Exercise lV : The role of government vs the role of tradition

Objective: To define the responsibility of government for the promotion of girls?education and to strategize
action to further that role

Time: 45 minutes

Materials: Copies of “Case Study : The Girls of Tula?(below)

I. Read: Case Study: The Girls of Tula

In the village of Tula, girls older than the age of 13 rarely attend school. Some parents forbid them to
attend; others simply do not encourage their girls. Less than 10% of the graduates from secondary school in Tula
are girls. Only one girl has ever attended the university, and when she came back to the village, no man would
consider marrying her as they assumed she hod lost her virginity while in the city. Girls in Tula are expected to
marry young, to stay at home and to bear many children, particularly sons.

2. Role-Play:

Divide participants into small groups. Read the following scenario and ask them to use it to develop a roleplay:
Scenario:You are an educator speaking to Tula Community members about the importance of education
for girls. What could you say to different groups to encourage keeping girls in school? How might they
respond?

Suggested roles: student, parent, head of family, teacher, local legislator and local religious leaders.

3. Imagine / Discuss:

Ask the participants to imagine: You are a girl of 15 inTula. You want to go to school, but your parents
won’t let you. What do you do? How could and should the government help you?

- Should the government force parents to send their older girls to school?
- Should the government fund “outreach?educators to explain the importance of education to members of the
community?
- What other tactics could the government use in the community? In the school? In the university?

4. Discuss:

Ask these questions about girls?education in the local community:

- Does your community value equally the education of boys and girls?
- Do more girls than boys drop out of school or attend irregularly? If so, at what age? For what reasons?
- Are government authorities doing anything to correct or challenge the problem? Are people in the community
doing anything?

Strategies to Promote Women’s Right to Education

Here are some suggestions. Compare these with the list from Exercise lll, Step 5. Make a final list of
strategy suggestions and place them in order of urgency. How can you implement these strategies?

- Insure access by girls and women to educaton and improve the quality and relevance of that education for
them.
- Eliminate gender stereotyping in textbooks and school curriculums.
- Set specific targets and time-frames to progressively reduce the gender gap.
- Establish schools and learning centres within walking distance of girls?homes.
- Recruit more women teachers.
- Campaign to elicit parental support and participation in education.
- Make more efforts to enroll adolescent wives and. mothers in basic education programmes.
- Provide day care facilities.
- Adopt innovative programmes to combine learning with income earning for out-of-school gids
and women in poor communities.
- (UN Public Information Department, “Literacy: A Key to Women’s Empowerment? from Press
Kit for the Beijing Conference, 1995)