EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN BALOCHISTAN · Educational Empowerment Of Women 5 Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Business Management (ISBN: 978-969-9368-06-6)

Educational Empowerment Of Women 1

Proceedings of 2nd

International Conference on Business Management (ISBN: 978-969-9368-06-6)

EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

Educational Empowerment of Women: Case study of Khyber Pukhtunkhawa (KPK)

Maryam Tariq

Frontier Women University, Peshawar

Rabia Bussry

National Commission for Human Development


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Abstract

The word women empowerment carries different meanings for different people and it is

important to view its meanings in relation to social, cultural, political, ideological and

geographical scenario of an area. Hence this paper defines women empowerment as women

not only present in decision making position but also participating in the society in equal

status with their male counterparts. As far as the educational empowerment and related

information is concerned, the problem faced in this regard are, the unavailability of complete

and valid data and the hesitation of concerned authorities to provide relevant information as

women related issues have never been the priority of the provincial government. In order to

fill this gap, this study was conducted to solicit the perceptions of experts regarding the

implementation of policies focusing on educational empowerment of women in KPK. The

perceptions of the experts from relevant field helped in finding out the gaps present in the

formulation and implementation of these policies. The data for this purpose was based on

closed ended questionnaire, in which a 5 point scale was developed to gauge the perception

of the experts and their responses were evaluated with the help of Chi square and two way

analysis of variance. The major conclusion was that the implementation of the policies

regarding educational empowerment of women in KPK is perceived to be highly

unacceptable

Keywords: Empowerment, Perceptions


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1. Introduction

1.1. Background of the study

The word women empowerment carries different meanings for different people based on their

ethno-religious backgrounds and overall characteristics of a society. Hence it is important to

view its meaning, for the purpose of formal argument, in relation to social, cultural, political,

ideological and geographic scenario of an area and define it accordingly. As Batliwala(1993:48)

says, ‘I like the term empowerment because no one has defined it clearly yet; so it gives us a

breathing space to work it out in action terms before we have to pin ourselves down to what it

means’. In addition to the lack of clear specification of the meaning of the term there are serious

information gaps about the ground realities, particularly in the developing countries, associated

with women empowerment which is only partially answered in this paper with reference to KPK.

Generally speaking, the term women empowerment refers to the provision of decision making

power to women, for instance journal of extension(1999) refers to ’empowerment as a

multidimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives’(journal of

Extension). The definition of empowerment as decision making is cited by others (Thomas.et al,

1990) in their works. This characterization of the meaning excludes participation of women in

different walks of life which is equally important as a part of the meaning of the term because

such participation of women, not only increases their understanding about their rights but also

develops their maturity level about how to bring constructive changes in society, against various

biases and negativities. For this reason, participation qualifies as a necessary constituent of the

meaning of women empowerment. This aspect of the meaning of the term is also supported by

the definition of empowerment as, ‘essentially the spirit of participation & involves delegating


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authority’ (knowledgebrief.com.n.d). This is particularly true in the context of South Asia where

women do have a little say in decision making but there is a widespread denial to them in equal

participation in the field of education. In this study, the term women empowerment is defined as

women not only present in decision making position but also participating in the society in equal

status with their male counterparts.

1.2. Problem statement

The information about women empowerment in Pakistan, as depicted in the literature is either

opinion based or limited to certain percentage pertaining to the education of women in different

levels. It does not state to what extent the policies of government about the educational

empowerment of women, have been implemented and unless we have a clear picture of the

ground realities in terms of implementation of policies, it may not be possible for us to develop

ideas relating to the roadmap of educational empowerment of women in KPK. Hence, this study

is an effort to fill this information gap.

Further, the major problems faced in this regard are that, complete and valid data is rarely

available in KPK and the concerned authorities are hesitant to provide information on the topic.

The best alternative in this regard was the collection of information through the perceptions,

which here refers to conscious understanding of experts defined as persons with high degree of

theoretical or practical knowledge relating to educational empowerment of women in KPK.


