What Makes It Difficult to Achieve Schooling for All in Developing Countries - Research Proposal Example

What makes it difficult to achieve schooling for all in developing countries? Introduction The Education for All (EFA) body marked the year 2015 as the deadline when developing countries will have achieved the six goals that were enacted, in Dakar in 2000 by the world education forum (UNESCO 2015). Although the forum has set the six goals, the EFA that was charged with monitoring it implementation reports of 2013/2014 indicates that not even a single goal will have been achieved by 2015(The BMZ 2015). Education is a crucial key for the development; especially in developing countries other crucial elements of development in these countries include healthcare and political stability (Todaro& Smith 2003 p360). However, this essay gives a gender perspective to this research. in this case, the essay seeks to find out how girls are excluded in terms of schooling. The article will further evaluate the cause of exclusion of women in general from the education. 　　　This research is important as it addresses various hindrances of successful schooling in developing countries. As such, the article describes various difficulties that girls encounter when trying to quench their education thirst. As such, gender inequality will be highly regarded so as to find out its role as a barrier to girl child education in developing countries. The key are of discussion is the issue of the belief that only girls are involved outside of the education (Assad et al 2010 p81). Overall, this argument focuses on the fact that the place of a girl child is somewhere else apart from the school in developing countries. In this case, this article will expose the sad situations in developing countries where the girl child is disregarded in the matter of education otherwise the girl will be put in a vulnerable position by those that disregards the importance According to my research, the major reasons why many girls drop out of schools or other education system is the fact that they have a lot of domestic engagements. At the same time, I believe that only by reducing the girls chore work or other work, the real equality in education and schooling for all are achieved. Although attractive policies and ideas have been set, such as Conditional Cash Transfer, double-shift schooling, the fundamental obstacle making difficulties for girls to attend school. Even if they do, under the situation of those solutions, girls will not take the real means of education equality as they can struggle between work and education (Kea 2007 p281). Such, I will explore, girls inevitable domestic work in their households are only forced to girls.The fundamental reform has to be taken along with educational improvement to achieve schooling for all boys and girls in developing countries. Thesis Statement This research looks at some of the main reasons why developing countries have failed in achieving gender equality regarding the attainment of the girl child education. In addition, the essay will relate various factors that have hindered the aspects of gender equality in education with the failure to achieve the Education for All (EFA) goals. Child work in developing countries At the beginning, it is important to mention that in developing countries, child labour issue is such a big problem. The international labour office (ILO) which is a part of the UN that works for the child labor issue has showed the data. According to the statistics, some 120 million children in developing countries ageing between 5 and 14 years are working as full time workers. In addition, another 130 million are working as part time labourers, (Todaro& Smith 2003 p372). However, it is important to note that sometimes the labor and education are not alternative choices. According to Subrahmanian (2002)(p403), it is not by choice that children become employed. In this case, various hardships and extreme poverty leave such children with little choices. In poor household, children work instead of attending school (p403). Therefore, it is problematic to approach to the polarization between work and schooling as a policy approach (Subrahmanian 2002 p404). This result is worse when we see it through the lens of gender inequality. In terms of girls in education, it is obvious that girls have less education than boys in almost all developing countries. In total of 66 countries out of 108 countries, women’s participation in primary and secondary education is lower than that of men by 10 percent points. Moreover, overall in developing countries, the female literacy rate was 29% lower than that of male, and women’s schooling years were 45% lower than men’s (Todaro& Smith 2003 p376). Even just to make an equal education system in terms of gender, there is a lot to be solved. It is important to note that in developing countries, the female gender is usually regarded as inferior. As such, there is a general misconception that the only place of the girl child is in the kitchen, farms and to bear children for the men. The society has disregarded the girl child for a very long time such that they have made them to believe that they can make nothing better than what the men have assigned them. What stops girls to go to school? There are several causes that can prevent girls from going to school. Some of them include early pregnancy and forced marriages. In this case, the young girls give up their education as a result of early pregnancy caused by incidences of rape or being lured with small gifts or still food and clothe. In addition, some girls are also forced to early marriage (UN women 2015). In this case, their greedy parents stand to benefit materially from the dowry payment. Of course, some parents just cannot pay their children’s education cost (Kazeem 2013 p331) Also, in many cases girls cannot get involved in the schools are due to their domestic work and other work allocated to them .Moreover, economically, girls from poorer households have to dedicate for their living more than others according to Kazeem (2013 p330). Gender inequalities in education, importantly, are just a part of