Presently the spotlight has come for women education in particular because, in many countries of the world, it is seen that women are being deprived of accessing education resulting in grave issues. This is evident from the report by UNESCO, which states that in the world nearly two-thirds of the illiterate population are women. The result of lower education among women is due to the age-old tradition of gender differentiation as a result of which the female is thought as the lower part of the society to be dominated by men.
The issues faced due to the lack of women’s education include an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, increased women trafficking and exploitation, lower family income, increased child health issues and others. Thus, it is ascertained that women need special focus by the world leaders as well as prominent organizations to upbuild their status through the delivery of effective education.
In relation to women education, various education programs focused on women have been developed by the UN organizations at the present which aimed at increasing their literacy rate. As a result of the undertaken programs, the women’s education could somewhat be established among countries creating a scope for betterment with Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana. This is evident from the statistics provided by the UN, which reports that the women literacy rate increased from 36% in 1970 to 56% in 1990 in various developing countries.
Moreover, in the present situation of 2015, the women literacy as per assumed in case of the ten most populous countries of the world include 93% for Philippines, 85% for Mexico, 84% for Vietnam, 81% Brazil, 75% Indonesia, 68% China, 40% Nigeria, 34% India, 22% Bangladesh and 21% for Pakistan. The countries which showed more progress in women’s education as a result of the initiative by UN include Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kenya, Tunisia, Zaire, Libya, Turkey, Algeria, Ghana, Indonesia, Iraq, and Syria.
Thus, it can be predicted that an orientation has somewhat been achieved in successfully tackling women’s education to increase their literacy rate. However, it still needs more improvement and use of proper strategies and technology is important in education to increase the women education rate to greater heights.
The spotlight on women education through the implementation of programs is required to create successful empowerment of women to provide them a similar status in the society so that they can act as per with men. Moreover, women education is needed to resolve the increased rate of child trafficking and extortion issues because, with literacy, women can be able to raise their voice against such crimes.
The relapse of sexually transmitted diseases can be resolved with education because with literacy the women will understand the importance and vitalities of their health and way to undertake protection before sex to avoid those diseases. The women education helps in creating up gradation of personal skill base by expanding the opportunity for women to earn living for the family.
Thus, to achieve these attributes and further to improve the percentage of women’s education in all the countries of the world, UNESCO has suggested the following strategies to be undertaken.
Strategies inside the classroom
In case of women education, the trained teachers who are efficient and knowledgeable in providing higher education important to women and have a sensitive overview of child and gender rights are to be recruited. Moreover, it is better if female teachers are recruited because it helps the women to relate and interact with them without hesitation.
However, the male teachers who will be recruited to teach women also need to have a compassionate overview of the women rights. This is because if the male teachers reflect a dominating attitude, then the women may feel disregarded which results in disrupting the proper development of educational environments.
The classroom required to be more women-centered and need to include studies based on women health management, development of personal skills, improved child care management, proper family planning and others. This is because the studies will help the women to properly tackle their lives.
For example, if a women lack education about child management, thus as mothers, they fail to take proper care of their children. Moreover, lack of proper health management skills leads the women to get affected by sexually transmitted diseases. Thus, with the proper initiative of women-centered education, women can be made alert about the measures they need to take to manage their health and well as their children.
The gender biases from learning materials and textbooks are required to be eliminated to increase women education rate. Moreover, this will help to create a change within the society to value women. For example, this similar strategy is already undertaken by the Vietnamese government where they are strategizing to develop future books with gender-neutral contents. Further, to upgrade women education a gender-based approach is to be undertaken where the teacher is to be trained to provide education without creating biases of students on the basis of gender discrimination.
In order to increase the rates of educated women, it is strategized that the lessons are to be provided at flexible times. For example, in India, the women are allowed to participate in night schools where they can study in case they are unable to attend the day school. This is because during the day the women had to take care of their family and do their daily chores which provide them with minimum time and feasibility to study. Thus, the creation of flexible timings helps the women to have a better learning prospect.
The language for providing education to women needs to be based on their local or mother tongue. This is because in most cases it has been seen that women lack the scope to get socially exposed so they do not have knowledge regarding languages apart from the mother tongue. Moreover, providing education in mother tongue helps the women to feasibly understand the information creating an easier environment for learning. The women education also needs to promote sports so that the gender disparity is effectively resolved. This is because sports are treated as male-dominated and thus participation of women by breaking stereotypes creates scope for the women to get accepted within the society. This helps in the feasible organization of women education by the countries.
Strategies outside the classroom
Apart from implementing and creating strategies to promote women education within the classroom, it is required we also frame them outside so that the external environment is influenced to let women get educated too. Thus, to fulfill this purpose, it is required that proper childhood programs and awareness campaigns are created which informs the children about the importance of gender equality. This is required because children are treated as the future generation of the society who in their teenage years develops thinking based on their education about what is right and wrong. Thus, creating campaigns and informing children about the importance of women education will help the countries to develop proper prospect for the women in the future to avail education without dominance or restriction from the society due to discrimination issues. Moreover, these campaigns will also help to influence the society to develop positive thinking about women helping to create a feasible scenario for the present women population to get educated with the support from the society.
In order to develop proper women education, it is required that the education system does not have any form of age barrier for women to study. This is required so that women of all ages wishing to avail education can attend school, thus helping to develop a proper future prospect for them. Since the mother serves the key parenting activities for the child, thus women education with feasibility in age would help them to execute proper parenting and upbringing of the child.
Moreover, it is required that strategies are made to create a holistic awareness regarding women education in the society. Thus, social groups need to form effective campaigns and the government needs to develop effective programs related to the promotion of women education. The programs, as well as campaigns, will be helpful in changing the overview of the society regarding women being the inferior class. Thus, this results in dissolving gender-based barrier within the society allowing effective future prospect for the women to study without hindrance.
The government needs to spend extra finances to make women education free of cost. This is required so that none of the women who are trying to avail education are derived from it due to lack of finances. Apart from ensuring women education, it is required that a proper educational environment is created where women can feel safe to avail education.
This is because within a safe environment the women feel protected from any form of harm and thus study with feasibility. Moreover, the government requires closely monitoring and gathering information about the efficiency of the strategies and programs implemented by them to promote women’s education. This is required to understand whether the strategies are effective to successfully attract women to avail education or not.
Thus, to keep women education in the spotlight it is required that the policies and frameworks of strategies are effectively achieved through implementation. Moreover, the society also needs to understand the importance of women education and thus only can create an effective and positive scenario for the women to easily avail education without hindrance.
