“Let us pick up our books and pencils.
They are the most powerful weapons.”
– Malala Yousafzai
According to the 1991 census, just 39 percent of the 330 million women in India who are seven years old and older are literate, compared to 64 percent of men. This means that 200 million women in India are estimated to be illiterate.
Rural illiterate women exhibit poor nutrition, high fertility, poorer awareness of their rights, and limited domestic autonomy. Their parents' lack of knowledge negatively impacts their children's physical and mental development. The biggest issue for females in rural areas is that they must enroll in school at the beginning of the school year but are unable to complete it. Either they are coerced into marriage or told they aren't meant for education and should assist their mothers with home duties instead.
Three out of ten girls in India, according to a survey, continue their education and move on to the following grade. These girls, who are compelled to wed at 10 or 13, are the mothers of illiterate children who would have liked to read and write but were unable to do so after marriage. Due to their lack of knowledge about family planning, women wind up having 5 to 6 children, suffering domestic abuse because they are uninformed of their rights, or working alongside their husbands on farms.
Many parents believe that investing in the education of their sons is a good investment for the family, but that investing in the education of their daughter is a waste of money because she will eventually marry and they won't immediately benefit financially from her marriage. Another common misconception among rural parents is that if their daughter studies too much, her demand will increase and she'll want to marry someone more educated, which will cost more money. If a parent wants to send their daughter to school, access to a school is frequently an issue, and sending her to a town alone is viewed as unsafe. If the school is in a village, many times the infrastructure, student-teacher ratio, lack of restrooms for girls, and difficulty accessing textbooks are the problems that arise.
The administration has implemented several programs, such as the "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao" initiative that our Prime Minister first proposed. Although if the community does not work together, these programs are useless. To bring about such social change, people's minds must be altered.
The success of such initiatives depends on raising public awareness and carrying them out, which calls for the active engagement of both the public and the government. India hopes to become a superpower in future, but this is impossible given that it has a literacy rate comparable to that of a developing nation. We are not far from becoming the most literate nation in the world; all that is needed is equality and cooperation.
Therefore, it is time for us to concentrate on providing high-quality education rather than increasing the literacy rate. Children must be equipped with a decent education and knowledge that they can use in their everyday lives. The quality of schooling is inferior in rural India for girls when compared to metropolitan India. We must recognize and accept the fact that a sizable portion of our people still lives in rural India, making it imperative that we pay attention to them.
The educational institutions in rural India have a variety of issues. To improve rural education in India, the government must take specific actions.
Here are 5 suggestions for improving rural education, Let's Take A Look!
IMPROVING FREE EDUCATION
One of the most serious and prevalent issues in rural India is poverty. This is another significant hindrance to the advancement of rural Indian education. Only by providing free or extremely inexpensive education will this problem be overcome. If parents are not compelled to pay for their children's education, they will be keener to send their children to school, which will increase the literacy rate.
To ensure that those from very low socioeconomic backgrounds do not have any excuses for skipping school, the government must pay for their textbooks, libraries, and labs.
ESTABLISH MORE SCHOOLS
Fortunately, changes are also being seen in rural society as a result of the changing times. In rural India, the proportion of parents who recognize the value of education for their children is rising.
However, there is a problem with India's lack of a sufficient number of schools.
Even if private schools were founded, their exorbitant costs would prevent the average person from attending.
Only if the government steps forward and establishes affordable schools that are accessible to both middle-class and lower-class members of society will a solution be found.
IMPROVE THE INFRASTRUCTURE
The lack of adequate infrastructure severely impacts rural educational institutions. The number of qualified teachers in rural Indian schools is insufficient.
As a result, education is of poor quality and serves little purpose.
The building of a solid educational life must begin at the outset, and this is only possible if the infrastructure of the school is done effectively.
USE NEW TEXTBOOKS AND TEACHING METHODS
Newer teaching methods have raised the bar for education in metropolitan regions, but in rural India, teaching methods are still archaic and conventional.
To educate their kids holistically, these schools must start implementing concept learning.
ENSURE COMPUTER LITERATURE
Technology in our country is developing, but regrettably, the rural areas
have yet to feel the effects of this development. This has caused a digital
divide between urban and rural India. This will enable them to keep up with
metropolitan education standards and better their own personal
development.
CONCLUSION
Even though the government is working to improve the state of education in the country, there is still a lot to be improved. There is a growing awareness among people about education; however, the lack of infrastructure is a major obstacle that needs an active intervention of the government.
There is nothing wrong with imagining primary schools when considering the education of girls. But to support girls' success in life, we must give both things that occur before and after elementary school equal emphasis. Girls and young women entering the workforce in the twenty-first century will require information and skills that can only be acquired throughout a lifetime. Every step of the journey, they require our assistance. Let's support them by conducting webinars, programs and inbuild them towards empowerment.
Informative!!