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By Rojina Kandel

Girls’ education is one of the pivotal subjects for the overall development of any society and in fact of any nation. Nepal has witnessed many changes in the area of girls’ education since the beginning of the evolution of the education system. In the initial time of the equal education system for girls and boys in Nepal, there was a very low rate of girls going to school for education. This was because for the most and importantly the parents were not convinced to send their daughters to school. This unconvinced nature of parents was because they had a rigid belief system that there is no meaning and use in sending their daughters to school because girls are born to do the household work, get married, look after their husbands and children after marriage and so on. However, today this concept has drastically changed and parents are convinced about the fact that girls should be sent to school and get an education for a better future before and after their marriage.

Similarly, the government’s focus on girls’ education has made it more accessible, affordable and attainable. Enrolment, particularly for girls, has increased in primary schools. However, there are still many challenges including high drop-out rates among girls’ repetition of grades and absenteeism. Looking precisely at the data, 9% of girls in primary school repeat grades and 4.1% drop out of primary school. This figure rises to 8.7% in secondary school.

Even though, the constitution guarantees free basic education for all and explicitly anchors the rights of women, girls’ lives are still determined by traditions such as menstruation taboos, whereas, boys are clearly favored when it comes to education. According to the estimation of UNESCO, 129 million girls are out of school worldwide – 32 million of primary school age and 97 million who would actually go to secondary school. Many barriers keep girls out of school and among them, conflict, poverty, child labor, child marriage and the multiple consequences of Covid-19 are the major ones. In addition, several socio-cultural factors stop Nepali girls from going to school.

The state of girls’ education in Nepal varies according to the places where the girls’ homes are; in other words, the level of girls going to school or being educated and vice-versa has been determined by the locality or the place where the girl resides. As mentioned above, it is a very straightforward issue in this sense that, mostly, if the girl is residing in a rural area, she is hovered by the traditional boundaries and her parents also have to follow society’s rules and regulations for girls, which yields the result for giving less priority to send the girls to school and only focusing girls on teaching how to do household chores and make them get married. However, the opposite this happens if the girl is residing in the city area; where mostly there is a broader vision and even parents are also more concerned about sending their daughters to good schools along with their sons.

Nevertheless, this stereotype of society is now changing and due to the easy access to the internet, developed transportation system, and government’s education awareness programs, these days even in rural areas of Nepal, parents are aware and send their daughters to school. To conclude, the state of girls’ education is improving and growing phase which indeed itself is the brighter aspect for the development of the entire nation.