User:Jiayi Lai/sandbox

= African Female Education = Female education is a comprehensive term on a complex set of issues and debates about girls and women around education (primary, secondary, higher education, especially health education). It includes gender equality and access to education and areas related to poverty alleviation. Women's education in the world is moving forward with economic development and scientific progress. For women, education is a fundamental right, and for a country, female education is an important catalyst for economic growth and human development. For Africa, women's education is of particular significance because social and economic development there is constrained by rapid population growth and a weak human resource base, while women are the foundation of social life in Africa and play multiple important roles in the family.

However, before the 1990s, gender did not become the center of the development agenda of African governments and international aid agencies. The catalyst for change was the Third World Conference on Women held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985. This conference aroused the international community's gender awareness and concern for women as a group. The 1990 World Declaration on Education for All clearly stated that ensuring girls’ and women’s access to school, improving the quality of their education, and removing all obstacles that hinder their active participation, and abandoning any gender-related stereotypes in education. The Dakar Framework in 2000 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have set a time for achieving gender equality in education. A series of political commitments has promoted the return of gender to national education policies and to the mainstream of international aid agencies.

Gender Equality in Education
In the past few decades, African countries have attached great importance to the role of education in the process of nation-state construction and development. Therefore, education has been placed on the policy priorities, and the rapid expansion of the number of educational institutions at all levels has greatly increased women’s educational opportunities. In particular, after the World Conference on Education for All, women’s education received special attention in Africa and achieved rapid development.

Progress
Take Sub-Saharan Africa as an example. In early 1960, the gross enrollment rate of girls in primary education, secondary education and higher education was 25%, 1% and 0.1%, respectively. By 2006, the figures were 89%, 28% and 4%, respectively.

While the enrollment rate of women at all levels is increasing, the gender parity index is also improving. In sub-Saharan Africa, the gender parity index for primary school enrollment in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2006 was 0.77, 0.81, 0.89, and 0.92, respectively. In some countries, women’s gross enrollment ratios even exceed men’s gross enrollment rates, such as the Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, and Zambia. The gender parity index for secondary and higher education also tends to increase.

In addition to the enrollment rate and gender parity index, other indicators, such as repetition rates, dropout rates, graduation rates, etc., also reflect the progress of women's education in Africa. In 1999, the repetition rate of female primary education in Sub-Saharan African countries was 17.7%, and in 2006 it fell to 13.3%. At the same time, the increase in female enrollment rates has also led to a growing number of female teachers in Africa.

Challenge
It can be said that in the past few decades, female education in Africa has made great progress. But relatively speaking, this progress is still slow and uneven. On the one hand, the level of development of women's education between countries and countries in this region is still significantly different due to differences in geographical location, social class, language and ethnicity. On the other hand, compared with the rest of the world, Africa, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, still lags behind in the field of women’s education.

Compared with men, women in most African countries have been disadvantaged in education, and the higher the level of education, the more unfavorable the situation. One of the most important reasons for this “vertical separation” is that girls’ academic performance is worse than that of boys, and the percentage of students who can graduate and pass the exam is low. At the same time, in the diversion of secondary education and higher education, there is also a “level separation” of gender, which means that boys and girls are concentrated in certain classes and majors, so that these courses become male-dominated subjects or female-dominated subjects. For example, in the fields of education, humanities, and art, the proportion of girls generally far exceeds that of boys. Science, engineering, and architecture are dominated by boys.

Obstacles to female education
There are gender differences in education in Africa, and the factors that lead to these differences are manifold. The factors that hinder the education of gender equality can be roughly divided into economic factors, school-related factors, and social and cultural factors.

Economic Factor
Family economic status is an important factor in determining whether a parent is capable of withstanding the direct and indirect costs of a child's education. Direct costs include tuition, school uniform fees, transportation fees and other material fees like textbooks. In Kenya, 47% of the rural population and 27% of the urban population live below the poverty line, yet they have to bear nearly 60% of the cost of primary education. This forces them to selectively educate their children. For poor families, girls are the most direct victims when education costs are unaffordable. In a survey in the mid-1990s, 58% of respondents let their daughters to drop out, while only 27% of respondents chose sons.

Compared with boys, the opportunity cost of girls to go to school is higher, because they bear multiple roles such as family workers and mothers' assistants, and they have to bear more labor than men. For example, in a province of Zambia, girls spend four times as much time on direct productive labor as boys. Therefore, girls’ late schooling, absenteeism and dropouts are closely related to labor.

School-Related Factor
The location of the school has a direct impact on the type of education that women receive, the quality of education, and the time of education. Many parents are unwilling to let young children go to school far away from home, and the distance between the school and the home is very common in rural Africa. Insufficient infrastructure such as school teaching, health, and dormitory can also prevent women from entering school. At the same time, the curriculum and related teachers, syllabus, textbooks and teaching methods lack gender awareness, or exist gender bias, which has far more adverse effects for girls than boys. In many African countries, it is still to strengthen the society's perception of women's family life, and to hide the prejudice that women's intelligence is not as good as men's. In such a learning environment, women's learning attitudes are often negative, and they cannot fully exert their abilities. In the secondary and higher education stages, women are usually assigned to learn courses that are more feminine, such as home economics, craft classes or biology (biological is considered to be related to women's traditional occupations, such as nursing).

