, or the route too public, a girl may not be
allowed to attend.
Activities for increasing girls’ education
Steps taken by Government
- Emphasis has
been given on reducing disparity between male and female in education
sector. In order to expand women's education, nurture empowerment and
ensure women's participation in development activities, female students
have been provided stipends in secondary schools in 460 rural upazillas.
- Stipend programs
have been able to play a landmark role in reducing dropout and increasing
enrollment in secondary education. As an outcome of stipend program the
rate of teenage marriage has decreased rapidly.
- In order to
empower women in education sector, different development projects are
being implemented, such as, Female Secondary Stipend Project, Female
Secondary School Assistance Project (2nd phase), and Establishment of 3
Mohila Polytechnic Institutes at 3 Divisional Headquarters. EU assisted
Program to Motivate, Train, and Employ Female Teachers in Rural Secondary
schools (PROMOTE).
- Poor students,
especially female ones are being benefited more from the projects. Their
participation in schools has increased satisfactorily. This is really
expected because they are more neglected in their family. The stipend
projects are helping in assuaging the burden of the poor parents in
carrying out educational costs.
- On the other
hand, PROMOTE project has brought opportunities for the unemployed women
to have teachers training in rural areas and to get employment in rural
schools. This project is working with the objective of employing 1000
women in rural secondary schools. With this end in view, several female
hostels have been made in District and in Thana levels to provide
accommodation to the female trainees. This project will offer 839
scholarships as well. This initiative has created inspiration among the
female trainees, who are looking for teacher ship.
Steps taken by NGOs, International Organizations etc:
BRAC
This
tremendous improvement of female education is largely due to an organization
called BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) which introduced its
Non-Formal Primary Education Program (NFPE) in 1985. This program emphasized
mainly on the education of girls in rural areas giving them the opportunity to
attain higher levels of education by providing flexible learning hours and
scholarships depending on educational performances. The program started with 22
experimental schools. Today, the number of schools surpasses 34,000, catering
over 1.1 million students where 70 percent of them are girls.
BRAC
teachers are chosen among the most educated the village. Teachers must have at
least nine years of schooling to be employed. Presently, 97 percent of all
teachers are women. Each year, almost 90 per cent of the students who graduate
from the BRAC schools go on to the formal schools in higher classes.
Additionally,
BRAC has also undertaken projects to provide villages with libraries and
community centers. The organization offers all this to villagers with funds
from foreign countries and by collecting minimal fees from the students to
supply them with books and other materials.
UNICEF :
UNICEF
worked with the government to support the Intensive District Approach to
Education for All (IDEAL) – a project which was concluded in 2004. This
initiative was designed to promote child-friendly and gender-sensitive schools
with a massive coverage. By 2002, the coverage had expanded to 9.3 million
children with 144,306 teachers in 36,109 schools (UNICEF, 2003). Now PEDP-II is
taking forward the approach developed by the IDEAL project. The project
promoted MWTL (multiple ways of teaching–learning) which rested on the
theoretical premise of multiple intelligence developed by Professor Howard
Gardner, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard University. Stories of teachers’
teaching experiences in the project schools suggest that the approach to
pedagogy was highly methodological and theory driven. Claims that there had
been a dramatic change in the way students learned fell short of students’
personal expressions of how they felt about the learning process.
To
fulfill its mandate for girls’ education in Bangladesh, a number of strategies
will be employed by UNICEF to meet both its programmatic objectives as well as
to contribute to the fulfillment of the girls’ education goals in Bangladesh by
2005 and 2015. The key strategies:
-
Promoting girls’ education and empowerment in national policies
-
Networking and building alliances and partnerships
-
Promotion of multi-dimensional and cross-sectoral
approaches
-
Support to formal and non-formal channels
-
Promotion of girls’ education at every stage of the life cycle
-
Promotion of girls’ participation and empowerment
-
Inclusion of boys
-
Monitoring of progress
To
meet these objectives the Child Development and Education (CDE) Section had
three projects as part of the current Country Program. The Early
Childhood Development (ECD) Project was introduced in this Country Program and
works with the government and NGO partners to promote the cognitive, emotional
and social development of the young child. The Intensive District
Approach to Education for All (IDEAL) Project has covered 36 of the 64
districts of Bangladesh. In-service teachers’ training on child centered
active learning methods and the promotion of community participation in schools
are cornerstones of the project.
Grameen Bank:
Grameen
Bank in recent years has not only expanded its credit operations which are
targeted at the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh, it has also rapidly
diversified its activities. Grameen today is the focal point of a global
network of institutions and individuals who provide micro-credit to fight
poverty. Within Bangladesh, the Bank has undertaken major investment
initiatives in those sectors where the poor have the comparative advantage in
terms of their skills, enterprise and productive capacity. A number of social
development oriented companies have been established under the Companies' Law
to boost economic growth of vital economic sectors like agriculture, fisheries
and rural industries. Through they are providing necessary advice and tasks to
poor and rural women to develop their selves.
World Vision Bangladesh:
This
is a worldwide NGO which enable the society to become free from the curse of
illiteracy. Emphasis is given of education (formal, non-formal, functional and
vocational) focus on the needs of the children. Build capacity of the community
so that they can manage primary education and increasingly support the
vocational and selective higher education for their children. They are
providing University Girls Scholarship for higher education of university level
girls. They are also providing various training and workshop program for
development of girls for working sector.
Other Projects
The
figures for the first decades of the 21st century are vastly
different in the primary sector, gender parity in enrollment has been achieved
and in 2002, the secondary sector enrollment of girls exceeded the enrollment
of boys at 53%. A number of policy interventions are credited for this dramatic
change, including the Food for Education Program sponsored by World Food
Program, the rise in non-formal education pushed by NGOs and the increase in
formal sector employment opportunities for women that require secondary
education, especially the garment sector. In addition, one of the most
accredited drivers of this change is the Female Secondary School Stipend
Project (FSP) launched nationally in 1994 and funded by the World Bank, Asian
Development Bank and the governments of Norway and Bangladesh. The project pays
tuition-fees and provides monthly stipends for unmarried rural girls up to
class 10 who attend recognized institutions, remain unmarried, maintain at
least 75% attendance, and secure at least 45% marks in the annual examinations
(a pass requires 35%). In 2005, nearly 2.3 million girls were enrolled in the
program.
Facilities to ensure a clean, healthy and gender-friendly
school environment, but most SMCs are found to be ineffective (USAID, 2002).
The findings of PSPMP 2000 revealed that 38 percent of rural schools had
inadequate toilets and 57 percent lacked potable water for students. In the
schools where second toilets were constructed for girls, teachers locked them
up for their own use (USAID, 2002).
In regard to female teachers, again according to USAID
(2002), it is only in urban areas or NGO supported schools that most teachers
are female – they make up 58 percent in urban areas, 29 percent in rural areas
and 93 percent in NGO schools compared with 48 percent in government, 39
percent in private and 7.6 percent in madrasa schools.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it must be duly noted that Bangladesh is still one of the poorest countries of the world. However, it has come a long way from being the "International Basket Case". Faced with insurmountable odds, the people of the nation have learned to cope with annual natural disasters. Today, Bangladesh might be poor but the people are proud of their achievement and tenacity towards success.
References:
4. Gender Studies by Md Amzad Hossain