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1.3. Research objective

In the light of the problem and the research question stated above, the overall object ive of this

study is to find out the extent to which the experts perceive the implementation of the policies of

educational empowerment of women formulated by the government as acceptable.

1.4. Research hypothesis

Considering the review of literature, random observations and the opinions of knowledgeable

persons, the following hypothesis pertaining to the research objective were developed,

The major hypothesis was

1: The experts perceive the implementation of policies related to educational empowerment of

women in KPK as not acceptable

The other hypothesis were

2: The experts from public and private sectors have different perceptions about the

implementation of policies regarding educational empowerment of women in KPK.

3: The perceptions of experts about the implementation of the policies of educational

empowerment of women in KPK vary from category to category.

4: There is interaction between the sectorial backgrounds of experts and the categories of

perceptions.


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1.5. Significance of the study

The perceptions of these experts are important because they are the people who are actually a

part of the process of policy formulation, its implementation and analysis. They are in stronger

positions to identify the discrepancies present in the formulation and implementation of policies

regarding educational empowerment of women in KPK. Furthermore they may also tell why

women are lagging behind in the field of education and are not guaranteed equality in spite of the

presence of policies and laws.

2. Research Methodology

This study is a subpart of a larger exploratory research undertaken by the researcher to find out

the situation of women empowerment in KPK through triangulation approach. It is based on the

information collected from the experts defined as knowledgeable public and private sector

persons directly or indirectly related to women empowerment in KPK, who have or had been

working in authoritative positions. All these experts have been significant actors in the

formulation, implementation and analysis process of the policies regarding educational

empowerment of women in KPK.

2.1 Sample

In order to draw the sample of experts the Snowball sampling technique was employed to move

from one subject of the study to the other in order to collect data. Keeping in view the objectives

of research, efforts were made to ensure the representation of maximum number of available

experts throughout the province. Therefore 50 experts were approached at provincial and local

level, representing the government sector, civil society, NGO’s, Donor agencies and activist


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groups which were further classified in the categories of government and private sector experts

for the purpose of analysis.

2.2 Research instrument

Prior to the selection and development of instruments, a thorough study of the relevant

document, reports and secondary data was done, which were particularly focused on the topic of

research. After a detailed study thirty two statements were developed representing the relevant

policies, reports and documents. These statements were then converted into closed ended items

comprising a 6 point rating scale in which 1 represents strongly disagree and 6 represents

strongly agree points of the continuum. This instrument was validated by three professionals

including academicians and researchers who are actively working in the relevant field. These

experts confirmed the validity of the questionnaires by checking their content and aspects of

scale.

2.3 Data analysis scheme

Keeping in view the major objective of research the collected data was divided into two

categories of acceptable and not acceptable implementation on the basis of the cutoff point of 4

which was the minimum acceptable level in the rating scale. The responses that were 4 and

above indicated the implementation of policies as acceptable and those below 4 were

unacceptable. In order to test the major hypothesis of the study, Chi square test was applied.

Since, the researcher apprehended that the responses of experts belonging to different sectors

(government and private) may be different; this factor was also considered in the study to

support the conclusions drawn about acceptability. Further, the items with similar themes were


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grouped into 5 categories of perception. This was important because there was a possibility that

the categories of perception might influence the conclusions. Therefore this factor was also given

consideration. To analyze the influence of both of these factors (sectoral background and

categories of perception) two-way Analysis of Variance was applied. So, both of these tests, (Chi

square and Two-way Analysis of Variance) were used to evaluate the actual position of the

results. Furthermore the overall means of the statements were used to rank them from the highest

mean to the statement with the lowest mean, showing the status of implementation of women

empowerment policies in KPK. Finally a discussion is provided in the light of the review of

literature and the conclusions drawn from the results.

3. Literature Review

3.1 The Global Picture

The education of women is an old concern. Not only religious script and folklore but also some

of the great philosophers of antiquity have stressed its importance as cultural imperative.