systematic discrimination against women and girls in the society (Subrahmanian 2002 p404). The pressures that girls have from their domestic work from an early age in developing countries stop girls from accessing to school. Unfortunately, some women will go ahead and question themselves regarding the significance of acquiring certain levels of education. This is mainly caused by the consistent gender inequality, socially, culturally, fundamentally in their living. Some of these parameters are exposed in this work but at a later section. A such, it would be correct to declare (Subrahmanian 2002 p404) comment that the place of the girl child in the world is always the second. As such, it is very difficult for the gorl to get anything better in life so long as they remain married or under the custody of parents who are not concerned with the future beyond getting married. Invisible domestic engagement of girls In many researches done on this topic, many scholars have laid huge emphasis on child labor. In this case, they are oriented only on capturing the child activities that generate the earning. In this case, they ignore the glaring fact that the girl child is involved in other tasks and roles that do not necessarily generate income. To access the reason of the phenomena of less attendance of girls in school, the article concludes that the expectations and engagement in the domestic work and othe fundamental gender inequality generate the situation. Assad et al(2010) questions whether we should tackle a reduction of girl’s domestic work and other market work or should we improve the attractiveness of schooling in the case of Egypt (Assad 2010 p117). As the data shows above, the gender gap in schooling means we should approach the cause that stops girls from going to school. The answer for this question could be the two approaches; however, more important is to reduce the engagement and time restrictions of girls in households. The girls’ domestic engagement is normally ignored as a child labor (Assad et al 2010 p81). The child labor issue that reduces the rate of the school attendance is regularly discussed, but we also should not ignore the evidence that girls’ domestic chores and regular work links to not being school (p82). In developing countries, especially, have more work burden due to poor water and sanitation services (p80). The problem is that often domestic chores which normally girls dedicate to are and are not captured in a definition of work in general (p80). The work girls engage in the household are largely inflexible. Water and fuel have to be gathered from the distances, even, if they have younger siblings, they have to take care of them at the same time (Assad et al 2010 p117). In fact, it is very often a woman who is become unpaid care work (Razavi 2007 p378). ‘Unpaid care work’ means here is; housework, cooking, caring for the old and children, and working for sick and so on (Razavi 2007 p379). Those unpaid work is, in general, not categorized as a ‘real work’ and very often undervalued by society (UN women 2014). It is largely known that the division of labor based on gender has been remarkable in developing countries (Kazeem 2013 p330). Girls very often engage in unpaid work such as domestic chores, care work and so on which are non-market activities (p330). In the study in Sub-Saharan Africa, research indicates that to some extent, girls bear the burden of work which is not monetarily compensated (p331). Children’s work mostly is due to the poverty or socioeconomic inequality (p342). Therefore, this girl’s sacrifice cannot be solved unless they reduce the poverty. This has the implications that the main idea is to reduce the poverty level so that parents can release their girl children to attend classes. Therefore, on the part of disguised chores, the issue of poverty plays a significant role. In Egypt, of example, some cases show the domestic engagement only starts when girls attainsthe age of ten. So, there is some of the parents expectation girls to attend school on one hand, on the other, girls are anticipated to contribute to domestic work in the future anyway and do not feel it is worth to do to send her in school for a few years (Assad et al 2010 p82). There is a fundamental gender inequality chain that we should unfold under the real issue. In the case of India like other places in the world, it is commonly understood that the educational status especially women’s is very important indicator of the development (Pappu 2004 p27). In addition, Todaro& Smith (2003) point out that girl’s education is one of the most cost-effective to improve local health standard (p378). In the UNESCO launched programme to close the gender gap in education, Director-General Irina Bokova mentioned that the education is the best cure against transmission of HIV, and the best way to avert child marriage. Moreover, she mentions that we could save more loves through the achieving women’s secondary education (UN women 2015). However, even they are wealthy and able to attend school, people do not expect girl’s schooling for the preparation for employment (Jeffery & Jeffery 1996 p7). Policies to bring girls to school The main question one can ask the issue of schooling whether it can be dealt with and be resolved. Suppose programs that support huge enrolment for girls in schools are put in place, would this bring more girls to school? There are some programmes which can help to increase the girls’ attendance of schools. For the past one decade, a lot of advocacy for the girl child education has emphasized on enacting various projects that encourages the girl to attend lessons. The use of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) is used as a type of economic programs which has a significant impact on human development which also include the education. The cash support is available to families that meet certain minimum conditions. This policy has been introduced in the place where there is very high rate of out-of-school girls. This program has shown relatively positive impact on girls’ enrollment (UNICEF 2014). In this case, some of the money goes to bridging the gap that the girl child