The core of the general report comprises a synthesis of the findings in respect of each of the nine factors selected for study. This derives of course from the comparative study of the factors as operating in each case and reported country by country in section 5 below. Preceding the discussion of factors are: an introduction to the project; a mention of methodology and of the primary pupil survey in particular.
The idea of this project arose within the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) and a brief description for tender was issued to a number of institutions. The researchers responded to the general terms of the tender and having been selected have endeavoured to work within those terms. A Steering Committee was set up comprising both the researchers and ODA education advisers, and this has met at key stages in the schedule outlined below.
A number of matters of policy arose from the terms of reference and the Steering Committee discussions, notably:
a. as the project title implied, the focus of the study was to be on factors affecting female participation in education and not, except as a bi-product, on the accumulation of further data on the near universal and well documented phenomenon of female disadvantage in respect of education;b. except in the initial phase of documentary search to aid the selection of factors and provide a general context, the project was to be limited to the six cases studies
the project was to have comparative dimension to the extent that it would be possible to:
i. synthesise the outcomes under the same factor headings (as in sub-section 4D below);ii. present the major outcomes in a form that would enable comparison to be facilitated (see matrix chart - sub-section 3B(c) above);
iii. identify certain recommendations that could be relevant at least across the group of six countries, but also perhaps beyond to comparable states and regions (see 3B (b) above), though inevitably some recommendations would be country specific.
d. the main purpose of the project was to be of assistance to decision-makers both political and professional, who are involved in the direct task of confronting the problem of female participation in education, whether:
i. within developing country systems;ii. in aid agencies;
iii. in NGOs;
iv. as consultants.
e. in consequence of (d) above the report was to be presented in a clear and simple way and not as an academic thesis (hence the virtual absence of footnotes, references and statistical tables).
a. Documentary Research and Field Visit Planning (June - October 1989)
b. Methodology and Operation (June 1989 - October 1990)
c. The Primary Pupil Survey
d. Factors
e. Conclusion
It was agreed by the Steering Committee that the project be carried out in three phases: documentary research and field visit planning; six field study visits; analysis of information gathered, and compilation of report.
i. This being essentially a case study and comparative exercise, involving a relatively small number of countries, the first task of the Steering Committee was to select the cases to be included. A number of broad criteria were employed, notably: that the project should include examples from sub-Saharan Africa, from South and/or South-East Asia, and from the tropical island zones; that within the group of six nations a significant range of profiles existed in respect of the incidence of female participation in education. The outcome was that the following nations were to be included: Bangladesh, Cameroon, India, Jamaica, Sierra Leone and Vanuatu. The practical inclusion of each was effected through the good offices of variety of agencies to whom the grateful acknowledgement of the researchers has been expressed in the Preface to this report.ii. Although documentary research of various kinds occurred throughout the project, a major exercise was necessary in the first phase in order to inform the thinking of researchers on the final selection of factors to be included. As a result of a computer search and follow up, a bibliography of some 700 items was compiled in July/August 1989. A copy of this is being made available to ODA and it is also being held on disc. Part of the follow up to this project will be to update this bibliography and publish it.
iii. The six field visits were planned to take place within the period of November 1989 to September 1990 and this was duly carried out. Constraints of finance and ongoing commitments of the researchers at the University of. Hull plus the operational schedules of the systems of the countries involved lead to the selection of 3 weeks as the target period for each field visit. They duly took place in the following order: Sierra Leone (November/December 1989); India (January/February 1990); Bangladesh (February/March 1990); Cameroon (April/May 1990); Jamaica (June/July 1990); Vanuatu (September/October 1990).
i. Introduction and MediumIn order to maximise the comparative potential, as required by the brief, the same field strategies, exercises and instruments were designed and used for each country. In the case of India two locations (based on Baroda in Gujarat and Bhubaneswar in Orissa) were selected in view of the obvious variety of cultures and socio-economic circumstances in that country. As a result of this and of the anglophone/francophone dichotomies of Cameroon and Vanuatu, and the official medium in Bangladesh, several of the instruments were employed in translation from the original, so that in all the following languages were involved: English, French, Bangla, Gujarati and Oriya. In certain rural locations it was also necessary to engage in oral translation from vernaculars. In each of the countries visited the researchers acted through and with the cooperation of local advisers. In respect of gender, the cohort of local advisers comprised six females and six males.
ii. Information Gathering
In each of the seven cases the following exercises were carried through in order to obtain primary information:
· reading and, wherever possible, collection of documentary sources of relevant information locally generated and/or locally available: overall 163 such items were consulted.· interviews with senior professionals such as education officials, employees of NGOs, university researchers and tutors, teacher trainers and head-teachers. Attempts were made to ensure significant representation of both sexes, but the outcome was determined by the gender of office holders and availability at the time. The balance of senior professionals in the various cases was as follows:
Country
Females
Males
Bangladesh
6
10
Cameroon
7
15
India
a. Delhi
6
3
b. Gujarat
4
9
c. Orissa
4
8
Jamaica
22
7
Sierra Leone
17
16
Vanuatu
12
8
· interviews with parents of children in the primary schools visited. This proved the most problematical of surveys, parents in some locations being unavailable due to their working commitments or unwilling to participate for reasons of understandable caution or customary constraints of other kinds. Consequently in some places it was not possible to take account of information, attitudes or views from this source, but in other places these inputs were available and contributed to the general picture the researchers were able to form.
· surveys with students took place in every country, but in one place in Jamaica, for reasons of examinations proceeding a group interview was held instead. In every other location two exercises were operated, usually with students training to be primary teachers, but in one place a group of social science undergraduates was also included (NISWASS, Bhubaneswar). The exercise which has been used here to contribute towards our findings was a simple assignment of numerical ranking to a series of statements offering reasons as to whether or not there was female disadvantage, and if so (which was usually the majority view), then what was the relative significance of different factors at work. A copy of the survey form is shown below. This form also formed part of the interview with some of the senior professionals. The breakdown of students by gender in the various locations was as indicated below. The other exercise conducted with the students used a repertory grid technique. The findings are being made available to ODA and will be used in follow-up work to the present project.