According to Socrates, ‘if women are to have the same duties as men, they must have the same

education.’ (M. Gillet, 1969). This statement makes it clear that education of women has been

considered as an important step towards women empowerment since ages. There were a lot of

misconceptions found prevailing about educating women e.g. the Victorian ideas were that

education of women would break down the social systems as women would not fulfill their

traditional roles (Delemont, 1996). It was in the 17th century when the need for female education

was realized in poetry and other literary works by Marie de Gourney (History of women ,

google.com.n.d). These efforts to educate women made progress in the form of the establishment

of first educational institutes for women which were ‘The Young Ladies Academy in 1787 and


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Sarah Pierce’s Litchfield Academy’ in 1792 in US (National Study of Youth and Religion.n.d).

These struggles continued throughout the 19th century in the form of educational plans,

suggestions, seminars and it was in 1837 when the first institution for higher education named

Mount Holyoke was founded, followed by the oldest women college in the mid of the same

century(timeline 3). The first women movement in the United States started with Seneca Fall

Convention in 1848 which stressed on equality of rights of women, specifically focusing on

education and employment (Female employment.n.d). After this women especially of US

continued to achieve mile stones in education and in 1945, the first woman was accepted to

Harvard Medical school and women enrollment equal to men in colleges with 51% in

1980(Eisenmann,1998). The early movements following the Seneca Falls were not restricted to

US or UK only, but by the end of the 19th century even the Japanese realized that a key to their

progress is the education of their women (Tokyo Jogakkan College,n.d). Later, these struggles

reached India with the establishment of SNDT Women’s University in 1916 which is still

committed to the cause of female education in India (History of women

education.google.com.n.d). Coming to the Muslim world there was only one elementary school

for girls in Iraq in 1922 which showed the deplorable conditions of female education (The Arab

World,n.d). Similar situation was prevailing in other Muslim states especially in south Asia.

Different developments did take place in Bengal, India and Pakistan but still The region of south

Asia is one of those parts of the world where education system, especially of girls is an issue of

great concern for the third world. According to UNICEF report the net enrollment rates in

primary education in Bangladesh and Bhutan has improved reaching a point of gender parity by

2000. Maldives has been fortunate enough to achieve universal primary education since 1990’s,

even states like Nepal have shown good improvement in primary education enrollment rates .


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Countries like India still need improvements in spite of certain developments. As far as Pakistan

and Srilanka is concerned a major problem being faced is the unavailability of valid and

complete data but available studies show that Srilanka is far better than Pakistan regarding

gender gaps in education (Huebler Friedrich, 2008).

3.2 Educational Empowerment of Women in Pakistan

The deep rooted patriarchal system, orthodox beliefs, and tribal values of Pakistani society have

been the major hurdle in educational empowerment of women in the country. Females were

deprived of educational facilities except religious education provided at homes and in the

neighborhoods. This is supported by different researchers,

‘Native customs excludes females from the advantage of education. Schools strictly speaking are

confirmed to education of boys. Female education was practically nonexistent’ (Noorullah and

Naik, 1951). These systems of discouraging female education were a part of Pakistani society

from the very beginning and unfortunately it is still deep rooted in the form of inequality, gender

gap, poor health status of women, little awareness about their rights and one of the major

contributing factor to this condition of Pakistani women is low rates of education at all levels.

This is important because education gives her the maturity to think practically and take decisions

for herself. Education puts its impact on overall life of women be it education, health, politics,

employment or any other field.

According to a World Bank report, ‘it is widely presumed that higher levels of female literacy

have an inverse effect on women’s fertility, a sobering thought, especially when placed in the

context of a country with one of the world’s highest population rates.’ (Weiss.M Anita, 1990).

This statement makes it quite clear that the number of children a women bears is inversely


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related to her education and it gives the understanding about general health condition of women

too.

Increase in literacy levels of women becomes more important when we see that two third of the

illiterate population of the world and half of the total population of Pakistan is women. The

responsibility of upbringing the coming generation which in turn leads to the socio-economic

development of the state lies on women’s shoulders and a nation cannot achieve this goal

without providing equal opportunity of education to them.