leaves whey they attend lessons. Other cash allocated to the program is used in outreach programs that educated parents on the importance of pacing girls in schools. Though the response is low, (UNICEF 2014) statistics suggest that the program has made several strands as enrolment in some school has gone up. In the case of Gambian girls, according to Kea (2007), they have domestic and farm labor contributions adding on to the school attendance. As girl’s domestic and farm work contributions are necessary and central to the moral economy of the household there (p260). They have deep cultural expectation, that girls take part in domestic and agrarian works. However, meanwhile, their parents and grand parents expect these girls to attend the school due to a strong belief in future benefit the investment bring. To achieve the issue of girls enrolment to school, Gambia has achieved to address those hinders. The things that prevented girls from going to school, such as; cultural and religious factors, the cost, useless curriculum, the distance of schools to name but a few. Moreover, the successful grass roots campaign has been done (p265). ‘Double-shift schooling’ in the Gambia introduced in 1990, which has two sessions of school helped girls to attend school as they can attend either morning or afternoon session when they do not work domestically or in the farm (p260). Therefore, It is true that it reduced the tension between labor obligations and school for them. It could increase the, however, those girls doing all could be physically stressed (p280). In general, girls are engaged in huge numbers of domestic tasks from washing clothes, cleaning, cooking, and baby sitting, and so on (p269). Plus, they are in charge of other work such as an agricultural task and school at the same time. Social structural trap Thi suggest that the social set up allows or disallows some key issues in the society. In this case, the society has segregated certain norms and tasks to be applied select-fully across the gender divide. In this case, some jobs are specifically for boys while others are for girls. It is important to note that jobs and assignments given to girls are more involving and time consuming. As such, there is very little time left for the girl child to do school wok. This has the implications that even if the participation of girls have increased through those solutions, Kea(2007) suggests that the more pressures and things come on to girls and they become vulnerable to dropping out of school. If there is a school and work they have to be involved, they do get involved and will do in the future (p281). They inevitably do their chores in the household and attend the school. In the west, according to Kazeem (2013), childhood is perceived as a time when children can focus on only school and play(p329), whereas in developing countries, children, especially girls are under the pressure of the domestic tasks. The study by Mason and Khadlker(2013) in Tanzania emphasizes that the school attendance leads more of the household work than boys (Kazeem 2013 p332). Through those structures in the society, consequently girls are entangled in the ‘structural violence’. The term structural violence was first introduced by Johan Galtung, a peace scholar, in 1969 (Banerjee et al 2011 p391), which leads to discussion about the role of institutions and social practices in ignoring people their basic human needs and rights (p391). Violence exercises through the structurally and culturally, in Galtung term, is not obvious but persistent (Dilts 2012 p194). By assessing the situation girls be caught between education and work, they are in the situation that they cannot escape from so that in the end, they put themselves in a vulnerable position. Culturally and socially, these girls cannot avoid this exhausting situation, unless the domestic engagement is reduced. Conclusion By considering why schooling for all is difficult in developing countries as far as gender perspectives are under focus, we realize that girls are placed in a vulnerable position in developing countries. It is true that the reason that people give for failing to take their girls through the education system can be explained in different ways such as economical difficulties, early pregnancy, and so on. However, the biggest obstacle for girls, that the article describes is the female engagement in domestic work and also other expected jobs that girls have to complete as a family member. However, as I pointed out earlier in this essay, even if we create the opportunities to invite girls to school such as double-shift schooling put girls into vulnerable position. As UNICEF (2015) & Kea (2007) show both CCT and double-shift schooling have a significant impact on bringing girls to school, however, the more important thing that we should not miss is that even if they attend school, they are also in charge of domestic work and other works. What we can really address though this question is that working and attending school for girls is not polarized decision in developing countries. Therefore, the most important approach really here is that to reduce the gender inequality even within the household, in society and also lower theparental or family expectations on girls to reduce the chores and jobs that girls have to do, while going to school. Most importantly, institution and social structure is the biggest cause to push girls into the violent structure.It is of course necessary to create attractive school system and bring girls to school, but if this pressure on girls from both school and house make the girls vulnerable position, this will not last long, also it will not generate gender equality. Therefore, to make real change for schooling for all in developing countries, the priority solution is to change the parental pressure on girls for the domestic work and develop the infrastructure and so on to reduce girls extra work that consume their time. Bibliography Assad, R &Levison, D &Zibani, N. (2010). “The effect of domestic work on girl’s schooling: Evidence from Egypt”, Feminist Economics, 16(1), pp79-128. 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