Country
Females
Males
Bangladesh
7
5
Cameroon
40
32
India
a. Gujarat
27
0
b. Bhubaneswar
50
19
Jamaica
39
9
Sierra Leone
37
39
Vanuatu
31
23
· Surveys with primary pupils constituted our major empirical exercise, and were seen by the researchers as a very important aspect of the field visits in view of our brief to focus as far as possible on the primary sector. This survey involved large enough numbers to be capable of computer analysis, and is therefore also given a separate identity in this report (see sub-section C immediately following and sub sections Ac) of each of the case study reports in section 5 below.
c. The Primary Pupil Survey
The Primary School survey instrument (see copy below) was a questionnaire designed for upper primary pupils (classes 5, 6 or 7) depending on the length of the primary cycle in each country and was administered to the oldest class in each school. It was prepared in English and French for the anglophone and francophone countries and special editions were printed in Gujarati, Oriya and Bangla for use in India and Bangladesh. A blank copy of the survey form is found at the end of this section.
In all, 1225 children did the questionnaire and 1193 copies were sufficiently complete to be analysed by the SSPS-X computer programme. The sample consists of 606 boys (50.8%) and 587 girls (49.2%). The age range includes children as young as eight and as old as eighteen: 9.5% were between 8 - 10 years old; 78.4% between 11-13 years old; 12.1 % were between 14-18 years old.
The pupils were classified as attending rural schools (39%) semi-urban schools (18%) and urban schools (43%). It was hoped to obtain some indications of the significance of various factors in respect of school enrolment and wastage, such as: transport/distance to school; family size; parental occupation; parental literacy; the degree to which children help at home and on the land; reasons for absence from school; and the attitude of mothers, fathers and the children themselves to their schooling. To some extent the children to whom we ought to have been putting the questions were those who were not at school but the results from asking those who do attend school have been sufficiently interesting to justify the exercise. Some such results of the analysis by country are indicated in each case-study but there are certain general overall outcomes which are pertinent to the question of participation in education.
Both boys and girls help at home and on the land a great deal in all six countries. Fetching water, working with the crops, sweeping and looking after siblings score high for both sexes. Girls are involved to a statistically significant degree more than boys in the home-based tasks of laundry, sweeping and food-preparation. Boys have statistically significant scores for working in the fields and for going to the market, a reflection of the socio-cultural attitudes in several of the countries where girls are kept within the home as much as possible. Absence from school was not significant by sex, although head-teachers often said they though girls were better attenders. It is alarming to note however that 27% of the pupils surveyed had been absent sometime in the week preceding the date of the survey. Indeed 45 per cent stated that they sometimes could not come to school because of jobs they had to do for their mother or father. This seemed to affect boys more than girls (50%: 40%). Family size and father's occupation correlate strongly with the amount of help contributed by the children: pupils from larger and poorer families have more responsibilities at home. Both boys and girls agree however that it is girls who help most.
These children, who are attending school, feel that both mother and father want them to do so, whether they are boys or girls, but over 50% have the impression that boys stay on at school longer than girls. Again, 23% think girls don't need to go to school as much as boys and 24% think girls do not really need to go to school at all. These figures, coming from children who are relatively advantaged, are alarming, especially when one realises that although statistically significant by sex (i.e. there are more boys rejecting the need for education for girls), over 100 of the 600 girls actually in school seemed to feel girls had no need, or perhaps no right to be there. Negative attitudes towards girls' education, awareness of cost of schooling, parents' level of literacy and pupils' hopes and intentions about continuing their education all correlate with family size, father's occupation and rural/urban location.
Career choices by boys and girls were strongly influenced by location and by sex. Rural children, with more limited experience and fewer role models, operated within a far smaller range of choices than did urban children and this was particularly noticeable in the case of girls where sometimes only 'teacher' end 'purse' represented the aspirations of a whole class. Overall there were 93 different choices made by boys and 65 made by girls. The boys' choices are more imaginative, varied and ambitious, the most popular being doctor (134), teacher (68), engineer (42), farmer (31), pilot (29), soldier (26), mechanic (27), policeman (24), driver (15) and bank clerk (13). The girls' list is limited and equally sex-stereotyped - doctor (137), teacher (156), nurse (82), typist (21), etc. As regards marriage, in most countries 80 - 90% of the pupils surveyed expected to marry and to have children. It is interesting however that a statistically significant higher proportion of boys expect to marry and also propose to have more children and particularly more male children than do girls. In general the boys' views on marriage and parenthood are more traditional than those of their sisters.
Career and marriage plans at 12 or 13 years of age are not always very realistic but it is nevertheless revealing when boys opt to be President, a ship's captain or to work at NASA, while girls plan to be nurses, hair-dressers or dress-makers, even in a country like Jamaica where girls' secondary school selection results are superior to those of the boys.
PRIMARY PUPIL SURVEY
A
B
C
D
E
SCHOOL: ______________________________
PRIMARY SCHOOL SCHEDULE: PUPILS' QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Name: ______________________________
BOY
?
GIRL
?
2. Age
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
3. Class
1
2
3
4
6
7
4. How do you usually come to school?
Walk
bus
bicycle
car
lorry
another way
(...................................)
5. Your Family
a. How many brothers do you have?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
b. How many sisters do you have?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
c. Show your brothers (
) and sisters (
) in order from the oldest to the youngest. Which are you?
d. Write the age of each brother or sister underneath their pictures. How old do you think they are?
e. Your parents
Where does your father work?
Where does your mother work?
