Women’s Education: An analysis of current, pressing issues in Kadod, Gujarat and suggestions for improved women’s participation in the sciences. – Authors: Apeksha Dave, David Tse, Adarsh Dave

1. Abstract  With the development of India’s economy, there are increased opportunities for Indians to excel globally, especially those entering science and technology streams. However, due to lack of knowledge, guidance, and information, many talented youth in rural areas like Kadod, Gujarat are unable to take advantage of these opportunities. While this is true for both genders, the lack of opportunity is especially so among young women. To understand the complexities of this imbalance, we—Apeksha Dave, David Tse and Adarsh Dave— spoke to female students at Kadod and Madhi High School, as well as principals, teachers, and community members primarily from Kadod. The goal is to highlight women’s education issues inherently present in the rural community, but generally neglected by the national media. Here, we identify some of the economic, cultural, social, and religious factors that play major roles in the lives and decisions of the people of villages like Kadod, and the options to maximize the girls’ chances of realizing their dreams after high school.  2. Introduction India’s education system is unique and complicated so it is worthwhile to discuss the process through which a student enters the math and science streams in India. Students in India start taking basic biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics classes in elementary school on a yearly basis. At the end of their 10th standard in high school, they take their 10thstandard board exam in which they must achieve close to the cutoff score of 70%. After this exam, those students who are able to enter the science stream must prepare for college entrance exams, which they take during the 12th standard. The tests are the sole markers for admissions into selective medical/engineering colleges such as IIT, NIT, BIT, which select only the top 2% of scorers.The competition for admissions to prestigious universities is discouraging, and the chances depend on one’s gender, caste, and socioeconomic status. For example, upper caste Hindu youth are up to four times more likely to be college graduates than youth from the Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) categories. This imbalance is likely because students from lower caste, rural, and working class families have less educated parents and lack the economic and cultural resources to develop their merit. A vast imbalance is apparent, but rural students should not lose hope: they can take advantage of other resources like scholarships, loans, and other esoteric information—for example, of the students admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a top medical college in New Dehli, there is a set quota of 26% that must be filled with Other Backward Classes (OBC), a simple solution to alleviate some of the competition.  If sustainable impact is to be made, there must be efforts to educate rural area students of the opportunities needed to successfully navigate the local educational system. By the same token, because not everyone will make it to the best engineering or medical schools, students must be informed of the alternative career paths taken by those who attend smaller medical and engineering schools. This intuition is especially necessary for women, who have interests in pursuing their education but are constrained by deeper societal barriers, economical, and safety issues. In this paper we will uncover the educational reality faced by teenage girls with information supported by our discussions with women and community members. We will also suggest a possible pilot-program to address some of the more pressing issues.  3. An inherent interest in women pursuing education As mentioned previously, women, generally, do not attain higher levels of science education if they come from the rural areas of India. The interesting aspect of this situation is that there is an inherent desire among many girls, including those we have spoken with, to go to college and finish their education. A majority of the girls we spoke to felt that their education was more important, or at least as important, to marriage and having kids. While most girls had mothers who are housewives, many of the girls noted that they wanted to accomplish higher goals. Their stay home mothers are generally supportive of their dreams.By studying and working outside of Kadod, Ajmina, a 10B standard student at Kadod, wants to alleviate her family’s financial troubles. She believes she can effectively manage both studying and caring for a family. Other 9th standard girls shared Ajmina’s vision and motivation. Ammara, a classmate of Ajmina, says that her father, a civil engineer, wants Ammara and her siblings to strive to practice medicine. However, when we asked the three girls to make the difficult decision of choosing between their family and profession, all but Ammara said that studying is paramount now, but in later years family will be more important than their education.Why is there an obvious shift of priorities as girls get older? As it turns out, for most girls, marriage is prioritized because an educated woman is a more desirable wife to potential suitors. When we asked girls why they want to continue their studies, many said they want be matched with a successful husband—one girl shyly said she did not want to marry a rickshaw walla, a low-paying profession. “It depends on the families. When families are educated, they want to make sure their daughters and daughter-in-law study, work, and are independent” explained Rita ben, a teacher at Kadod High School. Educated girls have the possibility of marrying higher up in the financial spectrum—with a chance of getting married off to the United States, Europe, Canada, or Australia. In wealthier families, girls are coerced to study for pride and future lifestyle.In lower-middle class families, this possibility of daughters marrying abroad can, however, hinder their education pursuits. College and further studies are postponed because of marriage promises. As Chaudhariben, a teacher at Kadod, explained, “sometimes, these families rely on marriage and think their daughter will be married off soon so there’s nothing to worry about. When families have relatives abroad, they think ‘she is going to America anyway.’ They don’t see the point in educating her because the families know that once married, she will live a good life.” In underprivileged families, a girl’s education is even more inhibited. This stems from three main reasons: (1) the financial burden, (2) marriage and (3) safety concerns. The financial burden of sending a girl to college and having to pay tuition is a difficult to carry—it is more feasible for a girl to get a local job to make ends meet. Preeti, a twenty-six year old female, sits near the subji wallas, or vegetable salesmen, selling flowers every day. She was on her way to college when her mother suddenly needed surgery. As a result, Preeti had to take on the family flower business to pay for her family’s daily expenses. Preeti’s case is one of many cases in which there was a lack of a financial safety net for families while their daughters pursue their education. Another reason is more socially based: in many families, girls are considered distant relatives because of the implications of marriage into a different household. As Yogeshbhai explained, “girls are not considered a part of the family because they will be married off anyway.” When parents view their daughters as belonging to another household, they see little intrinsic motivation to educate their daughters. This issue is often alleviated in middle-to-high classes, where parents rely on at least some monetary support from their daughters after marriage. Without this promise of future financial support, the traditional system leads to almost complete separation between a woman and her maiden home in lower class families. Lastly, there is the issue of safety. A girl’s purity is one of her biggest assets—only if she is pure will she be married and bring respect to the family. Thus, college is often a concern. “Places with colleges are larger cities where our daughters would be prone to more dangers, including boys, city life, and transportation. What if something like love happens? Those places are not good for girls from this town” explained Ishwarbhai, a local vegetable seller. When combined, the financial, social, and safety reasons are enough to keep many deserving, talented girls at home.   4. Potential Programs 4.1 Financial/college safety workshops: NEF programs may not be able to completely solve these concerns because these issues are so deep-rooted within the community. However, there are several things that we recommend to NEF to alleviate some of the financial and safety concerns evident among families in Kadod. One major issue for rural families is the financial burden of having a daughter in college. Scholarships have the potential to help those families in which parents wish to send their daughters to school but simply cannot afford it. Loans are another option that many parents are not aware of, or lack information about. When we spoke to families, it became apparent that they know very little about the scholarships/ loans that may be available to them nationally and internationally because most kids in rural villages do not have easy access to this information. Workshops on scholarship application should be offered to kids and their families—if parents have a better understanding of their financial options, they would be more likely to support their child’s dreams of college and further studies. Information on loan obtainment and management and statistics on governmental and private loans can set a foundation on college financing. It is not possible to sponsor every student for college, but it is possible to give families enough options that they can make appropriate choices based on their circumstances. To address the safety concerns, parents are encouraged to look into schools nearby their homes. For girls in Kadod, going to school in Bardoli or Surat may be more feasible options instead of going to cities that are further away. Another option is to send their daughters to all-girl universities. Ishwarbhai, while hesitant about sending girls to co-ed schools in Surat, felt more relieved at the idea of an all-girls school, where distractions with boys are a lot less likely.  4.2 Guidance Program Secondly, we suggest a guidance program to be started with local area teachers and professionals. We noticed that teachers often only spend time with the students while in the classroom. Many students are not aware of the opportunities, academically and professionally, available to them outside of their rural milieu. It is imperative that they have the chance to surround themselves by driven and motivated people. Most of the girls we spoke with told us that their parents are their main source of motivation. Unfortunately, most parents are not qualified to give proper advice because of their own limited educational level. While an effort to start a guidance program has been made by a teacher, it lacks the resources and organization to be successful. Currently at Kadod high school, a teacher started a program called “Career Corner” in which he asked all of the teachers to refer kids, with career questions, to him. This is a good start, but because it relies too much on student initiative, we would suggest a more structured and regular program specifically based on the students’ schedules. To investigate the need for a guidance program, we directly asked many 10th-12th standard girls, “What does one have to do to become a doctor/engineer?” Unfortunately, the students were unable to provide us with specific answers, just generic statements like “work hard, study hard, pay attention in class, and do well on tests.” They are uninformed of the necessary steps to navigate the education system and to achieve success in engineering or medicine. This void of knowledge is what we hope to fill through a guidance program at Kadod High School. Generally, we outline the tentative pilot program as follows: 4.2.1 Recruit counselor(s) with these desired qualities  Guidance counselors would be the link between the students of Kadod and the world outside of their locality. Ideally, they should be resourceful, well organized, punctual, and charismatic. They should know how to make the student feel comfortable, should be able to speak Guajarati and/or Hindi and English very well, most importantly, they should have intricate knowledge and experience with India’s education system and the steps required to successfully navigate it. This knowledge should stem from personal experience of graduating from college, tutoring students academically and educational social work. Of course, NEF reserves the right to interview and evaluate the guidance counselor for their fit into the pilot program itself. 