“Shall I Feed My Daughter, or Educate Her?” is the title of a report on the barriers to girls’ education in Pakistan, highlighting the difficult trade-offs made by families when deciding whether to send their daughters to school (Human Rights Watch, 2018). Food or literacy, safety or violence, comfort or discomfort; these are choices that must be made when girls want an education in some countries. This is more prevalent in South Asia than in East Asia, however, both regions can improve girls’ education.

 

Socio-economic, cultural, political and religious factors may all play a part in the attainment and completion of education for females. Particularly in South Asia, the cause of gender disparity in education is often singled out to be parents’ conservative beliefs, yet this simplistic view ignores how sending daughters to school can be a matter of safety, practicality and limited resources all at once. While enrolment rates for girls in primary and secondary schools in South Asia have been rising, one-third of girls not attending school live in South Asia (Herz).

 

The challenges of educating girls do not end when girls are enrolled in school. Completion of an education that equips girls with the skills necessary to excel in the workforce is equally as important, if not more, than enrolment. This section will examine the most prominent challenges within school systems in South and East Asia that prevent girls from attaining or completing a fulfilling education, specifically resource, safety and quality issues. 

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Inadequate Resources 

 

Schools located in remote or poor communities have fewer resources, thus lacking sanitation facilities which severely impact girls’ performance at school. At the onset of womanhood, girls deal with a plethora of challenges relating to menstruation. Poor sanitation and support at schools can alienate girls and their changing bodies, hindering attendance and participation at school. A third of South Asian girls miss 1-3 days of school per month while menstruating (Keatman et al. 2018).

 

“I don’t feel like going to school during my menstruation because of various reasons, such as hygiene and unavailability of pads and rooms for changing them. If we have girls-friendly toilets in our schools, I along with my friends would be really happy, and we would not have to miss out on our classes” (Keatman et al. 2018).

 

15-year-old Sushma’s words demonstrate some of the many difficulties girls face in South Asia while menstruating. Sushma attends school in Nepal, where a third of schools lack gender-separate bathrooms (Morrison et al. 2016). Not only is this a concern for parents already hesitant about sending their daughters to school, but girls are also unable to practice basic menstrual hygiene management in mixed-gender bathrooms. According to a 2016 UNICEF report, government policy in Nepal requires school facilities to be gender-friendly, however, schools built before the policies went into effect do not fulfill this criterion (Keatman et al. 2018).

 

Additionally, a lack of facilities deteriorates girls’ mental health. Menstruation is heavily stigmatized in Nepal due to practices like Chhaupadi that socially isolate menstruating girls (Keatman et al. 2018). Boys have little menstrual education and tend to bully and harass girls who are menstruating. A Nepalese female student notes: “If we do not use pads, then there will be leakage of blood, then the boys will make fun of me that I am menstruating. I feel really embarrassed sitting in front of my friends” (Keatman et al.) Combined, stigma and poor sanitation facilities result in high dropout rates at the secondary level: 38 % of girls are enrolled in secondary school compared to 46% of boys in Nepal (Oster et al. 2009).

 

Safety

 

Violence against girls within and out of school can look like sexual harassment, rape, kidnapping, trafficking and acid throwing in South and East Asia. Politically unstable regions see higher rates of gender-based violence in schools. Inevitably, these cases of violence fuel parents’ fear about sending their daughters to school and inflict permanent damage on girls themselves.

 

In Pakistan, 93 % of women face some form of sexual harassment in public and this alarming statistic becomes more prominent in remote regions where girls need to travel a considerable distance to get to school (The Express Tribune, 2017). Men and schoolboys harass girls on their way to school, while government-funded schools and police do little to stop these occurrences. In traditional communities where gender norms are rampant, girls must be protected to not ruin the reputation of her family. A mother in Karachi, Shaista, reflects on this in an interview for a Human Rights Watch report: 

 

“Before, 20 years ago, things were nice, but the environment now is such that I don’t even want to let my small girl out of the house. There is drug addiction and alcoholism and then when your daughter steps out boys will whistle at her. So, to protect your honour you won’t send your daughter out” (Human Rights Watch). 

 

Especially after puberty, parents may want to take their daughters out of school to avoid rape and violence. 

 

Low-Quality Education

 

The ultimate goal of education is to equip learners with valuable skills that not only prepare one for a career but inspire and motivate learners to have high aspirations. Education needs to allow girls to dream and prosper, however, many schools fail to provide useful education. A lack of government-school funding, particularly for secondary schools, in addition to the barriers mentioned earlier, can result in girls reaping little to no benefit from education, allowing cycles of poverty and illiteracy to continue. 

 

In Bangladesh, for example, school enrolment of girls and boys is nearly equivalent yet there is a 12 % gender gap in passing rates (Chitrakar, 2009). Less than one-fifth of primary school students are competent in basic science (Herz). And, secondary schools are of significantly low quality for those who cannot afford private schools. A comprehensive study on Bangladeshi secondary schools finds that there is no unifying curriculum across all schools (Hove, 2007). Girls from poorer households are at a disadvantage as the curriculum does not account for their life experiences and fails to provide practical insight to guide them out of poverty. A teacher at a Bangladeshi secondary school believes what is taught to students from poor backgrounds is “totally unfit for village life,” and “subjects do not provide any direction on how to lift oneself...out of poverty” (Hove, 2007).