Who looks after you most at home?
mother
father
auntie
grandmother
someone else
older sister
I look after myself
6. WHAT DO YOU DO TO HELP YOUR MOTHER OR FATHER?
Every Day
Sometimes
Never
Work in field with crops
Fetch water
Look after little brothers and sisters
Prepare food
Make things
Sweeping
Shopping/Going to Market
Washing/Laundry
Anything else
7. HAVE YOU BEEN ABSENT (AWAY) FROM SCHOOL THIS WEEK OR LAST WEEK?
Yes
No
If "Yes", why were you absent (away)?
You can tick one, two or even more reasons.
You were ill.
You went to the market.
You went on a visit.
Visitors came to your home.
It was too hot.
It rained.
You were looking after little brothers and sisters.
There was no money for school.
You were helping mother.
(How? ________________________________)
You were helping father.
(How? ________________________________)
You went to hospital/clinic.
You played instead.
Anything else?
(_____________________________________)
8. SAY WHETHER YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH THESE SENTENCES:
AGREE (Yes!)
DISAGREE (No!)
1. Girls help at home more than boys.
2. Boys usually stay at school for more years than girls.
3. Girls need to go to school as much as boys.
4. Girls are usually younger than boys when they stop going to school.
5. My mother wants me to come to school very much.
6. Girls don't really need to go to school.
7. Sometimes I can't come to school because there are jobs I must do for my mother or my father.
8. It costs a lot of money to go to school.
9. I wish school was nearer to my house.
10. My father wants me to come to school very much.
11. I think my mother is good at reading and writing.
12. I think my father is good at reading and writing.
13. I think I shall be leaving school at the end of this year.
14. I would like to go to school next year.
15. It is difficult to come to school every day.
16. I would like to go to secondary school.
17. I like school.
9. WHEN I GROW UP
When I grow up, the work I'd like to do is
I should like to get married
YES
NO
I should like to have children
YES
NO
I should like to have
girls and
boys
STUDENT SURVEY
FACTORS AFFECTING FEMALE PARTICIPATION
1. CONTEXT
1.1 Is there a problem of female participation in education at any level?
YES/NO
1.2 If "No", then please proceed to item E3 below.
1.3 If "Yes", then please circle the stage at which you consider the problem to be most significant.
Higher Education
Secondary Education
Primary Education1.4 If "Yes" then is this mainly a rural problem?
YES/NO
2. CAUSES OF LACK OF FEMALE PARTICIPATION AT PRIMARY LEVEL
(In each of the boxes in this section please insert a score from 1 through 5 to indicate the strength of the factors concerned where: 1 = unimportant 2 = of little importance 3 = significant 4 = very important 5 = crucial).
Factor
Score
2.1 Education is not compulsory.
2.2 There are not enough schools/places.
2.3 Distances from home to school are too great.
2.4 Education is not free and boys gain preference in parental decision.
2.5 The traditional female role model is too strong.
2.6 Enrolment procedures are weak.
2.7 There is no pre-school nursery education.
2.8 Fathers are not keen on girls' education.
2.9 Domestic duties are greater for girls than for boys.
2.10 Girls are needed on the land more than boys are.
2.11 The range of paid occupations open to girls is perceived to be limited.
2.12 Young boys discourage young girls by their attitude to them.
2.13 The age of marriage is relatively young.
2.14 Religious factors favour the education of boys.
2.15 The linguistic development of girls is impeded by their role at home/in the community.
2.16 The curriculum content affects girls adversely.
2.17 The family arrangement is patrilocal.
2.18 Other Factors please state and score)
a)
b)
c)
3. CAUSES OF STRONG FEMALE PARTICIPATION AT PRIMARY LEVEL
(In each of the boxes in this section please insert a score from 1 through 5 to indicate the strength of the factors concerned where: 1 = unimportant 2 = of little importance 3 = significant 4 = very important 5 = crucial).
3.1 There are school places available for all girls.
3.2 Enrolment and attendance procedures are strong.
3.3 There is no problem of travelling to school.
3.4 Education is free.
3.5 The influence of males is not discouraging.
3.6 The history of the society has placed females in a commanding role at family level.
3.7 The family arrangement is matrilocal.
3.8 Pre-school provision has been made available.
3.9 The curriculum content is sensitive to the interests of both sexes.
3.10 Once in school young girls do better than boys.
3.11 Women (other than teachers) are seen in authority positions.
3.12 Religious factors are equally favourable to both sexes.
3.13 The range of paid occupations for women is wide.
3.14 There are no marriage pressures at this stage.
3.15 Modern media (e.g. TV) have enhanced linguistic development for all young children.
3.16 Women's movements have fought successfully for equal opportunities.
3.17 Other Factors (please state and score)
a)
b)
c)
d. Factors
A. Preamble
As mentioned above, the factors selected for inclusion emerged partly as a result of our brief and partly from observations in the course of the study. Although they are listed separately, in reality they inter-relate, overlap and even integrate in their influence on the participation of females in education in the countries included in this study, as elsewhere.
Overarching themes such as urban/rural dichotomy, and the fundamental significance of widespread poverty recur, and transcend the divisions of convenience which enable individual factors to be independently considered.
It has also to be recognised that each of the factors discussed below acts both directly and indirectly on the issue in question.
B. List
The order in which the factors are listed does not imply any priority in terms of relative significance.
i. GeographicalThis factor has to do with various types of spatial disparity within a system of educational provision. In these cases we are dealing with systems of provision within national parameters or terms of reference, and the first point of note is that some are incomplete even at primary level, as for example in Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. In India, regulations have been passed to ensure a primary school facility within a few kilometres of every child, but the massive scale of population increase and movement almost certainly means that here too there are communities without primary schools. Even where systems are officially complete at this level there is often a problem of accessibility due to irregular patterns of school location caused by a combination of physical difficulties and historical legacies. Most patterns of schooling have grown piecemeal by accretion and with a number of providers involved at different times. The effect of incompleteness and/or irregularity of primary provision in spatial terms is to create problems of distance between home and school. If such distance is perceived by parents to be manageable but problematical then in general it is more likely that the enrolment and attendance of girls will be adversely affected rather than boys. For obvious reasons, and even in urban areas, distance between home and secondary school is normally greater than for primary. Furthermore the secondary sector is even more likely to be incomplete, making physical access for those girls who qualify particularly difficult, or even impossible.
