Girls Education

Abstract:  The “Rain Song School” promotes education for girls in 3rd world countries, where it is often unavailable or actually denied to girls.  The writer points out the large hidden costs to a community or country for not educating its girls and enumerates the specific benefits the community gains when it educates its girls.  By many criteria, educating girls gives more “bang for the buck” than educating boys.  A sample plan for how “Grandmother” para teachers could be paid a small stipend is given along with a way to get the school lessons in basic academics free from the internet.  Ways of distributing the learning materials, even to remote villages, are discussed.   The writer aims to set forth the rudimentary aspects of a practical plan so others can see it is possible and adapt it as needed and then actually start a school for girls in their community.

“RAIN SONG SCHOOL”

Rain Song School is the idea of FREE education for ALL girls

OVERVIEW

Many children go uneducated each year in the developing world.  Huge amounts of mind power and creativity are lost to the individual and to the society.  This happens to girls more than to boys.  The negative consequences are greater for girls than for boys. Uneducated girls are more likely to be forced into labor or sexual servitude, or both, and remain there for many years.  Uneducated girls:

marry sooner,
give birth sooner,
are more likely to die during childbirth,
tend to stay uneducated,
are less likely to educate their children, and
fail to develop their creative talents.  

In short: uneducated girls perpetuate poverty.  The financial loss is reflected in the smaller than possible GNP of the country.  Education for all girls in the developing world is a goal that has practical outcomes for her, her family, community, country, and world—in other words, for everyone!  See the 2013 CNN documentary, “Girl Rising” for a factual and poignant acquaintance with these facts.

I support existing educational systems in developing countries.  When possible, a professional educational environment and building, staffed by professional educators, is good.  But a make-shift classroom with lay-teachers delivering instruction is light years ahead of no education at all!  Girls taught in make-shift schools will at least have access to the bare bones of basic academics, modern world living skills and social studies.

For the developing countries where they practice, barefoot doctors with only 12 to 18 months of intense training is a much better solution than having no doctors at all!  In the same vein, remote villages in the developing world where Grandmothers were given 6 months of intense training in installation and maintenance of village solar electric systems are much better off than are villages left in the dark because no professional engineers were available.

Para teachers, who have completed an intense 1 – 2 month “how to teach” training program distributed free on the world wide web, offering a bare bones no frills K through 8 curriculum, in make-shift classrooms, teaching girls who can’t afford school uniforms and textbooks is far better than the alternative—no education for these girls at all!   The value of such a program is determined not by the credentials of the teachers or adequacy of the facilities, but by the practical results demonstrated in the lives of the girls educated. Grandmother’s desire to teach, not her credentials, is what will get the job done.  Here are some questions with which to assess value.  

Did fewer die in early childbirth?
Were fewer married as child brides?  
Did fewer contract HIV-AIDS?
Do they insist their own children be educated?  
Do they learn and pass on better hygiene practices, sanitation and community health measures?  
Are they more likely to get advanced training?
Are those with advanced training more likely to return to their local community to serve?
Are they more inclined to start and run a profitable business?  
Are they more likely than men to spend moneys earned for the benefit of their families and not
on gambling and alcohol?  

Research shows a resounding “YES” to all these evaluative questions!

It really is quite simple.  Here are the sequential pieces of the puzzle:

[1] If we can train lay-teachers, perhaps mostly grandmothers, for free on the internet
[2] if we can, when required, give them a very modest stipend - say about 50% of the local rate for common labor for a full day. (The stipend offsets loss of time from other productive tasks. Each hour is precious in a subsistence economy and there is no time to “waste” on frivolities like educating girls, unless of course, such activity becomes a source of income!)
[3] and the lay-teacher instructs 12 or more students for 2 hours a day for five days a week;
[4] and if the school is free to the girls who attend the 2 hour a day school,(Longer school hours mean longer times “wasted” at being away from helping with the chores upon which the family depends for it’s survival.)
[5] we will have educated girls and subsequently, a better world!

This puzzle can be put together!  Numbers 1 through 5 above are realistic.  There is no reason we cannot be educating most every girl in the developing world.  Of course there are more details to work out, questions to be answered, but you get the idea.  Thanks to the internet we can reach the world, and we have the capability to print information and distribute it widely to districts and villages without computers.  Lay-teachers can be trained and a bare bones curriculum made available at no charge.   Curriculum could be in the following areas:   a) basic academics, b) modern world living skills, c) Social studies.

Basic Academics is:

(1) Reading
(2) Writing
(3) Math  
(4) Science

Modern World Living Skills is:

(1) Learn English (the de-facto international language)
(2) Computer basics (often conceptual only since equipment may not be available)
(3) Political Awareness
(4) Personal finance and wealth building
(5) Homestead Operation: low-cost, efficiency and natural construction techniques
(6) Practical problem solving.

Social studies is:

(1) Local history,
(2) World history,
(3) World geography and
(4) Harmony theory (benefits for all of cooperation at all levels).