Opinion

Girls’ education

Girls’ education

By KHILENDRA BASNYAT

Generally, education is the key to bringing positive transformations in the lives of individuals, societies and countries. It leads to better health, economic growth and democratic societies. Education equips girls with life skills to prepare them for different stages of life. Ensuring proper access to education for girls helps communities and countries reduce poverty. Therefore, girls’ education should be a priority to increase economic growth and human welfare. In Nepal, girls, especially from the underprivileged backgrounds, have not been able to realise their potential for lack of education. Actually, educating girls is even more effective because when we educate them, the benefits are felt across the community, country and generation. Still now, girls from poor families do not go to school because they have to help their parents in the field and in household chores. In some communities, people are still ignorant about the value of education. Lack of a safe environment in schools also hinders girls from going to school. Most girls, especially in remote villages, do not go to school during their periods due to lack of proper toilets. In reality, educating girls means ensuring that they feel safe while in schools and compete in the global market. Therefore, apart from knowing whether they are getting a safe learning environment and adequate resources, they should be ensured with a good schooling system with modern learning methods, such as multimedia, which has been used in an educational context to describe the mix of video and audio cassettes, printed texts and handbooks, which traditionally makeup distance learning. Although multimedia is still at an early stage in many schools, the teachers have felt the need to use them in their classroom situations. In some countries, learners of all ages find multimedia software interesting and enjoyable to use. In the schools of these countries, multimedia has been found to be so popular that the lessons on the CD Rom have been used as a reward for good behaviour. Apart from the above-mentioned facts, girls should be equipped with relevant skills to make them self-reliant in the future. Our education system should not only focus on educating girls but also on empowering them. In addition, boys should also be taught about women’s empowerment. This will undoubtedly help to bring transformative changes in families and communities, thereby leading to overall development of the country. A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 29, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.