The fundamental urban/rural dichotomy that exists in all cases, but to different degrees, relates directly to the political geography of educational provision. There tends to be a centralisation of administration and provision that works in favour of the urban sector and especially of the primate city. This produces core-periphery imbalances at various scales from national to local and affecting qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of provision. For the education of girls this is perhaps most influential at secondary level where there is often a disproportionate concentration of provision in urban areas and especially of such single sex schools as may exist. This is very significant for girls in that their educational performance tends to be enhanced by the environment of such schools.
Urban/rural dichotomy relates also to differential concentrations of wealth and influence. Complicated patterns exist in both sectors but in general the concentration of the higher socio-economic classes in the major urban centres means that the higher level of educational provision and take-up in respect of females relates to these classes. Nonetheless the increasing participation and success of elite females in the tertiary sector may lead to greater influence of women in high level decision-making and also greater visibility of successful females in so-called male fields/ occupations, for example in science, technology and engineering.
The direct relationship between political geography and educational organisation and administration is discussed below but mention should be made here of the 'unofficial' effect of political influence acting in geographical terms, such as the dominance of particular cultural, ethnic or class groups acting spatially, and directly or indirectly affecting the participation of females in education. The progressive pressures of the more developed plains communities on the hill tribes of Orissa, partly through the manipulation of educational influence is a case in point. The differential effect of religious organisations and their networks of education provision is also mentioned below.
Human migration is profoundly geographical and can relate directly to the issue of female participation in education at various temporal and spatial scales. Problems of distance and daily journey to school have been noted, though they are not confined to rural areas, but there is also the question of gender and urbanisation. For example, it has long been the case in Jamaica that females migrate in larger numbers to major urban centres within and beyond the island, while in Bangladesh, it is the males who are the prime movers with most females remaining very restricted in this sense. The relationship between education and migration can have both causal and consequential dimensions, but either tends to enhance gender divergence. If, as has generally been the case, males migrate to towns and cities, the gender divergence in terms of education may widen, but if whole families move then it may be more likely that girls as well as boys can benefit from accessibility to urban schooling.
Clearly the form and operation of transportation networks is influential, not only in respect of migration per se, but also in respect of modifying population distribution and settlement patterns. As well as the pressures on females in respect of travelling to school in terms of harassment and discrimination, there is the tendency for settlements and therefore often schools to locate or relocate in relation to a new or enhanced routeway such as the new highway through Orissa, and the major axis between Bamenda and Buea in Cameroon.
As affecting matters of educational provision and accessibility, the geographical factor operates mainly on the human and social side, but there can also be physical difficulties. For example the widespread seasonal flooding in Bangladesh renders whole communities inoperative and includes the destruction of schools. Although transportation by water may be available to alternative locations this is costly, and where choices have to be made, they fall in favour of males. In some remote rural areas, for example in Orissa, there can be danger from wild animals, which again tends to restrict the possibilities of girls attending school.
It is clear that the types of influence brought to bear on the problem of female participation by geographical factors are generally of the type that can only be addressed through well planned integrated schemes of (rural) development, and we are keen to stress the significance of such an approach where educational development is part of such coordinated efforts. However there are some more specifically educational areas where geographical skills may be helpful, such as in the more expert locating and mapping of schools in the rural sector and the reform of catchments and flows of pupils in large urban centres which could enhance the participation of girls in primary and secondary schooling.
ii. Socio-Cultural
In almost all countries and communities there is a fundamental cultural bias in favour of males. In those cases in this study where female participation in education was found to be very limited, this factor operated very strongly through decisions about child care, nutrition, physical work, freedom of movement and marriage. Almost all the societies visited were patriarchal, with the status, power and particularly attitude of fathers being a key factor in encouraging or restricting the schooling of their daughters. Even in Jamaica, where matriarchal patterns are almost universal, the exercise of male control over the career prospects of often better educated and qualified women was evident. Consequently for all of the cases we see the need to engender greater male awareness of the disadvantages faced by females in respect of education, and greater willingness on the part of influential males, such as religious and political leaders to provide a strong advocacy of the female cause in this regard. In trying to encourage the education of girls in developing countries one is confronted not only by widespread poverty, but also deeply rooted social and cultural attitudes which fail to perceive the crucial significance of involving the talents of females in the process of development. Consequently if a girl is to be educated, there are often severe cultural costs to be met; a price to pay for going against established social norms and, in particular, challenging the traditional authority of males. Such problems tend to be more severe in rural areas, but even in towns and cities where prospects of paid employment for educated girls may exist, many parents still fear the possibility of their daughters being alienated from traditional life-styles by contact with essentially 'western' education with its associated values.
The demand for girls' education has to come from the family itself, and in order to overcome traditional attitudes there have to be clearly discernable advantages to the family if parents are to invest in schooling for their daughters. The traditional female role is learned by girls from a very early age, and the work they do in the household, and often also on the land, is often crucial to their mothers who themselves have extremely heavy work burdens and long child-bearing cycles. Early marriage is common in most of the cases studied, and this normally leads to early pregnancy. In some cases there is a high incidence of early pregnancy outside marriage. Either way, early pregnancy has a strong cultural dimension that would need to be contested through some form of education if the negative effects (including educational) are to be overcome. Early marriage inevitably shortens girls' schooling. Those who commence school late and repeat one or two classes may well reach the traditional age of marriage before they reach the end of the primary cycle.
Systems of dowry and bride-price may also have a negative effect on the participation of girls in schooling. The necessity of paying a dowry may make a girl a burden to her parents, which together with any investment that may be made in her education is often seen as a waste of scarce resources. Patrilocal and exogenous marriage customs tend to encourage this attitude. Bride-price customs encourage early marriage, sometimes to gain money needed to find a bride for a son.