The gender disparity in literacy and enrollment needs to be taken seriously and more effective

measures should be taken to improve this situation and reduce gender biases (Economic Survey

of Pakistan 2005). This strengthens the view point that negative beliefs and cultural systems are

not the only reasons but the government policies should also be held responsible right from the

very beginning. These biases in education policies were criticized by Hassan. N. Iftikhar about

the education policy 1974 he felt that it was not only bias but also ambiguous. This policy stated

that girls should gain education like Home economics and boys should go for Science subjects as

they have different roles to play in the society, which is extremely prejudiced. He further says

that, ‘this policy has been succeeded by many other policies but this bias has stayed’ (Hassan.N

Iftikhar, 2002). Some other like Weiss. M. Anita says that every government had its own selfish

motives behind female education and none of them looked into its importance for women in the

true sense, e.g President Ayub Khan linked it with employment, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto based it on

ideological grounds and under Zia’s regime, female education especially at primary level was

virtually ignored and no steps were taken to improve it. Along with this in 1986 the budget


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allocation to education was as low as only 3.2% of the total government expenditure (Weiss.M

Anita, 1990).

These are some of the reasons why Pakistan has slow growth rates and in 20 years i.e. from

1952-1972 the total growth in female literacy in the country was just 3% which improved to 16%

by 1981 (Weiss.M Anita, 1990). This 16% literacy rate further rose up to 20.9% in 1990-91 and

according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan, it was again the lowest in the world (Statistical

Yearbook,1989-90).These figures show the alarming situation of female education in Pakistan

and even in later years i.e. 1996-97 this situation prevailed as we see that,

‘Pakistan is at the bottom of the list of 8 selected Muslim countries in terms of girls literacy rates

of 24% compared with 78% in Indonesia, Malaysia and Bahrain and 80% in UAE. These figures

more alarming when the report shows that out of 60% of illiterate population, more than 60% are

women, plus those without basic education opportunities, 70% are girls.’(Bari. Zia Shehla &

Farzana, 1999)

This situation reflected the negligence of the concerned authorities and non-seriousness of the

society toward the basic requirement for development which is education. The raise in the

literacy 90’s was not at all satisfactory as there were rarely any proper educational services in the

country for females e.g. 30% of the total arts and science colleges were girls and only 8% of the

total professional for women and no women universities(UNICEF,1992). The absence of higher

education opportunities for women gave rise to the need for women universities and vocational

education. As a result of this realization several initiatives were taken by social welfare

departments and provincial education departments in the form of different institutions for skill

development. These institutions were established all in all the four provinces offering trainings in


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textile work, carpet weaving, livestock, agriculture with the collaboration of, Agha Khan Rural

Support Program, Fruit and vegetable board of KPK and Punjab and various other NGO’s and

Donor Agencies, where 73% women were involved (F.Shaheed and K.Mumtaz,1990).

Realizing the issues pertaining to education of females the education policy 1998-2010 also

stressed on women education and said that the policy makers and implementers should move

with a holistic approach providing opportunities to all group in the society especially women

(National Educational Policy,1998-2010).

Education in Pakistan is provided in the form of government schools, mosque schools and

private schools with a huge gap between rural and urban women. According to Labor Force

Survey of Pakistan 2003-04, the overall literacy rate of women in Pakistan is 39.2%.Taking a

look of gap prevailing between rural and urban woman, the literacy rate of urban woman in 1961

was 21.3% in comparison to rural women i.e. 2.2%. These figures kept improving and in 1998

they rose up to 55.2% in urban women and 20.1% in rural women. This ratio improved in 2003-

04 where rural women’s literacy rate is 26.6% and that of urban women is 62.5%. The trend in

education in general and particularly for girls was stagnant during 90’s especially in rural KPK

it was 1.7% which show the unsatisfactory increase in the 90’s( Government of Pakistan,2006).

