HRW decries dearth in Pakistan’s girl child school enrolment
HRW Urges Pakistani Government to Increase Girl School Enrolment
Adoba Echono
The Human Rights Watch, HRW, is calling on the Pakistani government to step up their girl school enrolments.
In a report, titled “Shall I Feed my Daughter or Educate Her?” reflects the reduction in school enrolment by girls in Pakistan.
“More than one-third of Pakistani girls are not attending primary school, compared to 21% of boys. Only 13% of girls are still in school by the 9th grade.
“Many of the girls we interviewed are desperate to study, but instead are growing up without the education that would help them have options for their future,” HRW Women’s Rights Director, Liesl Gerntholtz explained.
In Pakistan, young girls miss school partly because of the Sunni Islamic militant group the ‘Taliban’ as the group claims educating women goes against Islam.
According to the report, Pakistan’s school system is primarily responsible for the country’s education barriers.
“The government hasn’t invested enough in schools, especially ones for girls,” HRW says.
“Unaffordable school fees, corporal punishment, low-quality public and private schools, corruption, and lenient regulation also contribute to the country’s education crisis.”
“For many young girls in Pakistan, receiving an education is their only hope for avoiding child marriage,” according to the report.
A third of girls and a quarter of boys in Pakistan do not see schools or drop out by class nine but go for child marriage.
“Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children, counting 22.8 million children between the ages of 5 and 16, and representing 44 per cent of children not attending schools.”
Actually, there are two kinds of out-of-school children.
Making hijab a compulsory part of the uniform for girl students and women teachers in the Kashmir region it occupies are the latest measures in Pakistan, where the ground situation belies official figures on literacy,
The order by the “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” education department specifically targets co-education schools where girls and women teachers in rural areas are merged with the boys’ schools since their numbers and school infrastructure do not match the requirements.
The order applies to all female students and teachers.
Officially, the Kashmir region Pakistan controls has 92 per cent literacy among boys and 90 per cent among girls. The Gilgit Baltistan area supposedly tops it. But on the ground, it reflects the overall neglect and paucity of infrastructure that school education suffers in Pakistan, where girls are worse off compared to boys.
Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the world, the third most populous nation in Asia and the second most populous country among Islamic countries.
Shakirat Sadiq