4.2.2 Form the focus group: To start, we suggest a pilot program with 5-10 girls who will start the program as 9thgraders, a year before they must take their 10th standard exams. The sample size is fitting because it will allow for more personalized attention and will make the counselor’s job not as demanding, especially if they are already a working professional. These girls will be at the top of their class standings—generally because they are more motivated, responsive and will likely follow through with the program. They will be from families that are interested in investing in their daughter’s education, but lack the proper knowledge and resources—this will be determined through a short interview. It is important that the girls not be from a well-educated family in which easy access to information is not a problem, because the goal of the program is to monitor improvement as a result of the instated guidance program. A short interview will be conducted for prospective girl students to gauge their interest and the possible social barriers they face. Tentatively, we would like the following questions: • What is your dream profession? Realistic profession? Why? • How do your parents react to your personal decisions? • What types of career decisions are they not accepting of?  4.2.3 Potential guidance activities  In terms of potential activities, every month, the counselor will plan a visit for the top 1% of kids in the upper standards to an appropriate school or research facility based on their interests. For example, students involved in engineering and technology may enjoy a visit to Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, situated near Surat. Ideally, we would like to stimulate the girls’ interests in the technical fields, or allow them to realize that engineering may not be exactly what they are looking for through discussion with actual students studying engineering. NEF could start a collaborative effort with universities in the area so that during each summer, kids would be selected from Kadod to participate in a summer internship with a professor or college student in a university lab, which the guidance counselor will monitor. These kinds of experiences and opportunities would open up the doors for a lot of talented kids in the region. Talks can be coordinated by the counselor and include the alumni of the high school who have found great success outside of the village. During, the “Nanubhai Golden Age, as Kadod staff like to call it, there was a high success rate of students receiving job offers overseas. If these alumni were to speak to the focus group via skype or even through email, the conversation would be very enlightening and broaden the professional perspectives of the students of Kadod. Towards the conclusion of the pilot program, we wish to see an improvement in the girls’ overall motivation, and for them to be more cognizant of their personal and tentative professional or educational goals. We want them to discover what exactly excites and motivates them towards their desired field.  4.3 Guidance Booklet—“How To Get Into Careers in Science and Technology”  In collaboration with NEF, the MIT IDC team would like to develop a career guidebook geared towards rural area kids who want to succeed in the science field. This will be supplemental to the guidance pilot-program and would probably reach more students from other rural areas more efficiently and with less cost (guidance counselors may need to be reimbursed for their work). The guidebook would serve as a go-to booklet for students, especially as they make the decisions about what streams they wish to enter and what career paths they wish to take. This booklet, we hope, will be continually adjusted by the staff at Kadod High school and high school alumni for more up to date advice.  4.3.1 Background Research To get answers to the questions of what is required to achieve success in India’s education system, we talked to teachers at Kadod, contacted government officials in India, and emailed questions to hundreds of doctors and engineers at prestigious and local colleges. The goal was to obtain from doctors/engineers the following information: • How did you navigate India’s educational system? • In the case that a science stream student does not become a doctor or engineer, what other career options are available? • What advice do you have for students finishing up high school or college? • What was your story? How did you make it to where you are today? • Where did you feel that India’s education system was most lacking? Do you think that information access was a problem for you? Would some sort of a guidance program have been effective? The booklet will discuss the following points—we have also attached a sample medical school specific brochure to provide a better visual on this idea: • The process of entering the science field • Statistics • Progressive to-do lists • Information on the types of schools/degree options on scholarships/financial options including loans. • Study abroad options • Case stories from doctors and engineers from all over India with their advice and suggestions.   5. Conclusion   In all, the present reality suggests that many rural students, especially girls, are not given nearly as many opportunities for success as those who are wealthy, city-born and their male counterparts. However, there are many positive outcomes that can come about with a well-informed rural student: more realistic career choices, financial security, and a deeper understanding of the Indian education system. Addressing these issues through a pilot-program focused on guidance counseling can effectively become a reliable network for girls to easily access a plethora of information. Ultimately, the IDC team would like to see girls being exposed to the realities of post-high school education and for them to develop a working intuition on how to navigate their futures.  Download the Article   Download the Brochure