The raise in 2000 was also due to different initiatives taken by Musharraf Government in the

form of education sector reforms which focused particularly on reducing gender gaps. Along

with this legislations were made for compulsory education in Punjab, NWFP, FATA and

incentives were given in the form of stipend for rural girls. During this era the increase in

enrollment rates in primary and middle schools was the highest due to the reason that 1465 girls’

primary schools were established at this time. (Government of Pakistan,2006). In short the


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education of women which is an old issue, in spite of numerous developments around the world,

still needs a lot of serious attention and improvement in Pakistan and especially in KPK.

4. Data Analysis and Results:

Considering the nature of hypothesis and the level of measurement involved in the collection of

experts’ perceptions regarding the implementation of government policy pertaining to political

empowerment of women in KPK, it was decided to use Chi square test for * to test the major

hypothesis of the study. The other hypotheses were tested by means of two way analysis of

variance.

Table 1: Distribution of the perceptions of the experts about the implementation of the policy

recommendations

Acceptable Not Acceptable Total χ2

5 45 50 32*

*significant at α= .05

The table shows that out of a total of 50 respondents only 5 respondents perceived the

implementation as acceptable whereas 45 respondents perceived it as not acceptable. The data

was analyzed by means of Chi square test designed for single sample. The analysis shows that

calculated χ2= 1.65 is significant α = .05. Hence it is inferred that experts perceive that the

policies of educational empowerment of women in KPK are not being implemented.


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Figure No.1 Perceived implementation of policies

To further check the validity of the inference drawn through Chi squares, the influence of

variables, sectorial backgrounds and categories of perception which was assumed to be related to

the perceptions of experts about the implementation of government policies of the educational

empowerment of women in KPK, means are analyzed below:

Table.2: Analysis of the Means of Perceptions about the Perceived Acceptability of the

Implementation of Educational Empowerment of Women

a: Means of Categories of Perception

Categories Means

1. General 3.67

2. Legal Aspect 2.95

3. Curriculum 2.99

4. Facilities 3.24

5. Civil Society 3.57

5

45

acceptable implementation

unacceptable implementation


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b: Means of Sectorial Backgrounds

c: Influence of Sectoral Backgrounds and Categories of Perception

Sources of Variation SS DF MS F

Sectorial Background (SB) 4.06 1 4.06 7.00*

Categories of Perception (CP)

21.64 4 5.41 9.33*

SB CP 8.2 4 2.05 3.53**

With In 138.56 240 0.58

Total 172.46 249 0.69

* Significant at α=

** Not significant at α= .05

The table C shows the difference between sectorial backgrounds and the categories of

perception. The ‘F’ value of 7.00 and 9.33 regarding the main effects sectorial backgrounds and

categories of perception respectively are significant α= .05. Whereas the ‘F’ value of 3.53

regarding the interaction effect of both of these variables is not significant α= .05. Hence, it is

inferred that there is significant difference between the perceptions of experts from private and

Sectorial

Backgrounds

Means

1. Government 3.39

2. Private 3.13


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government sector, however, the means of both sectorial backgrounds and categories of

perception in table.2.a & table.2.b, fall below the acceptable level which is 4 and above.

Furthermore, both the variables do not interact in this regard.

Table. 3: Rank Order of the instrument Items in terms of the mean response

Item.

No

Mean Rank Item. No Mean Rank

14 5.32 1 28 3.28 17

11 5 2 18 3.26 18

32 4.8 3 5 3.2 19

15 4.74 4 22 3.08 20

17 4.64 5 6 2.88 21

15 4.02 6 2 2.82 22

1 3.98 7 23 2.8 23

19 3.94 8 29 2.76 24

4 3.92 9 31 2.66 25

7 3.76 10 27 2.62 26

24 3.74 11 3 2.56 27

16 3.74 12 8 2.38 28

26 3.68 13 9 2.38 29

21 3.64 14 10 2.2 30

20 3.4 15 13 1.96 31

30 3.38 16 12 1.76 32


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The table.3 shows the rank order of mean responses to the 32 individual instrument items, used

in the questionnaire for collecting the perceptions of the experts. The extreme left column shows

the item numbers appearing in the instrument, along with their respective means in the right

column. Most of the items of the instrument were directed to find out the perceived

implementation of policies regarding educational empowerment of women in KPK and the rank

order relates to the extent to which these policies are being implemented according to the

perceptions of the experts.

