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Girls Education in Pakistan

The premier issue of Nurture: Pakistan's Pioneer Publication on Early Childhood Development (January 2004; www.ecdpak.com) includes this report from the field by Umme Leila Mahmoodi:

"It is a well known fact that in smaller villages, education is not considered a necessity and hence not promoted either.  If anything, it has a very bad reputation and is perceived as an element which leads to the breakdown of well established societal norms and therefore discouraged.

"Gui Banor, an Assistant Teacher for the Katchi class in Yar Mohammad Kandra, a small village in Tando Mohammad Khan belongs to such a community.  An educated girl from the village had taken off to get married to someone she liked without the consent of her family and this scandalous behavior had further cemented the belief that girls should not receive any education at all as it would 'spoil them.'  Gui Bano's family, however, had a different outlook on education and she was the first girl in her village who had completed her education till the intermediate level.

"She was a volunteer teacher in the village school after she completed her education and helped out teachers in all the classes whenever and wherever needed.  Employed by Aga Kahn Education Services, Pakistan a few months ago, she is now a regular part of the goverment school's Katchi class.  She was not very different from the other government school teachers when she came to the first training session, as everyone was employing age old methods of teaching the children through rote learning techniques.  On her return from the training, she would apply the new teaching methods to her nieces and nephews at home and observed that they were very happy and willing to learn, which encouraged and excited her about being a teacher....

"She claims that her teachers had always been role models for her and she learnt a lot from them.  Now she is a role model for the girls in her community who not only want to be educated but also want to help others receive education.  Her newly gained respect in the community has given her confidence and seeing the happy and eager faces of the children in her class gives her great happiness and satisfaction."

Girls education is one topic that will get high attention at the 2005 World Forum on Early Care and Education in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on May 17 - 20, 2005.  To learn more about the World Forum, and to register online at the discounted early bird rate, go to the World Forum web site at: www.worldforum2005.com.

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