For many girls in developing countries, and especially in the rural sector, there is a dearth of alternative role models and even where there is access to modern media, traditional roles are often portrayed for females. This is even the case with school texts at both primary and secondary level. In urban areas, and especially cities, different role models are evident, often within the family in the various elites, and there are clear trends of increased participation and success on the part of females in secondary and higher education. Nonetheless there still appear to be constraints placed upon the employment and promotion prospects of educated females which help to reinforce a 'culture of lower aspirations'. Successful and/or powerful women within such families and outside are not necessarily supportive of the more modern and mobile potential of younger educated females. In some cases problems of physical security and seclusion lead to severe limitations on female participation in schooling.
It is perhaps this socio-cultural factor of attitudes towards girls which, especially when combined with economic constraint, most seriously impedes advance in the development of female participation in education. In fact, in Jamaica which has an impressive record in girls' enrolment, retention and achievement in school, the positive attitudes towards girls' education seem to override even the negative effect of the economic factor.
iii. Health
Socio-cultural attitudes towards girls and women affect their access to education as we have seen, but even more importantly may affect their very survival. Globally, the mortality rate for females is generally lower than that for men but in three of the countries surveyed it is higher. Not only is this symptomatic of the lower Value placed on female life, but it suggests that in terms of work-burden, malnutrition and lengthy child-bearing cycles, many of the women in these regions have so much to contend with that education for themselves or their daughters cannot be in the forefront of their minds. Successful schemes of non formal education recognise this.
Poverty and malnutrition affect the access to school of both boys and girls and the benefit they can derive from their education if they do manage to go to school. However, because of their more favoured status, boys often tend to be better nourished and to receive treatment more quickly when they are ill. Schemes to promote girls' education in poorer areas need to address problems of health and nutrition if they are to be successful.
The onset of puberty is an important factor in its effect on girls' education. We have seen that it increases vulnerability and may therefore make parents decide to withdraw their daughters from school. Distance to school, the lack of female teachers, poor or non-existent toilet facilities and the necessity to board away from home can all be factors contributing to such a decision at this age.
In some of the countries studied puberty marked the point when girls were likely to be withdrawn from school to marry, especially in rural areas. Early marriage is usually followed by early pregnancy. Health-workers voiced their concern over the possible deleterious effects of early pregnancy on young bodies. In two of the countries surveyed there were problems of teenage pregnancy at secondary school level with drop-out occurring particularly in Forms 3 and 4. The loss of unmarried girls who have managed to get as far as this is particularly sad and schemes to keep them in the education system by providing health care, among other things, are very much to be welcomed. In some countries where teenage pregnancies are a problem, there was concern expressed about the scale of sexual activity in the younger generations. Some informants would see the constraint of such customary behaviour as being highly desirable, and presumably this would include some form of health/sex education.
Family size correlated strongly in our survey with the amount of help children had to give at home, with parental attitudes towards schooling, with pupils' hopes and intentions about continuing their education, and with awareness of cost. Family planning is obviously an important factor in increasing the educational chances of both boys and girls, but girls in particular.
iv. Economic
The economic factor, especially in terms of poverty and hunger was found to be the major underlying influence acting against the participation of girls in formal education, in both direct and indirect ways. At a macro level the general economic status of each national case is mentioned below, but masks considerable disparities including that between the traditional and modern sectors which relates closely to rural/urban dichotomies of different kinds, scales and degrees in educational terms. Several of the countries concerned rank among the poorest in the world by standard indices, especially Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and India, and this alone makes it extremely difficult for them to provide even the most basic educational facilities for their rural populations, to say nothing of the increasing ranks of the urban poor.
Clearly women and girls are more disadvantaged in the traditional rural sectors where the majority of the population of all but one (Jamaica) of the cases resides. Inability to meet or cope with both the direct and hidden costs of female participation in schooling was seen to be a prime cause of low levels of involvement and high levels of wastage. In direct terms the cost of such items as exercise books, paper, writing materials, textbooks and sometimes uniforms is prohibitive and a family will have to choose which, if any, of their children will be supported to attend school. In such a situation girls tend to be excluded for a variety of reasons that relate more to hidden costs and above mentioned social and cultural factors. The hidden costs include the loss of assistance to parents in the home and on the land, both areas where in general females make a more profound or basic contribution than males on which the sheer survival of many communities depends, often in terms of subsistence agriculture. This is even more crucial when males have migrated elsewhere in search of paid work and may very well have been unsuccessful but are still absent.
The contribution of women and girls tends to be unpaid and so rural women may have little traditional role or experience in respect of the handling of money. This directly and often severely constrains their status and influence. In societies where women engage in marketing and even petty trading, the situation is obviously different. Partly due to the increased income, there may be the capacity to absorb the cost of female attendance at primary school, but the very expectation of trading may, together with other factors operating in adolescence, be acting against enrolment or retention in secondary schooling. In situations where poverty is deepening there is a tendency for males to move into the marketing and petty trading areas traditionally occupied by females.
It is clear that the cultural costs of education in traditional societies recognised by some commentators do exist in some of the cases included here, and may take both 'pure' and 'applied' forms. The former refers to the sanctions that may operate against an individual for going against the norms of the society, and females are certainly subject to such pressures. The latter is concerned with the wider meaning of the term 'culture' to encompass the whole way of life, including the economic dimension, of a human group. Regular and sustained involvement in the type of formal schooling normally operated may well render the students unable to make a helpful contribution to the traditional means of survival on which their family and community is increasingly dependent as prospects of economic development disappear.
