Educational Status of Women in Nepal

Abstract

Nepal has diverse cultural, social, economic, climatic, as well as political scenario in the small area. Each of these factors has different type of influences in women's education in the country. Educational status of women in Nepal is influenced by all these sectors. Disparity in gender issue is well marked by literacy rate and educational attainment of the people however legal system has not such discrimination in present days. So, the present study is performed to analyze the women's educational status in present Nepalese social and cultural background. The specific objectives of this research include the study of educational policies and programs conducted by government and non-government sector. Further, it incorporates the analysis of chronological variation of literacy rate with comparison of spatial variation of educational attainment in terms of gender disparity. In this study, all collected data and information on status of women's education, variation of literacy rate and education attainment in term of gender disparity are secondary and arranged in order for analysis. To fulfill the objectives of the study, different statistical tools such as average, percentage etc are used. Additionally, graphs and charts are constructed to illustrate the fact more clearly and specifically. From 1952/54 to 2001 literacy rate of both sexes has gradually increasing from 5.3% to 54.1% while female rate has come up with 42.8% in 2001 from 0.7% in 1952/54. The lower literacy rates among females are the result of economic and social reasons; social prejudices against female education, low social status of females, and the system of early marriage and low participation of female in formal education. There is unequal educational achievement of the people in most of the development regions and ecological zones. The male literacy rate has not so large gap as female literacy in rural areas. Besides the literacy rate, the educational attainment shows 4.73 percent literates without any schooling which is also large in Nepalese context. There are large increases in the percentage of literate persons by primary level education attainment but it lowers gradually for graduate/post graduate level education attainment. More than half of female populations are illiterates whereas more than half males are literate, which indicates the gender gap in equality of educational opportunity. Education for All' by 2015 is the global priority and Nepal is making efforts and getting assistance from the world in meeting this target, however there are great challenges of gender equality, developing infrastructure, quality of education, employment, and other burning issues of the country. The decreasing percentage of girls' enrollment from primary to higher level education indicates the increasing gender disparity than that of male. Differences of physical, social, and economic accessibility and capability of each household discriminates the opportunity of education for male and female members of that family. Therefore, there is a need for taking innovative and strategic actions to increase girls' enrolment in school by addressing economic and socio-cultural barriers to promote educating the females.