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| Malala Yousafzai (Photo by Phil. Reuters) |
By Lydia Nabukeera,
External Coordinator IJM UCU Chapter
Education is a very important
stage in one’s life as am sure many will agree that no matter the situation, good
or bad, developed or undeveloped and above all war toned or secure – the girl
child needs to be educated too. Education has been effective in finding
solutions to many problems in any community setting especially if all the people
are educated regardless of their sexes. Education involves a process of
teaching, training and learning, especially in schools or colleges to improve
knowledge and develop skills. A right is that which is proper under the law,
moral or ethical and in Uganda, a right is to be enjoyed by everyone. On that
note, it should be noted and emphasized that education is a basic right to
every child. This accounts for the reason many policies on education exist
today, also instilling the pressure or sense into parents to educate all
children, the girls inclusive.
Education is a fundamental
human right as well as a catalyst for economic growth and human development.
The Ugandan supreme law, the constitution, clearly stipulates that all persons
have a right to education. It stipulates that children shall have a right to
know and be cared for by their parents or those entitled by law to bring them
up especially through providing basic needs such as education to each child. The
constitution continues to emphasize that that no child shall be deprived of
education among other social or economic benefits by reason of religious or
other benefits.
Now let’s take a close look to Malala`s perspective on the
girl education. Malala Yousafzai was
born on 12th July, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan. She was a just a
normal girl, call it below average. Malala lived in Mingora, a city in the Swat
valley, an area governed by the Taliban. The Taliban do not consider formal
education a process for the girl child, but rather all women have a place home
where they will be doing household work, whereas education was for the boys. Malala’s
father was a passionate education advocate himself. He taught at a learning
institution in the city and school was big part of Malala`s family. When she
was 10 years old, power in the swat valley lay with the Taliban. Their rule
involved the banning of the girl child education. They stopped girls from going
to schools, cultural activities like watching television and dancing were
prohibited.
Malala spoke out against the orders of the Taliban to keep
the girls away from school. In 2009, only at the age of 11-12, she ran a blog
under the name BBC Urdu where she spoke about her life in the Swat Valley under
the Taliban occupation. She gained prominence in the region and started giving
interviews to journalists and on TV.
On the 9th of October, 2012, at the height of
her prominence, while she was moving to school in a bus, Taliban fighters
entered into the vehicle, and asked who Malala was “Who is Malala” one
asked.
Malala was identified shot on her left side of the head.
She did not die by remained unconscious and in a very critical condition in
hospital. She was later taken to the UK for further treatment.
During her treatment, the world was watching, hearing, and
waiting for a miracle as it spoke out against this inhumane attempt on the life
of Malala by the Taliban. Malala at that time became the “most famous teenager
in the world.”
After her miraculous recovery, she is now a renowned
activist based in Birmingham where she founded the Malala Fund that is in place
to make sure girls actually go to school and accorded equal opportunity with
the boys. To date, the Taliban still vow to shoot her again, to kill if she
ever stepped in Pakistan. In 2014, she won a Nobel Peace Prize making her the
youngest laureate ever at age 17. The Times
magazine in 2013, 2014, and 2015 named her as among the most influential people
in the world. She has won numerous awards since then, been hosted on many shows
including speaking about the perspective of the girl child education of her
country during a United Nations General Assembly in 2013. Just this year in
2017, she has been awarded honorary Canadian citizenship making her the
youngest person to address the House of Commons of Canada. Her advocacy has
since grown into an international movement for the girl child education.
During the Taliban`s brief
rule over the Swat valley, they destroyed more than 400 schools and more of
these were girls` schools. Malala still stood out and is now a voice to the
voiceless for she called got the world’s attention amidst all the fears and
threats that were going on in the country by then from the Taliban.
Pakistan has a record for
being the country with the second largest number of children out of school with
2/3 being girls. The country also has the lowest enrollment rate of children in
schools compared to other low developed countries. About 5% of the children in
school currently attend MADRASSAS, Muslim religious seminaries which have been
now expanded their scope to cover mainstream education.