It is for the types of reasons outlined above that education is becoming increasingly questioned by poor rural and even urban societies in terms of its value as an investment in the future of the family/community. Even in relatively good times, investment in the education of daughters was often seen as a waste in that the potential benefit would accrue to the family of the future husband. Directly economic features such as bride price and dowry practices in traditional societies are interwoven with patterns of kinship and marriage already discussed and although not always operating against the schooling of girls, tend usually to do so in the mass of the poorer socio-economic groups who constitute the majority of the population in developing countries.
Relationship between curriculum and economy is also significant, and has been touched upon in relation to the potential alienation of educated young people from the harsh survival imperatives of their traditional communities. Conventional formal schooling develops skills that are most marketable in the modern sector of a diversified economy. In developing countries this strongly favours urban areas where the operation of females in this sector, with its implications for upward mobility is generally accepted, as for example in Jamaica. Elsewhere this can be problematical, even counter productive, except for daughters of the elite groups and the emerging middle classes where they exist. As in developed countries, the apparently dysfunctional nature of most schooling in economic terms acts against the employability of young people and perhaps also against their capacity for self-employment whether in urban or rural settings. This concern overlaps with the educational factor and is discussed further below in relation to the need for suitable forms of vocational and technical education to be encouraged, especially for girls.
v. Religious
Historically there are of course close links between religion and the development of education: the emergence of major creeds such as Hinduism, Christianity and Islam led first to the study of religious texts and the teaching of literacy and ultimately in each case to the development of wider systems of schooling and scholarship. In most of the countries with which we are concerned here, one or more of these creeds have been established by mission, infiltration or conquest over an underlying tradition of indigenous custom and religion, the schooling associated with each system of belief has followed. In the context of Africa, the Koranic school in Camara Laye's L'enfant noir and the Catholic mission school in Oyono's Une vie de boy illustrate this development.
Access to formal schooling for both boys and girls then has been influenced in many developing countries, both historically and geographically by the spread of religious movements and missions. Sierra Leone and Cameroon have similar patterns of Islamic influence in the north and the penetration of Christian missions inland from the coast in the west. Jamaica and Vanuatu both experienced the impact of rival Christian denominations establishing churches and schools ad hoc and leaving the legacy of an irregular spread of school provision for the State to rationalise in later years.
Despite their male authority figures, the Christian churches have been largely supportive of education for girls, even though initially it usually took second place to that of boys. This influence is partly responsible for the good record in girls' education in such places as Kerala in Southern India for example. Christian sects recognise the importance of the education of girls because they know they are educating the mothers who will teach and train the next generation of Christian children. This reason for Christian concern about female education may not have a great deal to do with notions of equality of opportunity or employment prospects, but the promotion of girls' education seems to have made the idea of schooling for girls more acceptable in areas influenced by Christian missions and at an earlier date than elsewhere.
Where Church schools have been nationalised and/or secularised and where state systems have grown up in symbiosis with mission schools, the general approach to girls' education has remained supportive. Despite this however, the strength of factors such as poverty, and older traditions, especially in rural areas, may still effect enrolment and retention figures for boys superior to those for girls.
The low enrolment figures for girls and the relatively negative attitudes to girls' education in Northern Sierra Leone, Northern Cameroon and rural Bangladesh were often explained to us simply in terms of the religious factor: they are all largely Muslim areas. They are also however areas which are traditional, rural and poor, and these factors as we have seen certainly contribute towards the problem. The daughters of elite Muslim families in Dhaka are participating successfully at all levels of the educational system but they have parents who are urban, relatively wealthy and themselves educated. In traditional villages Muslim fathers may religiously legitimise attitudes which are customary rather than matters of belief. Certainly the Koran does not discourage the education of girls. More overt support from local religious leaders would help to persuade parents to send their daughters to school. In addition, more female teachers, single-sex schools and secure accommodation where boarding is necessary might calm parental fears about the vulnerability of girls outside the home. Although parents everywhere are concerned about their daughters' safety, the degree of concern is very marked among many Muslim and Hindu, parents in the regions studied, within the subcontinent.
Cultural and religious attitudes about the upbringing of girls may make the risk of physical and moral danger a particularly important factor in parental decisions not to allow girls past the age of puberty to go to school.
Another factor in the attraction of religiously based schools, especially for parents of girls, is the stability of such institutions and of their teaching staff. Good teachers are attracted by the prospect of better conditions of work and reliability of remuneration. Certainly both Christian and Islamic authorities have been instrumental in establishing secondary boarding schools for girls as well as for boys.
vi. Legal
The significance of the legal factor is mainly indirect but nonetheless real. This is because in terms of modern statutes equal status between the sexes normally obtains, legislation having been passed in accordance with international trends. In practice, however, there are still important areas where the law could be reformed further to encourage compliance and in some places women are still statutory minors! So in general there. is a widespread need for strengthened legal support for females. In many traditional societies situations exist where disregard of the law is commonplace in ways that adversely affect opportunities for women and girls to participate in educational opportunities. Much of this type of problem results from continued adherence to traditional custom which normally favours males. Long standing societal rules forbidding female activity or constraining it are difficult to change, especially in rural communities dominated by men. There are also cases where discretion is applied in the enforcement of modern law, for example in respect of the age of marriage when all parties are in agreement.
Other areas where legal dimensions to the problem of modest female participation in formal education exist are, for example:
· in gaining justice and compensation for physical attack;· in gaining support for coping with contracts in connection with paid employment and the ownership of property and/or land;
· in bringing pressure to bear on the authorities for the provision of full educational facilities in accordance with regulations;
· in gaining support for modern legal operations in respect of marriage, divorce and inheritance.
At present, illiteracy severely constrains the proper use of the law by women for their own best interests, and it might help to resolve the situation by developing more literacy schemes with associated legal dimensions for rural women. This might be further integrated with community development projects.
The issue of the employment of (young) children and especially girls should be reviewed in terms of current law and action taken where necessary.
The significance of the legal factor can be well illustrated by that strand of the work of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) that seeks to uphold the legal position of women in the context of the family, the world of work and physical security. Action taken by BRAC in this regard has significantly enhanced the status and strength of its educational initiatives on behalf of women and girls. This is an effort that could be made on behalf of many traditional communities elsewhere.
