Covid 19 and Female Drop Out Rates

“Unless every child can reach his full potential, humanity never will”

– Penny Mordaunt

This sentence can not be any truer. Education is a human’s most powerful and essential woman, and without access to it the talents of thousands will go unnoticed. 

The Covid 19 pandemic has had diverse and massive effects on all walks of life, and next to all industries faced its repercussions. However education was among the ones worst hit. With schools all over the globe closing and 1.6 billion kids forced to stay home, the education industry felt the ripples. 

Directly or indirectly, the pandemic has affected female education. With reports showing that 2.8 million girls in South and West Asia face the threat of never even returning to school. And these are just the statistics of a part of a continent! Imagine the number of girls all over who may never return to school!

The pandemic has caused numerous economical problems, with families falling into poverty. The lockdown caused numerous workers to lose their job and break the flow of income that fueled the girl’s education. With thousands of families struggling to even put 2 meals on the table, the girl child’s education is simply not the priority. 

If you were given the choice to choose between food or your child’s education what will you choose? And more often than not, the girl has siblings , so even when the family manages to collect money, the brother or elder sibling is favored. 

Also, the pandemic created a humongous shift in teaching style and pattern, with almost all school switching to e learning. E learning requires two major things, a device and an internet connection, and both of them don’t come cheap. Most families are unable to afford this,, causing the girls to drop out. 

Many families may also choose to pull out girls from school and either marry them or put them off to work. Even though we are in the 21st century, girls are still treated as economical burdens, wanting to get rid of them. Financial issues caused by pandemic may force families to pull out girls as they simply can’t afford the education. Unemployment, financial limitations, basic resource scarcity, is bound to increase drop out rates among girls. 

All in all, it’s not only an issue of gender favoritism, it’s also an economical restraint. 

However, this issue can be solved! If each one of us decided to join hands and even contribute in the littlest of ways, the issue can be solved. 

PS. one way is to support Malala Fund!

“Girl’s education is the single best investment any society can make!”

– Carol Bellamy

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