GIRLS STEP TOWARDS EMPOWERMENT: Bangladesh Open University Ladder to Hope through Gender Lens

Year 2014, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, 11 - 19, 01.07.2014

Zobaida Akhter

Abstract

Women’s access to education must be treated as their fundamental right. And it is only through education that they would get the chance to prepare themselves in order to play their roles in nation’s social, economic and political spheres as equal members of society. In Bangladesh, very few women can enjoy such rights and live a healthy and prestigious life. At present due to government initiatives, girl’s enrolment in primary and secondary education is little bit higher than the boys. Despite of such encouraging scenario, there is a dark side behind this. Due to prejudice, mistaken education from family and society, lack of security, gender biased curriculum, dropout rate of girls is higher and their retention rate is low. Though there are facilities with free education till secondary education, lack of social motivation, mistaken education and increasing rate of violence against in different form, refrain them from education and encourage them in child marriage. Marriage is considered as the alternative to education, which ultimately leads to violence against women due to unpaid dowry. The article will analyse the issues of some social problem with special emphasis on mistaken family education. Curricula and textbooks are gender biased and classroom environment are more gender biased. Bangladesh Open University has all the freedom, access and opportunity to overcome the problems with their unlimited innovations to refrain the girls from education. Some textbooks of BOU will be reviewed from gender perspective and will put some alternative approaches. The article will emphasis on the uniform gender code, gender sensitivity and gender balance in among all the Open and Distance Learning Institution of the developing countries

Keywords

Women, Education, Empowerment, Distance Learning, flexibility

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