India is 65 years away from full female youth literacy, says study

Young Indian women are still denied the fundamental right that Malala Yousufzai took a bullet in the head over: education. Literacy has also become a somewhat elitist privilege, as the disparity is contributed to largely by the poverty stricken female youth of the country. And at the current rate, we are at least 65 years away, from attaining full female youth literacy, as per the DNA article on Education For All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) which was released worldwide by the UNESCO last week.

Why does the picture still look so bleak?

This is a situation at the dark crossroads between India’s classism and sexism, portraying that the richest young women have attained full literacy, but the poorest are projected to only do so around 2080, attributing the “huge disparities within India” to “a failure to target support adequately towards those who need it the most,” as it appeared in the report.

What about projected literacy rates?

Only 51% Indian women above age 15 are able to read and write, thus eligible to be put in the literate category, whereas a literacy rate of 75% prevails amongst the men as of 2008, states the report. The gap may be narrowing, but not at a pace we would expect, which can be seen from the projected literacy for women in 2015 being 61%, as against 81% of men. The total projected literacy rate is 71%.

It is predicted that by 2015, 112 out of 161 countries will have achieved parity in primary education, but also that 12 countries will still have fewer than 9 girls enrolled in school for every 10 boys.

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What impact has the global learning crisis had?

A gender sensitive curriculum needs to be implemented on priority. The report says that the global learning crisis is costing governments $129 billion a year. “Post-2015 goals need to include a commitment to make sure the most disadvantaged groups achieve benchmarks set for goals. Failure to do so could mean that measurement of progress continues to mask the fact that the advantaged benefit the most,” the report added.

What about the Indian Education Goals Achieved as per global standards?

The world has been classified into three categories, on the basis of the literacy goals and benchmarks they have achieved. India still finds itself in the bottom-most category with countries like Nepal, Bhutan, African and Middle East countries, which are still far from achieving 80% literacy rate by 2015, and are moving at a “slower pace or far away from the target.”

Original Source: DNA

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