Education

=  = =**Education **= = = Figure 1: Colored Pencils  Figure 2: Nepalese girl in school

Statistics:
Primary School Attendance and Enrollment: 87%¹ Primary School-Age Children who are Out of School: 24% Enrolled in Pre-Primary School: 27% Complete Full Course Primary School: 76% Government Spending Towards Education: 14.9% Youth Illiterates: 78% Adult Illiterates: 55% ²

In December 2008, the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) has committed to girls' education. The council that consisted of 197 women has planned to end gender inequality by promoting education for girls. As they try to build a "New Nepal" they feel the necessity to promote all rights to their people. Finance Minister Dr. Babu Ran Bhattarai said. "A 'New Nepal' can be created only after the end of gender discrimination. Education is the first way to end gender discrimination and therefore the opportunity to have an education must be of primary importance for our country" According Director General of the Department of Education Janardan Nepal said that the government will be is planning to give a free and compulsary education until twelfth grade to the children of Dalit and other regions in the country. They have obtained a budget of which will prioritize in achieving education for their girls. ³

On February 16, there is a higher dropout rate for girls than for boys. In fact, over these past seven years, the dropout rate for girls has increased by 6%.Poor sanitation in schools is one of the reasons why girls dropout more. Only 10% of the country’s population has access to the 148,000 toilets that are built annually. 59% of the Nepalese schools do not have any toilets. Yearly, 13,000 children under the age of five die due to poor hygiene and sanitation such as diarrhea and cholera. Poorer families also need their daughters at home to work, limiting their schooling from little to none.⁴ The cost to keep one girl in primary or secondary school for one is 100$ which can be tough on poorer families. For university, it will cost 2000$. But thanks to donations from Canadian, Australian, and American students and teachers, the Madhav Ghimire Foundation was able to provide scholarships to students in Nepal. As long as the students keep working hard and achieve good results, they will keep receiving scholarships. Many of the girls hope to become engineers, nurses, teachers, and leaders of their country, and the scholarships can help them achieve their goals.⁵

¹ __[|(][|UNICEF)]__ __ ² ( [|UNESCO)]__ __[|³ (UNGEI - Nepal)] ⁴ ([|Oneworld)] ⁵ ([|Newsblaze)] Figure 1: Colored pencils: [|(Creative Commons)] Figure 2: Nepalese girl in school: [|(Girl in school)] __
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