GIRL’S EDUCATION IN RURAL AREAS

At the present time, the greater part of the world's population lives in rural areas. It is sometimes extremely difficult for girls and women in those areas to receive either school education or adult education. At the request of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Unesco, which had already carried out various studies on educational opportunities for the female section of the population, assembled a body of information, as comprehensive and reliable as passable, on the particular problem of the access of girls and women to education in rural areas. In January 1962, questionnaire was circulated to all States Members of the Organization. Seventy-nine Member States and Associate Members and 15 territories under British and Netherlands administration sent replies to the Director-General. A recent study from India demonstrates that improvements in female literacy have a direct effect on reducing fertility. Examining data from 326 districts in 14 states, covering over 90 percent of India's total population, researchers found a significant relationship be tween female literacy and fertility levels. In districts where a high proportion of women could read and write, the average number of children per woman was considerably lower than in districts where literacy levels were low. Also, in high-literacy districts a greater proportion of children survived infancy. Lower child mortality, in turn, contributed to lower fertility rates. Both directly and indirectly, higher female literacy resulted in lower fertility. Despite improvements in female literacy levels in India, only about one Indian woman in four is literate. The percentage is even lower in rural areas, where the majority of Indians live. If the Indian government can speed the achievement of its goal of universal literacy, it will help achieve lower fertility. Other studies in developing countries have also found a correlation between rising female literacy and falling fertility. The research in India supports the growing recognition that in developing nation’s progress toward female literacy will help governments reach fertility reduction goals. The survey is important because the family is now acknowledged to play a vital role in the literacy development of children. As Morrow (1995) notes, “Parents are the first teachers their children have, and they are the teachers that children have for the longest time.” Therefore, as she (ibid) further rightly observes, “Parents or other caregivers are potentially the most important people in the education of their children”. However, there are, to the best of our knowledge, no clearly defined family literacy programs that have been developed or are being used in Botswana to educate parents on the importance of reading to their children and to ensure the adequate development of children within the family.