Education plays a key role in the development of communities and without women‘s participation in education development will not be completed. This writing looks into the issue in girls’ education through media lens over the last six months. Many times this issue has been under discussion in media and has been published through editorials of dawn newspaper, the news, daily express tribune, and the nation and daily times. According to article 26 (1) of universal declaration of human rights “education shall be free, at least at the secondary and fundamental stages and elementary education shall be compulsory” (United Nations, 2000). Unfortunately a large number of female in our country are deprived of this fundamental right. To overcome this issue writing articles to newspapers is not enough, the writers are well educated persons some are social activists and others belong to some educational institutions either as student or teacher. Highlighting the issue in news is also a step to make aware the people about the issue. But the main point is, those who are suffering from this issue are either unable even to access to newspapers or if they access then they are unable to read and understand the message of the writer. Thus the aim to overcome the issue is not fulfilled here. Though this main issue has been discussed in the media lens but only educated persons like college or university students, teachers and officials read these newspaper reports or articles. They are already aware about the situation. There is need of awareness among illiterate communities living in the backwards areas of tribal districts of KhyberPakhtunkha and Baluchistan and in rural areas of Sindh and Punjab. They are unable to read the article published in daily newspapers. Then how will they become aware about the need and importance of girls’ education? Thus the aim to overcome female literacy is not fulfilled here.
News reports mentioned above have presented this issue in different angles, and the overall analysis is also discouraging. Pakistan ‘s overall literacy rate is 58 percent which includes both males and female, while the literacy rate of female is 48 percent, and the overall enrolment rate in Pakistan is 87 percent and gross enrolment rate for female is 78 percent . The dropout rate is also very high. According to a report, in Fata 79 percent of girls quits school in early ages from enrolment till class five with a 50 percent dropout in middle and secondary classes. This low and discouraging literacy rate of female does not stops here but creates problems like misunderstanding, poor decision making, lack of confidence, critical thinking, family planning, child care, community health and many more and also suffers the upcoming generation in that family in the race of development. The question is, are the young ones of these females getting education? Will they be able to compete the challenges of the upcoming unknown future? All these questions are based on the low literacy rate of female. All the opinions on this issue have been presented in news describing the causes and also with some suggestions to overcome the issue. But without a proper and research based initiative it is difficult to overcome this issue.
The figures showing the female literacy rate in Pakistan in the media are fact that most of the girls are not getting education, and it is also responsibility of the government to provide facilities to access primary and secondary education. The articles published in newspapers mentioned above are directly or indirectly pointing the weak educational reforms of the government and particularly the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf government. According to my opinion the main causing factors of this low literacy rate are poverty, parent unwillingness to educate a girl, girls de motivation towards education, lack of access to school, gender inequality, early marriages of girls and social and cultural misconceptions. I do agree with the opinions of writers that government should play vital roles to overcome this issue, but it is also the responsibility of every parent to think about the future of not only son but daughter as well. Girls should be motivated towards education and parents need to show willingness towards girls’ education. According to the report of dawn newspaper nearly 22.5 million children in Pakistan are out of school, the majority of them are girls (the news, 2018) It means that 44 percent of children including large number of girls in the age of five to sixteen (school going age) are out of school. Someone has rightly said that educating a girl means educating a family, but in Pakistan and especially in rural areas girls’ education is neglected, and girls are still considered to be engaged with domestic works rather than educational assignments.
Another article published in dawn on November 14, 2018 titled ‘shall I feed my daughter or educate her? has highlighted this major issue. In this article the writer has described the issue in detail and writes “in fact by 9th grade only thirteen percent of girls are still in school” (dawn November, 2018). Once a girl enrolled in school should continue her education regularly, but this is again very serious issues that already in our country large number of girls are out of school. To control this dropout rate, school administration, parents and teachers are responsible. Parents and teachers may play their loyal contribution to strengthen the aim of school going children towards completion of school level education.
This issue should be taken into consideration and initiative steps should be taken to overcome this. Either they do not have opportunity to access education, or poverty becomes barrier to avail the opportunity both are serious issues. In my opinion it is not easy to solve this problem immediately because neither it is easy to build schools and provide all the facilities in those areas where there are major issues, nor it is easy to overcome the poverty immediately. Both demand time and here every one should play his/her role to overcome this serious issue.
In Islamabad and in other big cities like Lahore and Karachi the literacy rate of females is relatively high as compared to tribal and rural areas, where the situation is worst. I think that this difference is due to awareness of education in urban cities and lack of awareness along with religious extremism in rural tribal areas. But despite of low literacy rate there is also an increase in literacy rate in major cities. In Islamabad the current literacy rate of female is higher than male. Being the capital of the country Islamabad is occupied by families of high standards who prefer education and contribute towards development through education. On the other hand in backward and rural tribal areas there are families whose quality of life is much low as compared to those living in big cities. Awareness about education and improving the quality of life to overcome poverty in disadvantageous areas may bring a positive change towards literacy. A very meaningful article titled “educating female education one truck at a time” in newspaper has highlighted the portraits on trucks in support of girls’ education. Trucks which pass through far flung and back ward areas spread the message of female education through beautiful portraits of school going girls with school uniforms and books. This is really a good effort to make aware the community who belong to far flung areas and are illiterate. Hopefully the painting will inspire many hearts to change their minds and make improvement towards girls’ education. Trucks cover long distances and also pass through those parts of the country where there are major issues in female education. The purpose of such painting is contribution of drivers towards improving the female literacy rate and this is inspiring and encouraging.
Female education has always played a key role in improvement. In Pakistan female literacy rate is low as compared to male. Educationalists and media persons have tried to discuss this issue. The government has also developed a series of policies in education to bring a progress in education sector through its national education policies to achieve hundred percent literacy rate. However news reports of the last six months have presented Pakistan among the bottom countries of the world literacy rate. In today‘s world where classroom expects the 21st century skills for learning, government should ensure that girls could complete at least their primary and secondary level education, so that they should be able to get the basic knowledge and skills to develop themselves as a good citizen. Education is the basic need of all human beings and with female this fundamental need gets more importance, because an educated female is one who teaches her children all those skills and values which she learns through education. A child born in educated family and developed in the hand of an educated mother will hopefully be aware of the skills and qualities that education demands. Literacy does not mean to be able only to read and write but it is so far from this. Education builds the skills and intellectual abilities, and it plays a key role in changing the society.
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The writer is student of M.Ed programme at AKU IED
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