Support for the training of more women for the legal profession would probably encourage more rural women to challenge customary restrictions place upon them.
In general it is clear that failure to implement or enforce existing legislation continues to disadvantage females in many countries, including the cases represented here, and that the education system is itself part of the system of social regulation and control that often continues to permit a situation of gender bias.
vii. Political Administrative
This factor relates closely to some aspects of the geographical and legal factors. For example, the provision of education may be operated by a variety of political offices with different spatial and legal identities. In the Cameroons the macro division between the anglophone and francophone sectors results in two distinctive national systems of primary and secondary provision. Their relative influence, especially in relation to the political realities of higher education appears to have a marked effect on certain patterns of educational emigration. There is a long tradition of female exodus from the western provinces to colleges and universities in anglophone West Africa.
In federal states such as India, where there are also numerous other providers of education such as municipal councils in major cities, private trusts and religious organisations, competing rules and regulations overlap creating innumerable disparities, some of which have significance for the opportunities of girls. Such a situation makes coordination in order to deliver federal policy in respect of gender and education extremely difficult. In larger countries especially, there may be a reluctance to commit funds for initiatives to state or local bodies for fear of maladministration, even corruption. In many of the locations visited NGOs are being identified as the most appropriate vehicles for both internal and external aid to enhance female participation in education.
Even where suitable regulations exist there seems to be a widespread problem in respect of the quality of local administration in the educational services of most of the cases studied. It is not just the efficiency of dealing with routine administration, but the nature of the role of local officials that is constraining educational opportunities for both sexes, but especially for females in rural areas. If such officials are appropriately trained to act more as facilitators/animateurs, giving support to teachers and communities at the point of delivery, and if more women were trained for this type of work then more parents might be encouraged to permit their daughters to attend primary and secondary schools. This is not just a question of decentralisation, but of qualitative reform in local educational administration whether the locus of power in the system be federal, regional, municipal or at community level.
The supply and quality of teachers is obviously very important, and in areas where the enrolment and attendance of girls is deterred by the lack of female teachers, strong initiatives have to be adopted to attract them if a breakthrough is to be achieved. The policy of admitting females to teacher training courses with inferior entry qualifications as compared with their male colleagues could be counter productive, perhaps lowering the quality of the teaching force and antagonising male teachers at the same time. The morale and commitment of teachers, especially primary teachers in rural areas is even further reduced by lengthy delays in payment of salaries. Absenteeism becomes common in such circumstances and parents withdraw their support as they lose confidence in the utility and reliability of schooling.
Despite the widespread adoption of equal opportunity regulations and accompanying rhetoric, it would appear that in most of the cases there is a significant lack of real political will at the centres of power to adopt radical programmes designed to redress the gender imbalance. The creation of 'Womens' Ministries' does not seem to be the answer. They tend to be poorly funded and have low status in the hierarchy of real power. It would greatly enhance prospects of radical reorientation and extension if more women were enabled to play political roles. In some of the countries there is evidence of the beginning of such a trend, and in one (Vanuatu) there is a project designed to engender greater female participation in public life. This in turn would provide more visible role models for girls to emulate.
On the question of language policy - in many rural areas of developing countries, the local language will have little or no status, but is the only language of most mothers and their young children. If this is the case and the educational level of females is low then they are trapped. The resolution of such issues requires the application of real political will on the part of influential males in favour of their disadvantaged women. In general this is lacking.
viii. Educational
The educational factor is complex as it is in itself a product of the interaction of all the others. Consequently what is causal and what is consequential in educational terms in relation to female participation is difficult to distinguish.
In those countries where girls' enrolment is low, the literacy levels of mothers are also low. This low educational base among females diminishes the likelihood of daughters going to school and if they do, of being retained within the school system long enough to make it worthwhile.
In the primary sector despite schemes such as infant-level feeder schools and boarding facilities for upper primary classes, access still remains difficult for many children and as we have seen elsewhere, is more difficult for girls than for boys. The problem of female drop-out at primary level is not helped by the lack of female teachers (especially in rural areas) in countries such as India and Bangladesh. The absence of basic toilet facilities is also more serious for girls than for boys. Gender stereotyping in textbooks and readers reinforces the self-image girls acquire from the traditional attitudes of their communities. The system of repeating classes may also militate against girls in that parents may well think it worthwhile to support a boy repeating a year but will withdraw a girl. Where poor resources and teacher absenteeism (due to non-payment of salaries for months on end) make schooling a questionable investment for all children, it is girls whom parents seem most likely to withdraw. This is particularly because they are so useful at home, especially where the school-day and the school-year are unrelated to the realities of everyday life and to the agricultural cycle. The apparent irrelevance of the primary curriculum to the traditional role of the female is another factor which persuades parents to keep girls at home where they can acquire through informal education the traditional skills perceived as the only ones they will need as wives and mothers at home and in the village.
At the secondary level the problems for girls are even more severe. Incomplete systems, especially in rural areas, make access to school more difficult than at primary level. Distance to school has more implications for girls than for boys as we have seen above. The lack of female teachers and/or single-sex schooling becomes even more important for parents once girls have reached puberty and in some parts of Bangladesh for instance, girls have to attend boys' secondary schools. Teenage pregnancy and early marriage obviously affect drop-out at this age, but so do factors more intrinsic to the system such as availability of places, the lack of facilities and the costs of fees, uniforms, textbooks and transport. The stereo-typing of options at secondary and vocational schools also reinforces traditional views about girls' education. As one writer puts it: "the path to school for many girls is only a detour which leads them back to their traditional tasks in the home".
Where secondary schools offer only an academic type of course, and technical/vocational training opportunities elsewhere are scarce and often sex-stereotyped, there are few options for girls who are not academic high-flyers. The success and over-subscription of small-scale private and NGO ventures in providing technical and vocational training for girls in Sierra Leone, Jamaica and Cameroon, clearly indicate a need that should attract external support.