In the table the ranks are arranged from the items getting the highest to the lowest means

showing their implementation. Among the top 6 ranks, 4 of them are related to ideal situation

rather than actual policies. These are focusing on the importance of refresher courses for the

female teachers in KPK, opening more women universities and providing physical infrastructure

for girls’ education in the province. The fifth highest rank shows the agreement of the

respondents that lack of physical resources is a reason for decreased participation of female

teachers and students. The sixth rank is related to active efforts of NGO’s and donor agencies for

increasing women education in the area.

The ranks discussed further in this part, all fall below the criteria of acceptability .Rank no.

seventh which are below the acceptable level criteria states that education of women is taken as a

priority and the policy of highlighting women rights through media exists in the public policy of

KPK. As far as access to education in urban areas is concerned it is ranked at no 9 which means

that in urban areas females don’t face much problems in reaching their educational institutions

but the access of rural women is ranked very low at twenty seventh rank is referring to the

hurdles they face in access to their respective schools or colleges where a major issue may be the


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geographic scatteredness of rural KPK. The 12th rank shows that the issue of access of girls to

school is being addressed in the educational plans of the region. The 11th and 13th ranks point

towards the positive coordination of NGO’s government and better standard of schools set by

NGO’s in comparison with government. The responses related to rank no.14 & 15 suggests that

although the curriculum is not extremely biased but improvement is needed in making it more

gender sensitive. The 16th rank reflects the opinion of experts that HEC supports women

education to some extent. There is a mild agreement in item no. 15th and 16th over women

empowerment being a recurring theme in all plans and policies of KPK and preference to girls’

schools in provision of facilities. As we regress to rank no. 19th, it shows that different

educational reforms have not been able to reduce the gender gaps properly. Rank no.21st clearly

rejects that universal primary education could be achieved according to the set targets and

deadlines of the year 2015. The respondents have a general consensus of opinion in rank 22nd

and 24th that policy making in education sector is unrealistic and the standard of education is

very low. Another problem highlighted in rank 23rd is that there is almost negligible

representation of women in the preparation of educational plans and policies. Rank 25 states that

HEC has no policy to support the women of KPK. The 26th rank considers tribalism is

considered as a major hurdle in educational empowerment of women in this area. Rank no 28th,

29th & 30th indicate the high level of malpractices involved in recruitment and transfers of

female teachers and the absence of legal action against these practices. The two lowest ranks

believe that the unavailability of proper residential and security facilities to female teachers in

remote areas of KPK is a major hurdle in this regard. These results validate the inference drawn

above in table.1 through Chi square regarding the perceptions of policy implementation.

5. Discussion


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The word women empowerment is not new and it has been present as an important issue since

long. Different struggles to empower women around the globe have been initiated by women

groups, activists and civil society at different points of time. The third world countries

particularly Pakistan showed a deplorable picture of women empowerment with very low

literacy levels of women in education.

The results of this study are in line with the general perception regarding the implementation of

policies formulated by the government to empower women in education as unacceptable. The

results are also strengthened by the fact that in spite of the difference in the perceptions of the

experts coming from different sectors, both the groups perceive the implementation of policies to

be unacceptable. Furthermore the situation is different across various categories of perception

with general emphasis on ideal situations rather than actual implementation of relevant policies.

This suggests that the experts perceive ideals relating to educational empowerment of women as

important. The analysis of the mean scores shows that experts from government sector have

comparatively higher scores than the experts from private sector. The reason for this difference

may be related to the defensive behavior of experts from government sector while the experts of

private sector are considered to be relatively more straightforward in reporting the facts. Despite

the difference in both the groups i.e. sectoral backgrounds and categories of perception, but they

have a general consensus developed over the unacceptable implementation of policies as their

mean scores are below the criteria of acceptability. One of the disturbing factors is the high score

associated with priority to educational empowerment of women in the public policy of KPK

which is unexpected and needs to be investigated.


