Education for women in KP
The video above is 18 year old Mehnaz's story who pursued higher education but plans to drop out before completing her degree.
“As a woman, what do you think are your basic rights?” I asked several women on my recent trip to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The answer was almost always the same: The right to make my own decisions. More importantly, the right to education.Unanimously, over the years, the one desire that has been commonly seen among relatively ‘aware’ Pakistani women is to acquire education. These women were based in urban and rural parts of the country, spread out from the Heera Mandi in Lahore or to Nagarparkar in Tharparkar or most recently in the villages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In a country where a whopping 61 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, surviving (or not) at under $2-a-day, female education takes a back seat on the list of priorities. Pakistan continues to have one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world, and also unsettling disparity in rates of education, the disparity between urban and rural population being specially marked.
Gender disparity in education in Pakistanis a major issue. According to figures released by Unesco Institute for Statistics, primary-school enrolment for girls stands at 60 per cent and at 84 per cent for boys. However, only 32 per cent of the females enrol in secondary school.According to the 2009 census, the rate of female literacy inPakistan is 45 per cent, which means they can read a newspaper in any language and write a simple letter.
“I dream that these girls get educated. I don’t want them to be weak and exploited. I want to groom them. I want them to be aware of their rights. I want them to be able to support themselves and have a better life,” says Huma, teaching a group of 30 little girls at the APNA Primary Girls’ School, in the villageof Islamabad Karuna.
