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| Sunday, 8 August 2004 |
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Statistics reveal more girls are out of school : Not quite cricket Are cricket and educating girls played on a level field in this country? Unfortunately not, for although we are the Asian Cup champs in cricket, the larger numbers of our girl children are still struggling at the wicket to catch that ever elusive ball that is retreating further and further from their despairing reach. By Kaminie Jayanthi Liyanage "I am told how lucky I am to be where I am," Ravi Shastri, former Indian cricketer, and National Ambassador for UNICEF in India, was saying recently, at the photo exhibition campaigning "Fair Play for Girls - Education for every child," held by UNICEF at the Gallery Cafe.
It was also to demonstrate that the exercise of fair play on the sports field needed to be extended in the exercise of gender justice, specially on the field of education where the large bulk of girl children in South Asian countries surprisingly still occupied a seat behind men. Do we have good sportsmen in this country? Shastri commented that "A decade in the UNICEF has been a most humbling experience in the field of primary education. Sports teach you about tolerance, inclusion and citizenship." The question is, are these measures being adequately extended to the girl child in Sri Lanka? Is the indicator that every 97 female children opposite any given 97 male children are attending primary school a reason to congratulate ourselves on the educatedness of the Sri Lankan girl child? Probably not, when about 92,145 chldren in the age group 5-14 are not going to school at all. Disgracefully not, when only 27.8 per cent of children have been found to make up the school going quarter in the total population, including the North and the East. Research reveals that more than 65 million girls in the world are out of school and that when a girl child or a woman loses the opportunity to educate herself, she loses much more than education. Her health is at a risk and she is more likely to be subjected to violence, abuse, sexual exploitation with a resultant high incidence of HIV/AIDS. The every day experiences of verbal abuse and uncivility the average local woman or girl child may encounter on the streets, in the public conveyance belt and various other public forums is all too expressive of the marginalisation of exclusion she may be subjected to, in other fields in which competition is key to advancement. For barricades to education meant ousting the girl child from from an opportunity in decision making, prodominantly in matters related to her own life. Here are figures from UNICEF which should jostle us into proactive action. Of the 46 Million primary age school age children in South Asia out of school, more than half are girls; 35 per cent of primary age girls are not enrolled in schools compared to the 20 per cent boys; While more than a fourth of all the children who enter school do not complete primary education, girls are generally the last to be placed in school and the first to be taken out. The "multiplier" effect of education, which createds a 24 per cent in economic returns is one reason why we should educate girls. The increased schooling of the mother, rather than the father, reveales the generation of higher gains in child quality outcome, including birth weight, child survival, good nutrition and increased school enrolment and completion. And educating the girl child has been found to be the key agent in breaking the cycle of inter-generational poverty. the "25 by 2005" Girls' Education Campaign, the accelerated effort by UNICEF in 25 countries, including India, Nepal, Nigeria, Yemen, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Zambia, to get as many girls as possible into school by 2005, would to a large extent depend on changed attitudes of the partriarchal multitudes towards the capabilities and the aptitude of the girl child as a 'change agent' for a transformed society exercising the right of freedom for individual advancement. It is the most important activity the world community can take to get rid of poverty and achieve significant improvements in people's lives. If meaningful progress in girls' education, which can make that crucial change in the subservient pattern of their lives, does not happen urgently, achieving the MIllenium Development Goals would be at a risk. We can take a cue from words coming from a headmaster and a teacher in Afghanistan, after all the years in which women were prevented from achieving educational goals: "Our recent history is a result of ignorance. People see education as a way of avoiding future tragedies like the ones we have had in the past. - "Take our voices to the world. We suffered to many years without education, but Afghanistan is learning again!" |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
The joining hands of the Asian Cricket Council with the UNICEF to
support the drive for levelling the playing field of life for girls was a
manner of showing that sportsmen do care about chidlren, the
underprivileged and human welfare.
