How do Malala Yousafzai and her organization factor into all this?
There has been some controversy about the choice of Malala [for the Nobel Peace Prize] because she’s so young, and she has only been an activist for two years.
Personally, I believe that it is a brave and excellent choice. She is an example of personal courage and determination.
Malala and her organization highlight two things. First is the right to an education that every child should have irrespective of their circumstances — social, economic or political.
Second are the very physical risks related to making this a reality. I think very few people realize how dangerous going to bat for tens of thousands of young people can be.
As part of the South Asia Institute at Harvard, we just finished a research project in two big states in India — Maharashtra and Rajasthan — looking at the factors that make it difficult for girls to continue with their education. Sexual harassment and gender-based violence are really prominent. [There is] a risk of bullying, the risk of discrimination and stigma.
All these are issues that Malala’s activism and her award draw attention to. I think Malala highlights a real desire for education that mirrors a desire seen in millions of poor people.
Going forward, what’s the key to improving access to education?
At the most basic level, we need to confront violence against children, which is a huge barrier to realizing their potential, whether it’s child abuse in the home or abuse in schools [or] physical punishment [or] sexual abuse. Corporal punishment is a huge disincentive, but widely spread still. The whole abuse of power by adults is one huge factor that needs addressing.
When you have children who are frightened, depressed or stung by trauma, education becomes impossible, even if you take them to school and physically sit them at a desk. It’s impossible for them to concentrate and to learn.
This problem should not be left to individual parents. It’s a critical public policy issue.
We also need to address cultural norms that make it difficult for families, particularly families of poor children, to move up.
Cultural norms involving early child marriage or that pull kids out of school when they reach puberty, cultural norms that suggest that poor children are better off working in the fields and supporting their families — those need to be addressed by government policy and publicity.
Technical barriers exist, too, such as teacher training, monitoring and evaluation. Performance-related incentives are critically important.
Many experts have said we need a global drive toward improving education, akin to what the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did with their global drive toward improving global health.
It’s really a massive project with many aspects, but it has such enormous consequences for the future. If we don’t attend to it, then we’ll increase this sense of hopelessness, anger and frustration among millions of youths. We’ve already seen in some parts of the world that can have dramatic consequences.
We ignore this set of issues at our peril.
Article Appeared @http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=4431