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The critical analysis of individual items of the instrument reveals pessimism regarding the

literacy level and standards of education of women in the foreseeable future. One of the possible

explanations against this state of the affair is the tribalism which permeates our psyche. However

there are very strong reasons to believe that women empowerment is no more a nonissue. Since

the experts tend to sympathize with the policy recommendation of the government without

agreeing with the extent of their implementation as acceptable.

Despite that the perception of experts regarding issues and problems are important source of

information, the role of actual data to understand the situation of educational empowerment of

women in KPK cannot be overemphasized. Unfortunately due to the reluctance of the

government officials to provide access to data regarding the implementation of government

recommendations. It is also perceived that the validity of data compiled by the researcher to

bridge the information gap relating the issue of women empowerment by means of the

perceptions of expert, may not give a complete picture of the implementation of these policy

recommendations. Hence, is a major limitation of this study?

6. Conclusions

The data leads to the conclusions that most of the policies about educational empowerment of

women are not being implemented. The perceptions of experts from public and private sectors

are different from each other but their means scores are below the acceptable level which reflects

the non-implementation of the policies. The analysis of rank order of means revealed showed

that although the civil society, especially the NGO’s, donor agencies and media has played a

positive role to improve female education but generally the overall standards of female education

in KPK is very low, especially tribalism is not supportive. The different educational reforms


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have not been able to reduce gender gaps due to unrealistic policy planning as a result of which it

is impossible to achieve the set targets of universal primary education in KPK. The corruption

involved in transfers and recruitment of female teachers is not being checked by the concerned

authorities. A major hurdle educational empowerment of women is unavailability of proper

security and residential facilities to female teachers and students in rural KPK which needs to be

taken seriously. As far as higher education is concerned, HEC has no policy to specifically

support the women of KPK. The statements of ideal situations are rated highly as compared to

what is actually being implemented.

7. Recommendations

This section comprises recommendations for concerned groups for the improvement of situation

of educational empowerment of women in KPK and on further investigation relating to

educational empowerment of women as suggested by the results of the study.

This study was related only to an expert perspective about educational empowerment of women

in KPK; it is recommended that the perceptions of the beneficiaries could also be helpful in this

area for further research.

The perceptions of experts gathered here needs to be validated by means of official documents

regarding the implementation of policies.

To improve the overall situation of female education in the area, the factors that need to be

addressed are trainings of female teachers, issue of absenteeism, provision of infrastructure and

opening more women universities, which can help in empowering the women through education.


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8. References

Bari. Zia Shehla & Farzana 1999. ‘Baseline Report on Women’s Participation in Political

&Public Life in Pakistan.’pp.15, Crystal Printers, Blue Area Islamabad.

Delemont, Sara (1996). A Women’s Place in Education. Avebury, Great Britain.[ Online]

file///H:/wom-edu.htm

Economic Survey of Pakistan (2005).n.p.

Eisenmann, Linda ed(1998). A Historical Dictionary of Women’s Education In United States.

Greenwood Press:1998

Female employment is session topic.[On.line]

news.google.com/newspapers?id=fOAzAAAAIBAJ…

F.Shaheed and K.Mumtaz (1990). ‘women’s Economic Participation in Pakistan: a Status

Report’ Shirkat Gah, Lahore, for UNICEF,1990

Government of Pakistan (2006). ‘Compendium On Gender Statistics In Pakistan: Statistics

compiled from 2004 data’.PP 29,30,32,33,34.

Hassan N.Iftikhar.2002.’Women Studies Curriculum in the Context of Pakistan: A Developing

Muslim Country.’Quarterly Journal of Gender & Social Issues. Vol.

1.No.4.pp.09,07,12.Fatima Jinnah Women University Rawalpindi.

Huebler Fariedrich.2008.’Beyond Gender: Measuring Disparity in South Asia using an

Education Parity Index’.pp.4-5. UNICEF

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Documents

EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN BALOCHISTAN · Educational Empowerment Of Women 5 Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Business Management (ISBN: 978-969-9368-06-6)