An Ethnographic Study of Challenges to Female Education in Khair Shah,Pind Dadan Khan District Jhelum

Abstract

Female education plays a significant role in the progress of every society. In Pind Dadan Khan, females were deprived of education and has faced several challenges to get education. This research highlights the barrriers in the way of female education as well as explores the factors which help in the improvement of female education in research area. The success stories of the powerful women who struggled hard to achieve their goals through education are also accessed. To conduct this research, twenty six respondents of different age group, gender, marital status, religious sects, profession and educational qualification including teachers, community elder people, scholars, both religious and educational professional were selected as a research sample. Qualitative research methods including case study method, participant observation and informal interviews were employed to get detailed data. The insight obtained from research findings illustrate that the major causes of lack of female education include low academic performance in secondary school, financial crisis, various compulsions in the family, conveyance problems, lack of quality education in colleges and gender inequality. The custom of early marriages was another noticeable issue in research area which hindered the way of female education. Restrictions by family and gender assigned duties including domestic work was also observed as a challenge. On contrary, several females has acquired education by passion and hard work. They factors that play pivotal role were the encouragement of family, change in thinking pattern of people, self-determination, economic crisis and awareness of educational rights.