In 2012, UNESCO showed that Pakistan had the least progress
in the region about educating girls. The poorest girls in Pakistan are twice
likely to be out of school as the poorest girls in India, almost three times as
likely as the poorest in Bangladesh per the World Inequality Database On
Education. In simple terms, a poor Pakistan girl child may or fails completely
to attain education as a basic need. Even when there is a possibility of
enrolling in a school, actually doing so can be downright dangerous for
instance in June 2013, militants blew up a bus carrying female students in
Quetta, capital city of Pakistan Balochistan province and the school has been
shuttered since then.
The causes of low enrollment
of girls in Pakistan are not any different from Uganda, no matter the
difference in continents for we are all humans of mindset. The first challenge
to access of education is Poverty. When
large families can`t afford school for some of their children, daughters often
lose out to sons for some family leaders feel and think that the male child will
carry on their legacies. Many elders in Uganda think that male children are
strong and hardworking for they will provide for the family in their old age
unlike girls or females who they see as an investment through bride price and I
repeat bride price ONLY yet in these modern times and developing era women and
girls are more creative and hardworking if given an opportunity at the same
levels of opportunity. Malala states this out loud that “if a man marries an uneducated woman or girl, who will teach the
family for mothers are most often with their children and are the first
teachers to the children before they are taken to school to add on what they
have learnt from home” simply meaning that an educated girl is an educated
nation for they will transmit the knowledge they have to their children and also
benefit the family and the world at large.
This point leads me to Discrimination as our second challenge,
girls are discriminated from the boys. Society has margalised the woman and
made her the weaker sex. Only the boy child goes to school. In Pakistan, the
Taliban prohibited girls from going to school or engaging in any cultural
activities which these would improve on the lifestyle of the country. To an
extent that over 400 schools, most of which were girls’ schools were burnt
emphasizing their point of no girl child education. And Malala clearly states that “education is education. We should learn
everything and then choose the path to follow. Education is neither eastern or
western, it is human.” This means that education is for all, for both
social and economic development.
Sexual
violence. This in a broad term would include rape, defilement,
sexual assault and harassment etc. During the Taliban reign of Malala’s
province, most girls were sexually harassed on their way to and from school.
And there was basically nothing that could be done to make these girls’ lives
better because their leaders then were against girl child education. Similarly,
in some other parts of the world, girls face rampant sexual abuse even at their
schools by the teachers, other staff and also fellow students. In Uganda, girls
at higher institutions of learning are coerced into sex by their lecturers and
teachers in order to get better grades. This and other forms of sexual violence
discourage the girl child from going to school.
Cultural
practices have led to a low enrollment of the girl child in
schools. In Pakistan, looking at the already mentioned statistics, it is clear
the rate of enrollment of the girl child in school is very low, and it is even
lower in the rural areas. Most of these people are governed by cultural
practices that discourage and discriminate the girls from going to school. Such
practices such as early marriage lead to fewer girls in school. Many of these
are married off by their parents, usually to older men and these men do not
appreciate education.
Lack
of basic needs for instance healthcare, scholastic
materials, sanitary wear, food, and many others hinder the girl child from being sustained in
school. Many girls in rural areas move to and from school bare footed and barely
no food for a whole day so a normal school child cannot concentrate in class
and school since there is provision from the parent which is also as a result
of poverty.
The following are some of the
select few solutions to the challenges of the girl child in attaining education.
The girls do not have a
voice, so “Give the girl a voice.”
From Malala’s perspective, the way she approached the situation in her country she
became a voice of the voiceless, this clearly shows that girls or ladies are
not heard or respected to give their opinions for many reasons that is them
(girls) being the weaker sex as one of them. Second solution is political representation and by this, I
mean the politicians should be sensitized on how to become more gender
sensitive; Increase the number of gender
sensitive female teachers and administrators in education; Revise broad educational aims and goals
with an intention of incorporating gender concerns in the curriculum that is to
say adding gender studies as a subject at the levels of education.; government should encourage the
establishment of non- governmental organizations working towards achieving
greater gender party in education.
There is a lot of potential
in all of us no matter one’s sex. The world is only a better place to be in if
are all living happy lives. Afford the girl a right to education, and you will be shocked at how much the world
will progress in a leap.
