Bereket Gebru
One of the indicators of whether a state is
politically, economically and culturally strong is the condition of women in
the country. A country in which the equality of women is not legally and
practically backed is one which has anti-democratic political culture and a
system that is not based on the free market. The socioeconomic conditions are
definitely going to be backward.
After years of inequality, our country has in
recent years set the legal and practical bases for the equality of women. As
the days of inequality were too long, though, the struggle for instate equality
has been very demanding. The constitution and other laws driven from it have
concretely put the legal equality of women very clearly.
However, the main challenge in the struggle
to ensure the equality of women lies in interpreting the legal and political
packages of equality into practical daily reality. The achievement of such
reality calls for changing the attitudes of individuals and institutions.
The issue of ensuring the economic equality
of women has to do with solving the historic problems of ownership rights and
access to sources of wealth. Averting the problem involves respecting women’s
rights to own the means of production. Social equality would also be guaranteed
through equal access to education and health services. Doing away with sexist
cultural overtones and replacing them with democratic and scientific ones would
also cover the cultural aspect of the problem of inequality.
The relentless effort in our country to
develop democracy and good governance has enormously increased the
participation of women in politics. 40-50% of the seats in regional councils
are held by women. Similarly, 30% of the seats in the federal parliament are
held by women.
In this article we deal with the
participation and benefit of women from the highly expanding educational sector
and assess its impact in general.
1.
A system that focuses on education
The democratic free market system that is
being built through the leadership of the EPRDF has identified building
executive capacity as the main issue of development. It has also been working
towards its achievement for quite a while now. The main obstacle holding our
developmental and democratic directions that are capable of bringing miraculous
results back is the problem of executive capacity. Executive capacity includes
attitude, knowledge, modern work procedures and effective organizational
structure. The government is carrying out measures to do away with the problems
of executive capacity through two entwined directions. The first direction is
the use of education and training to build and shape the attitudes and skills
of citizens while the other involves building governmental executive capacity
through civil service reform.
Analyzing facts leads us to the fact that the
country has used education to solve all problems in the last 14 years.
Internationally tipped to succeed in meeting the millennium development goals,
our country has taken significant strides to ensure universal coverage of
elementary education (1-8th grade). To depict a numerical backing of
the success, let’s consider the education growth recorded at every level.
In 1991 when EPRDF came to power through
popular struggle overthrowing the dergue regime, there were a total of
2,871,325 students in primary and junior secondary school (1-8th
grade). This shows that only 20% of the children in the age group had access to
education. Of the total number, 1.16 million or 40.4% were female students. The
number of high school students in the same year was 404,861, with female
students making up 43% of the number. Out of the 10,401 students studying for
their first degree in that year, only 820 or 8% were women. Similarly, out of
the 651 post graduate students in that year, only 51 or 8% were women. As can
be understood from these data, education during the dergue regime was not well
spread and it was limited to cities with unequal access to all.
Due to the priority given to expand educational
coverage over the last 15 years, there has been a significant growth in all
levels of education. Subsequent to making education free, the number of
students attending primary education (1-8th grade) has risen from
2.87 million in 1991 to 12.4 million in 2006. That means our revolutionary
democratic force has managed to take an average of 650 thousand students for
every year it has been in power. Of the total number of students 50% were
females. The participation of women in higher education has also increased over
the years. Accordingly, the number of women attending their first degree
education has risen from 8% in 1991 to 22% in 2005. Their total number reached
17,599 by then. When our technical and vocational training system was
reorganized in a new way in 2001, out of the 2,631 students only 615 or 23%
were women. In 2005 that number went up to 51% or 54,396 female students out of
a total 106,336.
Giving 650 thousand students access to
education every year demanded the construction of not less than 500 schools per
year, introduction of ten thousands of trained teachers and the production and
supply of books and other teaching aids. Our government’s belief that education
is the key out of poverty has rationalized its move to invest a lot into it. We
are, nowadays, enjoying the benefits of that investment.
2.
Women have become primary beneficiaries of our educational system
The figures cited above clearly show that
education coverage has expanded a lot with women benefiting tremendously from
the change. Recent trends show that a large number of girls have started to
attend primary schools. That is increasingly kept them away from early marriage
along with the legal coverage they get. All these things show that the
foundations for the equality of women have been laid.
The equality of women is based on social and
policy development that ensures the participation of women. That is the reason
why revolutionary democracy stipulates that the equality of women will not be
achieved separate from social freedom and equality.
3.
Educating women and its importance in radically changing society
Education is a
tool for personal and social gain. With an increase in the number of educated
people in a community the social importance of education becomes more notable.
In addition to the personal gains of being educated, analysts argue that
educating women have vast social benefits. In our country, educating women has
fundamental importance in achieving the desired systemic change.
3.1 The personal gain of women has
increased because of education
The fact that
women have more access to education and training in all levels these days sets
them up to better personal gains. Better access to education has acquainted
women with scientific approaches and modern work procedures. It has also helped
them modify their methods of production. With an opportunity to learn, rural
women discover methods of improving productivity in their backyard farms,
stumble on to new ways of handling house chores easily, and learn how to manage
income better. Those in urban areas could be more inclined to use small and
micro trade to better themselves or get employment in her line of education,
depending on their level of education. In general, women have gained a lot from
the growth of educational coverage and that personal gain has a big importance
in ensuring the equality of women.
Apart from
improving the income of women, educating women helps build their confidence and
increase their acceptance and stature in the community. That in turn weakens
the long tradition of looking down on women. Through education, women develop a
better understanding of the reasons that led them to backwardness and poverty.
They can also scientifically study and understand the behavior, cause and
methods of relieving themselves of the system that has denied them equality.
3.2 Educating women and its pragmatic
social importance
The main social
importance of educating women is that it increases national wealth through
improved women’s productivity. In rural areas where the majority of our women live,
the education of women and increase in productivity is highly interlinked.
Educating women create more room for non-reliance on one person in a family. It
creates opportunity for women to contribute more to their family’s income. With
a vast increase in the number of educated women, the impact becomes more
accentuated at a social level.
Another social
importance of educating women is that they help create a more ethical
generation with the more education they receive. As the daunting task of child
rearing is mainly laid on the shoulders of women, they have a great input in
shaping the behaviors of generations. With education, they become more aware of
their roles and their inputs become better.
Educating women
also has a tremendous impact on social health. Out of the diseases in our
country, 80% could be eliminated using protective measures. These measures
include maintaining personal, familial and environmental hygiene. Therefore,
educating women helps achieve social health; as women are generally in charge
of personal, household and environmental hygiene in our society.
Another
importance of educating women is that they have a key role in controlling
population size. A big population size has proved to be a blessing when paired
with a long cycle of economic growth as witnessed in the case of China and India. However, large population
size is a curse in a shackled economic growth and widespread poverty. Even in a
country of fast growth, unchecked population growth complicates and worsens
efforts to ensure social prosperity and security. In our country, population
growth, coupled with the degradation of natural resources, has been a threat
against development. Analysts agree that educating women is an effective birth
control. Education takes women off early marriage narrowing their chances of
becoming teenage mothers.
Expanding
educational coverage for more women to benefit from it also helps strengthen
social equality. Both attitudinal and practical instances of equality can be
achieved through education of women.
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