Education is the strategy to bring positive changes in the lives of individuals, society and nation ensuring better health, economic growth, peaceful and democratic societies. It is stimulant for eliminating poverty, gender inequality, that leads to a sustainable planet, to prevent illness and to foster peace.

Mother plays an important role in educating children that ultimately develops community and nation as a whole. In this sense, female education must be prioritized through concern for developmental agenda.

Life-relevant Skills
They should be empowered through education, well equipped with life-relevant skills that prepare them to cope up with future challenges in different phases of life. Female attainment to education is a crucial demand of the time for the betterment of family life, social life, and overall national development. Some existing social dogmas harm female education. Girls' education should be a priority to increase economic growth and human welfare.

First, it is important to educate every girl child through the Early Childhood Development(ECD) method. It may bring fruitful results in the days to come where they can identify problems and solve them with solutions in the most efficient manner. The ECD programmes help to develop their IQ and EQ. It builds technical, cognitive and behavioural skills contributing to high productivity in future. T
he second focus should be the right education in a healthy and safe environment. It is crucial to know whether the girls are getting a safe-learning environment, adequate resources that emphasize accountability. They should be ensured with a stronger schooling system with clear learning standards that proves useful in every aspect of life.

Finally, they should be equipped with job-relevant skills that make them financially independent and also assist actively to participate in Politics. Girls' education primarily starts with their family support and encouragement that contributes to their well-being.

Proper access to girl’s education uplift household communities, and nations out of poverty.  Subject entitled ‘Roles of women’, must be compulsorily included in the curriculum, to make young girls internalize their hidden strength.

This subject may aim at creating awareness among girls about their tremendous potential and make them confident to claim their rights, such as getting equal opportunity to education, freedom of entertaining life with a sense of self-dignity, decision making, getting a safe learning and working environment and to have equal rights to participate in social, political, religious and public activities.
Due to lack of awareness and weak law women are suffering from many acts of violence. Women are also suffering because of their own lack of awareness of strength. Expertise from the same area should educate every girl about their fundamental rights of life.

Many underprivileged girls coming from challenging backgrounds end up seeing domestic violence are in fact, having the full potential to contribute for themselves and the nation but they are incapable to articulate their thoughts. Besides, they lack effective communication skills, awareness, mentoring, resources and guidance.
Empowering Women

Government and Non-Government organisations should take strong initiation to empower every girl and woman, and utilise all the potentials of the country to bring about sustainable development.
They should be guided with knowledge, awareness and life-relevant skills that help them improve their quality of life. Some underprivileged girls might be first-generation learners; therefore Trainers also assist them in forming academic form.

And for pursuing their career to become a doctor, engineer, professor, CA, banker etc. they need some self-fund fees. For this, they may be provided with some vocational skills training, like data entry, English language, general customer service etc. After training, they take part-time employment for self-fund education. Moreover, family, the community also constitutes in empowering females to achieve their goals and targets.

The family must be aware of the fact that Female is a synonym of Earth as she does everything for a family with her best of capacity. In this sense, to empower the ecosystem, family and community may take serious initiation to bring about stability.

Social, moral, ethical, political and economic prosper in Female educated society. Underprivileged girls who are having tremendous potential need appropriate Trainer who teach them how to overcome challenges like domestic violence, forced marriage, early marriage, gender-based discrimination and sexual assault.

They should be taught to make life-determining choices across different issues. Moreover, empowerment is central to the process of maintaining the benefits of women at individual, household, community and broader levels through literacy, education and training.Countries that invest in girls’ education have lower maternal and infant death, lower rates of HIV and better child nutrition. Women and girls have tremendous potentiality to the advancement of their family, communities and countries.

Educating the girl not only strengthens them but also contributes higher prosperity to the nation. World constitutes fifty per cent of the female population. How can a community or country succeed if only half of its citizens are educated? For the economic growth of both genders, participation is crucial.

Financial Independence
Furthermore, the helpless condition of men can not be changed if the women are backward and completely depend on men for survival. Financial independence and empowerment of women may come with their attainment to the right education based on life-relevant skills. Educated women are looked upon with a sense of dignity and honour.

They educate their children. tend to be healthier, participate in more challenging jobs, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at later age and can not be a victim of oppression. Also, they become inspirational for millions of girls who dream and aspire to achieve something meaningful in life.

(The writer teaches English at Kathmandu-based college)

source: Pushpa Priya, RisingNepal, 5 February 2021