development. Targets were set to increase female participation in primary education to
60 per cent, and the female literacy rate to nearly 50 per cent. In practice these targets
have not been achieved. Subsequent plans and measures have also, in general, failed to
make a significant impact.
This chapter proceeds to detail the various areas in which female disadvantage is
normally evident (enrolment, participation, wastage etc), and identifies negative socio-
cultural attitudes and widespread grinding poverty as the main causes for the patterns of
inequality that continue to exist. Some of the barriers could be overcome if culturally
acceptable facilities existed that were accessible to girls. In short: "... girls do not enrol
in schools because there are no schools for them" (p 119). It is the lack of schools rather
than cultural inhibitions that is the single most important reason for the low rate of
female enrolment in Pakistan. Negative parental attitudes (mothers as well as fathers),
and poverty are cited as the next most important factors.
The chapter goes on to examine female participation in the labour force, in parenting
and in politics, with evidence, not surprisingly of the constraining effect of lack of
education in all areas. By highlighting this situation, the author is anxious not to
undermine the importance of education, and concludes that female access and
attainment must be enhanced. It is not only because women's education increases social
and economic returns, but also because it is a fundamental human right.
Sri Lanka
JAYAWEERA, Swarna (1996), Sri Lanka in: MAK, Grace C.L. (ed) Women,
Education and Development in Asia: Cross-National Perspectives, Garland
Publishing, New York and London, 217-244.
This review of education and development in Sri Lanka from a gender perspective takes
into account a number of social science theories by exploring three facets of the
education and development interface as it affects women: gender based distribution of
educational opportunity, the relationship between education and female labour force
participation, and the impact of education on gender roles and relations within the
family.
After a description of the phases of Sri Lankan development: traditional, colonial and
postcolonial, this article details the progress of education in recent decades. Since the
1960s educational and social policies have been implemented without gender
differentiation. For example, the percentage of women students in the universities
increased from 10 per cent in 1942 to 44 per cent in 1970. By 1918 literacy rates for
females were 83 per cent as compared with 90 per cent for males. Distance from school
is no problem, and the vast majority of schools are co-educational. There is an absence