Barriers in access to education (worldwide)

Agenda

• Barriers on state level

• Barriers on school and classroom level

• Social barriers

• Cultural and religious barriers

• Personal barriers

• Interconnectivity

Learning objectives

• to learn about multidimensional and interrelated barriers that girls and women, boys and men face in accessing education;

Sandra Pertek sandra.pertek.10@ucl.ac.uk

Barriers on state level (governance and political system)

Poor normative framework, women are not seen as citizens with individual rights (India), (Subrahmanian);

No enforcement authorities: e.g. lack of compulsory registration of names and birth dates of children;

Poor gender mainstreaming - insufficient understanding of gender issues in curriculum and instruction (Aikman, Unterhalter, p. 25);

The curriculum based largely on foreign ideologies, “this has been a vehicle for subordinating rather than strengthening and transforming local indigenous cultural values” (Konai Helu Thaman 1993 cited in Fox, Heward and Bunwaree p. 43).

Barriers on school and classroom level

Failure in protecting girls’ rights within the

school

Teachers reinforcing gender

bias practices

Inappropriate curriculum

Lack of female teachers

Non-gender sensitive teaching

methodology

Poorly trained teachers

(not mentioning gender training)

Universal teaching styles

(women and men learn differently)

Social barriers

Societal norms – expectations that girls will become housewives (division of domestic labour);

Integration of kinships structures and social norms with labour markets variables (North vs. South India);

Patrifocal family structure (higher status of man);

Conviction that boys need to provide for family (male gender gap);

Behavioural aspects;

Social segregation;

Westernised approach to education e.g. uniforms clash with cultural norms;

Inter-sectional power relations (class, race, age etc.).

Cultural barriers

Structural constraints

e.g. production of gendered

subordination (e.g. images)

Practices and beliefs limit

freedom and choices (e.g. reinforced by

teachers)

Preference of sons over daughters

Lack of information

or role models

Early marriage

Interplay between culture and religion

– Across religions there is a ‘need to hide older girls from exposure to boys and men restricts their access to secondary schools…’ (Sibbons in Heward, p. 192); this happens across religions;

– Lack of inclusion of religious principles and values.

Case study based on Islamic principles • "Read! In the Name of your Lord Who has

created (all that exists). He has created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous. Who has taught (the writing) by the pen. He has taught man that which he knew not" [Quran, 96: 1-5]

• The Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) said:

“Acquire knowledge even if it be in China” (Kanz al-Ummal, Hadith 8697).

“The seeking of knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim (men and women)” (by Bukhari).

Why in Muslim countries access to education is so limited?

Often people do not have means to study their religion that could encourage them to education.

Personal barriers

low self-concept

low self-esteem

content of curriculum

Internalised process girls perceive themselves as subordinate poor agency

failure to succeed

family attitudes

cultural and social norms

expectations claims VS.

Interconnectivity between barriers in accessing education

Bibliography

• Whatmore Sarah, Little Jo (1989), Gender and Geography, Contemporary Issues in Geography and Education, London,

• Heward, C. and S. Bunwaree (eds) (1999) Gender, Education and Development: Beyond Access to Empowerment. Zed Books, London,

• Maton Kenneth Making a Difference: The Social Ecology of Social Transformation American Journal of Community Psychology, Volume 28, Number 1 – SpringerLink,

• Subrahmanian, R. (2002). “Engendering education: prospects for a rights based approach to female education deprivation in India” in Razavi and Molyneux (eds) Gender Justice, Human Rights, Economics. Oxford University Press, Oxford,

• The Noble Qur’an *www.quran.com+, (accessed 01.02.2012).