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Opening windows?

Preeti Mehra

Last fortnight saw the presentation of a study on the education of the adolescent girl child. Called `Opening Windows', it was undertaken by the Janshala Programme, the first joint initiative of five UN agencies -- UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, and ILO -- to support the Government's efforts to achieve elementary education for all.

The study reiterated the fact that most out-of school children are girls, with a large number of them adolescents who either dropped out of school or were never enrolled. In fact the study found that the experience of girls from rural Andhra Pradesh, Raj asthan, Uttar Pradesh or the slums of Delhi and urban areas of Hyderabad ( where they worked as domestic help) was very similar.

They discovered that the social perception in every region did not see the girl child as a child who happened to be a girl, but as a girl who would grow up to be a woman.

But the success stories of educational efforts outside the formal system of education from the five states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh show that minus the formal education delivery system and the creation of a learner-fri endly atmosphere, things could be different.

The study rightly emphasises the need to create the legitimate space for alternative modes of assessing achievements within the overall goal of universal elementary education. This may be a way out for the Indian girl child.