Girls’ Education and the Policy Challenges: Need for Universalization and Transformative School Education

Abstract

The Government of India (GOI) has taken several initiatives like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme and others to enhance enrolment and participation of girls in education. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a flagship scheme by Government of India to implement RTE Act 2009 has been remarkable in terms of ensuring physical access to elementary schools in length and breadth of the country and implementation of the scheme has also reduced gender parity index by bringing more girls to school. However, the implementation of these schemes and programmes has been uneven, often fraught with ground- level hurdles. It is a pressing concern that even after 10 years of RTE Act 2009, compliance rate is only 12.7%. Free and compulsory education is critical for girls’ education because of an unequal status ascribed to girls and women in the patriarchal society. Inequality in society is often seen to overlap with inequalities in the school. Further educational content, official knowledge, who to be education when, are centrally determined and education despite being a fundamental right have not been able to build a connection to the live experiences of the subaltern and indigenous groups and girls belonging to these groups gets doubly jeopardized. Gender based violence (GBA) and defined masculinity and femininity through ascribed gender roles also excludes girls from formal education system. This paper will highlight some of the major policy challenges to equal education for girls and how school can act as counter socializers to tackle gender bias and discrimination. Further the paper will also present how universalization of school education will be able to build the pathway to inclusive education instead of incentivizing schemes which is becoming the norm currently. Situating the present status of girls education the paper will explore how The

Draft New Education Policy have also departed substantially from the previous education policies; and have not been able to address the issues which is critical for ensuring universalization of education and connecting to the lived experiences/world view of the girls. Along with that the policy is also not explicit on the role of the state to invest resources on education so that quality and transformative education is possible instead of reducing education to a measure of standardized learning outcomes.