Making sure that girls don’t drop out of school

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Context:

Indian women excelled in the most decorated Olympic Games for India so far. There is no reason for it to be otherwise in any other field, especially education, given the right support.

As a nation, we can ill-afford to ignore half the potential workforce if we aspire to be an economic powerhouse.

As a society, women can be the pivot to bring about critical and lasting social transformation. As individuals, they deserve a shot at being the very best they can

Need for Girl Education:

• Healthy, educated girls with equal access to opportunities can grow into strong, smart women who can take on leadership roles in their countries.
• This will help in having a better view of women’s perspective in the government policies.
• The global average for the private rate of return (the increase in an individual’s earnings) with just one extra year of schooling is about 9 per cent, while the social returns of an extra year of school are even higher above 10 per cent at the secondary and higher education levels as per a decennial World Bank review.
• Interestingly, the private returns for women in higher education are much higher than for men 11 to 17 per cent as per different estimates.
• This has clear policy implications. For their own empowerment, as well as for society at large, we must bring more and more women within the ambit of higher education.
• It is estimated that over 2.4 crore girls globally are on the verge of dropping out of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Pandemic-induced school closures and economic hardships have significantly exacerbated many vectors that influence the problem of women in education.
• In the Indian context before the pandemic, there was a welcome trend in the gradual increase in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for women in higher education — from 19.8 per cent in 2012-13 to 27.3 per cent in 2019-20.
• That said, a more nuanced picture of the problem of women and higher education.
• As girls progress from primary to secondary to tertiary school levels, their numbers decrease by the year.
• The graph shows this gradual descent and the resulting paucity of women, who are even eligible to go to college.

The reasons for girls dropping out:

The primary ones are obvious: Girls drop out of school because, one, they are engaged in domestic activities (31.9 per cent),

• Two, they have financial constraints (18.4 per cent),
• Three, they are not interested in education (15.3 per cent), and
• Four, they get married (12.4 per cent).

Steps to overcome systemic challenges:

• First, as an immediate step, in every locality, a mohalla school or a community learning programme should be started with appropriate Covid norms if the local disaster management authorities and the state governments permit.
  • Evidence from the Ebola pandemic shows that continued engagement with educational activities reduces drop-outs in a statistically significant way.
  • NITI Aayog, with the help of civil society organisations, had started a community programme led by volunteers called “Saksham Bitiya” in 28 aspirational districts where more than 1.87 lakh girl students were trained in socio-emotional and ethical learning.
• Second, to predict likely drop-outs, a gender atlas comprising indicators that are mapped to key reasons for school drop-outs should be developed.
  • Teachers should also be trained in all the scholarships and schemes available that provide economic support to girls and their families for continuing their education.
• Third, there is a need to revise the National Scheme of Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education in areas or states with high prevalence of drop-outs and early child marriages.
  • The scholarship amount may be increased and tied to the completion of graduation, with yearly scholarships paid to students upon successful completion of each year of their undergraduate degree.
• Fourth, special education zones need to be set up in areas which have been traditionally backward in education.
  • Every panchayat showing a consistent trend in girl child drop-outs should have composite schools till higher secondary (classes I-XII).
  • The National Education Policy 2020 provides for a gender inclusion fund. This fund should be utilised to support STEM education in these schools as well as in all Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas.
  • State governments need to leverage existing schemes to design interventions to promote women in higher education.
  • The recently modified viability gap funding scheme includes provisions for social infrastructure projects, including education.
  • For greenfield projects in higher education, 60 per cent of the funding can be accessed as viability gap funding from the central and state governments.
• Fifth and most importantly, behavioural nudges are going to be key in tackling social prejudices and orthodox cultural norms that prevent girls from achieving their innate potential.
  • Behavioural Insights Units (BIU) may be established across states to tackle social issues with the help of ultra-local NGOs/CSOs to reach the last mile.
  • NITI Aayog has taken a leap forward in this direction by establishing a BIU to tackle nutrition and health challenges in aspirational districts.

Way Ahead

• Encourage parents to send back child to school and conveyance of education importance.
• Strict law should be imposed on those who are adopting child labour.
• Infrastructure development like sanitation, water and special rooms for boys and girls.
• Patriarchal mind set need to be change by social campaigning towards the girls.
• Strengthening of SDMC committee and conducting periodic report.
• Ensuring social inclusiveness, especially with regard to girls and SC/ST children, sensitizing teachers, and convincing parents of first generation students of the value of education always makes a big difference.

The Indian Express Link:

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/girls-school-drop-out-indian-education-nep-7474391/

QUESTION: Giving reasons for girls dropping out of school, explain steps that are needed to be taken to ensure school dropout rate for girl students is reduced.