CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED BY GIRLS’ PRIMARY EDUCATION IN SINDH, PAKISTAN

Abstract

This research tends to probe the challenges and obstacles faced by girls at an early stage of education, including rural and urban parts of Sindh province of Pakistan. Selective cities of Sindh, Pakistan, were selected from where the data was taken and treated as a sample for data collection and the elected cities were Hyderabad, Dadu, Jamshoro, Badin, Matiari, Tando Allahyar, and Shahdadpur. Interviews, as an instrument for the collection of data, were conducted from a sample size of 200 respondents. The respondents were fabricated into two divisions. The first division was parents of girls’ students and the second division was primary school teachers. 120 responses were collected from the parents and the remaining 80 responses were collected from primary school teachers. Structured interviews were conducted to collect the responses, having a total of 13 questions. The interview consisted of 13 dichotomous questions based on the “yes” and “no” scale and was closed-ended. After conducting interviews, the results were interpreted to identify the problems and hindrances that the girls at the primary level are going through. Results show that girls face more challenges and problems compared to boys. Empirical evidence also shows that the hindranes that are mostly encountered by girls are societal attitude, school distance, negative psyche of parents about education of their daughters, outdated curriculum, poor infrastructure, illiteracy of parents, shortage of girls schools in rural, meagre implementation of educational policies, and absence of teachers’ training. As a result of these impediments, the enrolment of girls in primary schools is adversely affected and hence very low. Based on empirical findings, it is recommended that qualified teachers ought to be recruited and trained accordingly, alter the attitude of parents and society regarding girls’ education, provide efficient and proper infrastructure, transportation facilities must be provided to curb distance-related hindrance, introduce up to dated and quality curriculum, and proper implementation of policies at primary level.