In addition, various forms of sexual violence and sexual harassment in schools, or concerns about sexual violence and sexual harassment, are silent barriers to girls’ enrollment. These behaviors not only affect the school's academic performance, but also cause pregnancy, early marriage and so on. At the same time, in many countries, teenage pregnancy almost interrupted girls' school education.

Social and Cultural Factor
Africa’s deep-rooted attitude towards women may be traced back to the patriarchal system that continued in African native culture and colonial experience. Traditionally, women's reproductive and family roles are of great value. Adolescent African girls feel this pressure strongly because she either assists her mother or other female relatives to complete their home tasks or achieves a transition to an adult role such as a wife or mother at this time. From that age, some girls who are still in elementary school are at risk of interrupting their studies. The traditional concept of marriage in Africa regards investment in women’s education as a waste, that is, all proceeds flow to another family. Therefore, it is often difficult for women to get care from their father and thus lose many educational opportunities.

Cost-Related Interventions
Effectively promote universal, free and compulsory basic education, reduce or eliminate the direct cost of basic education, so that primary education can be more affordable.

School's Interventions
Schools create a safe and fair learning environment and institutional culture that is conducive to women. Gender considerations will be taken into account in the supply and allocation of resources to meet women's specific educational needs. More important is to strengthen gender awareness education for all teachers and educators.

Government's Interventions
The government plays an important role in advancing gender equality in education. One of its roles is to create a good environment through laws and policies to promote women's education to achieve gender equality. Beyond the law, the government must also set up a clear framework. For example, in Ethiopia, the government clearly stipulates that women and men have the same opportunity to accept the same curriculum, and are free to choose a profession to ensure that women have the same employment opportunities as men.

Notes about Female Education

8 March 2019

I found an article about female education at Wikipedia. I think everything in the article is relevant to the article topic. I have an understanding of the educational environment in which women in the world today, but I don't expect that the most distracting thing is that the actual situation is far more worse than what I know. Many women in developing countries are illiterate, their attitude towards domestic violence is numb, and they are not conscious of opposing these acts of violence. This gives me a deeper understanding of the situation without being educated.

After reading this entry, I think that no information is outdated, but there is some information that needed to be added. For example, when it comes to the history of Chinese women's education, this aspect is relatively familiar to me. The editors also indicated that some contents needed the citation — the editors mentioned in the entry that a woman without talent is virtuous. I think they can make some additions. This is an old saying in China that reflects the discrimination of women in feudal society and the dual values and ethical standards for men and women. This is actually a means of domination, depriving women of their rights to education in terms of virtue. Men at that time thought that if women were educated, they would like to watch operas, read novels, comment on current events, and even oppose the opinions of husbands or elders. It is not good for the stability of a family. What they need is a well-behaved woman who only needs to cook or wash clothes. In ancient China, polygamy was practiced. This old saying also satisfied their interests.

From my perspective, this entry is neutral and there are no viewpoints that are overrepresented or underrepresented. And I checked the links and they are all work. The sources appear in the entry can actively support the claim in the article like providing the actual data or real events. Each fact has an appropriate and reliable reference, either from Wikipedia, from other search engines, or information posted by other countries on their websites. This information is almost neutral.

'''These are thorough reflections. (DB) 5/5'''

Notes about Article Selection

11 March 2019

1. Music Education

The contents in Music Education is relevant to the topic. And this article is written neutrally. It mainly introduces music education methods in different countries and explains the importance of music in education. I found that not every claim has citation support. However, existing citations are reliable.

2. Special Education

The contents in Special Education is relevant to the topic. And the article is written neutrally. The article mainly explains what special education is and how different education methods are used to treat special people in different countries. Each claim has a citation and is reliable.

3. Physical Education

The contents in Physical Education is relevant to the topic. And the article is written neutrally. It mainly describes the application trend of physical education in the fields of education. Countries are also paying more and more attention to physical education. This article needs additional citations for verification; the current citations are reliable.

'''More thorough reflections are needed for each potential topic. (DB) 4/5'''

Research Questions Reflection

13 March 2019

I think my topic will mainly affect two types of people. The first type of people are women who are still educated by the fact that women should serve the family wholeheartedly. I think they should at least abandon those old ideas first, such as sacrificing their chances of success, doing heavy housework, or letting their daughters give up the right to get the education and go out to work to earn money. The second type is those parents who are used to traditional ideas. Some parents refuse to let girls go to school because of the opportunity cost. They think that girls will eventually marry, so there is no need to invest too much in girls. I hope that my topic will make these people realize that female education has a positive effect on the development of society.

I am interested in the history of female education in various countries. After reading the entry, I found that some Western countries were more democratic in the early stage, they set up special girls' schools, and those who received education also contributed to society as well as men. However, countries with low levels of female education are lagging behind countries that actively develop women's education in terms of economy and invention.

I am more interested in the history of ancient China. For example, Confucius was a great thinker and educator in ancient China. His thoughts had a profound influence on China and the world. But his remarks about women have also been attacked by contemporary people, thinking that his words have led to the decline of women's status. But I don't think he should entirely responsible for it. For example, Plato and Socrates have also made similar remarks. But Western women have always had a higher status than Eastern women. The Chinese historical content mentioned in the entry is too little, and it is described in a few sentences. So that's why I am interested in the history of development.

I think I will mainly complete this research on the internet. Finding resources on the school library's database and the network is very convenient.

'''These seems like good reflections--just be sure that these are areas that need to be further addressed within your article. (DB) 5/5'''