Educational Status of Women (A Case Study of Putali Bazaar Municipality, Syangja District)

Abstract

The dissertation entitled "Educational Status of Women (A Case Study of Putali BazaarMunicipality, Syangja District), submitted to thePrithvi Narayan Campus is based on primarydata, collected from Syangja Bazaar , Pragati Nagar and Bahad Khola of Putali BazaarMunicipality of Syangja district in 2008. This includes 138 married female of age between 15-60 assamplesize. The main objective of this study is to find out the educational status of the138 sampled population. For this purpose, further it is done to identify their literacy status,causes of illiteracy, drop out level and causes of drop out. To conduct this survey, semi-structured questionnaire was designed for the data collection.Most of the questions were pre-codedand some open questions had also been included in thequestionnaire.A set of29 questions were prepared and interviewed to the targeted populationfrom whom the data were collected. The filled up questionnaires were done manual editingthoroughly. After completing the manual edition the data were analyzed using SPSS software.The analyzed data were interpreted using different statistical tools and writings. From this survey, a total of 138 married women were collected. Similarly majority ofpopulations 61.95 percent are in active age group i.e. 15-59, followed by 28.85 percent of agegroup 0-14 and 9.20 from the age above 60. Out of138household sample population 97.10per cent are married and only 2.90 per cent are widowed. Majority of population isdependent on agriculture i.e. 35.60 per cent and 14.70 per cent aredepended on service, 5.40 percent in business likewise wedge 2.70 per cent and 5.80 percentinvolved in other occupations like carpet knelling, carpenter etc as where 35.80 percent arestudents. The highest per cent of population having income source is agriculture i.e. 60.14 percent followed by service 24.11 percent, business 8.59 percent, wedge 4.53 percent and 2.63percent others. It is found that out of 138 sampled household all of them (100%) householdhave their own land but very few in quantity i.e. less than 10 Ropanies. In the field of literacy,it is found that 80.71 per cent people are literate where as 19.29 per cent are illiterate. Sexwise 90.91 percent male are literate where as only 70.27 percent female are found literate.Similarly, 12.93 percent populations have got literacy from non-formal education and 87.07per cent populations have got literacy from formal education. Out of literate 28.78 percenthave achieved primary education followed by lower secondary and secondary level 20.58 and11.66 percent respectively. Only 8.20 percent have passed the S.L.C. level and 6.38 percentIntermediate level. Only 0.73 percent have passed Master's Degree level. Majority of the respondents (22.50%) are from 30-34 age groups followed by 35-39 (21.70%)and 25-29 (17.50%). In short we can say majority of respondent are from 25-39 age. According to caste/ethnicity, Brahmin holds 41.30 percent, followed by Chhetri (22.50%),Magar (15.20%) andSarki (9.40%). All the respondents were found Hindus. Out of 138respondents 60.10 per cent are literate and 39.90 per cent are illiterate. This 39.90 per centilliteracy rate of female indicates that still the educational status of women is back-warded. Majority of respondents 87.27 percent pointed out that, the main cause of their illiteracy islack of awareness and 10.91 percent illiterate said that they could not go to school due toeconomic problem. So the main cause of lower female literacy is due to lack of knowledge orignorance regarding the importance of women education. While relating illiteracy by the age at marriage of respondents, the literacy status ofrespondents is increased in increased in age at marriage. Respondents who have low age atmarriage they are almost illiterate and in increasing in age at marriage the literacy alsoincreased. Similarly, while studying on the basis of caste/ethnicity it is found that that majorityof respondents about 35 percent are literate from Brahmin caste followed by Chhetri 28 percent, 16 percent are literate from Magar and Sarki ,Tamang as well as Newar have the lowerliteracy status. Regarding the educational level of respondents, majority of respondents (44.58%) have gotbasic education from non-formal educational source. Only few (19.28%) have got primaryeducation, followed by l. secondary level (13.25%) and secondary level (10.84%). Similarly,4.82 per cent have passed S.L.C. level and 7.23 per cent have passed I.A. level, unfortunately,none of respondents has passed B.A. and M.A. level. Out of 55 (who have got formal education), 49 respondents have left school/campus and 6 arecontinuing till the date of survey. This number 49 out of 55 is very high. It directly affects theeducational status of women. Out of dropped out female 26.53 per cent from class 5, 16.33 percent from class 4 and 12.24 percent from class 3 and class 6 respectively.Regarding causes of drop out, most of respondents (40.82%) have dropped out their classesdue to household work, due to failed in exam (18.37%), due to marriage (14.29%) and due tolack of knowledge about the importance of education and far school (8.16%). While relating the drop out status with other variables, 89.80 per cent drop outers are fromagriculture, 6.12 per cent from business. Similarly in caste/ethnic group Newar and Chhetri32.65 percent, Magar 10.20 percent and Sarki, Tamang 6.12 percent. The least population aredropped out from Brahmins 4.08% percent. More than 46 percent respondents told that household work is the main obstacle to geteducation. Similarly, due to their poor economy (25.40%) and due to lack of awareness (14.50%). The educational level as well as literacy status of female of sampled area is very low hence itis essential to launch different intensive programs to encourage female about the importanceof education. Concerning the lack of awareness it is better to launch awareness and intensiveprograms to make them conscious about the importance of education and demerits of beingilliterate. Intensive programs like scholarship, provision of job, opportunities for highereducation, education loan, household economic support or other types of subsidies can beprovided to reduce the drop out level and helps to continue their school/campus. National policies and programs are not being able to cover various aspects of femaleespecially in the field of education. So special concentration should be given from the policymaking level. Especially National government, NGOs, INGOs, CBOs that are working onvarious social issues should concentrate to increase female literacy and improve the educationlevel of female.