At university level, with the exception of Jamaica, where women students are beginning to outnumber men, female participation becomes even lower. Urban and middle-class females, however, are beginning to compete well with males and over a wide range of subjects, including science, technology and engineering. The need for secure residential accommodation for females coming from distant or rural areas to university centres was stressed in both Cameroon and Bangladesh. The lack of female teachers in rural areas makes provision of this sort particularly important in initial teacher-training if rural women are to be encouraged to train to teach and return to their home areas. It is unfortunate that marriage to males in government service may keep trained women-teachers in the large conurbations when they are needed back in the provinces. This was particularly noticeable in Yaoundé and Dhaka.
The education systems and institutions of countries with low female participation can certainly do many things to encourage girls to enrol and to stay on at school, and not least they can influence the attitudes of the next generation of parents to their daughters. Our primary survey revealed that negative attitudes towards the education of girls are often well-established in 11 and 12-year-old children. Schools must ask themselves to what extent their ethos, teachers, textbooks and curriculum are sub-consciously reinforcing these attitudes.
ix. Initiatives
The problems facing females in respect of being able to participate in such educational opportunities are widespread and severe. Nonetheless, it would be wrong in a report such as this to overlook the considerable efforts that are being made in all countries visited, and in different ways, to confront various aspects of this problem. Some particular initiatives, specific to countries, are mentioned in the case studies below, but a few more general points about relevant initiatives here will serve to illustrate that there are positive factors at work too.
All the governments recognise that the problems of female participation in education at various levels are significant, and most have policy commitments to attempt resolutions. Unfortunately a combination of: pressure on priorities, a general lack of political will (most of the politicians are of course male), severe shortage of funds, and poor levels of staff and resources for the implementation of initiatives, acts to make for very slow progress. Nonetheless, one may mention any number of serious initiatives from governments that have the potential to improve the situation to some extent. For example, in India the Federal Government has launched Operation Blackboard in an attempt not only to bring primary schooling within the reach of all, but also to specifically target the female dimension by making regulations for the imperative of a female teacher alongside a male teacher in every rural location. Recognition of the need to attract and train more female primary teachers has led to initiatives by some governments to allow such trainees to enter the course with lower qualifications than males. A case can be made for this, but there are strong arguments against, including the potentially damaging effect on the status of women. Some governments, notably in India, have established projects to free school texts of gender bias.
Some governments operate feeding schemes to help overcome problems of malnutrition and to attract increased enrolment at primary level. Where Women's Ministries/Bureaux have been established, they do increase the visibility of the issue and provide new role models, but in practice are often underfunded in comparison with other Ministries and have little real power. There is also a danger of any problems associated with females being directed towards this Ministry, which can be extremely counterproductive in terms of the vital interests of in effect at least 50 per cent of the population.
Because of the problems faced by governments in addressing this issue, most of the effective initiatives are being carried out by NGOs with external funding. One such initiative, the primary schools of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) provides an excellent model that could be replicated almost anywhere in the rural sector of developing countries. The strength of this scheme is that it works from within each village community and recognises the particular needs and problems of that community. It is realistic and successful. Other NGOs have similar schemes both in Bangladesh and elsewhere, and the more successful have, like BRAC, associated their primary education initiatives with ongoing community development schemes which include the enhancement of literacy levels and income generation prospects for rural women.
NGOs are also involved in addressing the crucial problem of enabling girls, especially in rural areas, to progress to the secondary sector, which often involves the construction of new facilities sometimes with a boarding component, as well as providing scholarships to cover fees, uniforms, books and other necessary expenses. Initiatives by religious bodies are also significant at this level.
The field of technical/vocational education for adolescents and young adults is clearly becoming increasingly significant in all countries and although few initiatives were evident, the excellent work of OIC in Buea, Cameroon and of the YWCA in Jamaica provide workable models worthy of consideration elsewhere.
Early pregnancy is a widespread problem, often terminating a promising educational career. Initiatives to assist teenage girls to cope both with their baby and with the continuation of their schooling, such as the Crisis Centres in Jamaica, are to be commended.
Problems facing Ministries or other Government Departments set up to look after the problems of women and girls have been noted. But there are also unofficial though recognised agencies that have been set up in all the countries concerned to assist women in need. Sisteren in Jamaica is a good example. Although not an educational movement in the formal and limited sense, it does employ imaginative learning techniques through art and drama that successfully reach the grass roots, providing ideas, support and information to females of all ages.
It will be noted that several worthwhile initiatives selected for special mention came from Jamaica, where, despite the matriarchal system and the strong educational profile of girls, there are still some severe problems for certain female groups. But at least the position of women in general there provides a degree of experience and confidence much needed by their counterparts elsewhere. Yet even in Jamaica the problem of male hegemony still obtains, though the vital significance of education in supporting women's development, especially in the modern sector, is recognised. So there is still a need for more women to become active politically, which is where the final initiative selected comes in. The Vanuatu Council of Women has developed programmes to impart basic political skills and confidence to women to enable them to participate successfully in running meetings and committees at local level.
e. Conclusion
In the general report section of this document an attempt has been made to synthesise the influence of the various factors with which the project is concerned, to outline the scope of the exercise and the methodology involved. In general the policy has been not to highlight particular cases because such information is laid out in the case-study section below. Neither have we given many recommendations in this section, because they are listed both in the executive summary above and in the cases below.
Much of what we have found reinforces the knowledge that the problem of relative lack of female participation in education in developing countries is vast, almost universal, but we have also found that it is not intractable and that significant and progressive movement has occurred in many areas for at least a decade or two. Such momentum should be maintained, and we hope that the recommendations we have made as a result of the privilege of making this study will commend themselves to those with powers of decision-making and funding both in developing countries and in aid agencies.
