The 2023 J.U.C. Media, Research & Writing Awards | Submitted Category: WRITING/General
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The 2023 J.U.C. Media, Research & Writing Awards 
Submitted Category: WRITING/General
Submission Code: W8/G
Student Grade: 11 | Word count: 1569

EDUCATION

[The 2023 J.U.C. Awards, LMGlobal.Org]
Education has a very important role in our life. Education is the word that teaches a person to live life. Education is the basic of human life. Education should be equally for both men and women because both together make a healthy and educated society.
• The first school of any person is his family and mother is said to be the first Guru. Education is that weapon with the help of which one can face the biggest diffulcities. Without education we can’t do any work well. Education is useful in every area of our life. Good education helps in removing all the differences of the society. In our society un-educated person is treated like an animal.
• Education is such a thing Which removes the animality of man and teaches him to live. The holistic development of the human mind is possible only through education. It improves our knowledge, skills, confidence level and personality. The massage of love, humanity can be spread in the society only through good education.

Dalit a discriminated and marginalized group has been slowly included in all spheres of development. However, there are many preventing factors to exclude them. This research study has concluded that Dalit enrollment in primary level is higher but their continuation is major challenge in upper level. Major impeding factors of drop out and lower attainment of secondary schools are caste based discriminations, poverty, illiteracy in Dalit parents, no teachers inspirations and discrimination by peers and society. The policy has shown positive indications, however there is still a challenge in the implementation of these policies.

With the advent of democracy, Dalit children gradually started to see schools. However, there is no situation to sit and study inside the school. On the one hand, the violence and repression of extreme caste untouchability, on the other, the vicious cycle of poverty. Even if Dalit children went to school, they could not survive. Dalit children were attacked not only mentally but also physically by the teachers. I myself have become a witness of many examples of Dalit students who could not bear the torture and left their studies to do housework and go abroad. How can Dalit students study when the place of education has become a torture chamber? Nowadays that situation has turned into psychosocial harassment.

It is natural that Dalit teachers will not be produced as there is no environment for Dalits to study. Some Dalits, who managed to become teachers despite the structural violence of the school, continued to be subjected to discriminatory violence by the school. Even though Dalit students felt belonging, Dalit teachers continued to suffer due to alleged upper caste teachers and mistreatment of students. As a result, there was more repulsion than attraction of the Dalit community towards school education.

According to the latest statistics, the literacy rate of the Dalit community is the lowest. According to the report of Higher Education Commission, out of 20 Dalit students enrolled in 1st class, only 3 pass the 10th class exam. This means that 85 percent of Dalit students get lost in the middle. 50 percent of Dalit students drop out of school by the time they study 5th standard. This number drops to 1.4 percent when it crosses the impenetrable wall of barriers to higher education. Dalit children are the largest number of those who cannot reach school. The situation of Dalit students is even worse. The educational condition of Madhesi Dalit girls is worse than that of hill Dalits.

Economic, social, political and psychological aspects have become obstacles in increasing the access of Dalit community to education. Psychological aspects have played a very large role in determining the access of Dalits to education. Due to the view of the Dalit community by the non-Dalits and the Dalit community itself, a comfortable environment has not been created for the Dalits to receive education. Children of the Dalit community are discouraged from going to school because of the discriminatory mentality that Brahmins are the ones who read, write and share knowledge, while Shudras, ie Dalits, are born to serve.

What happens after you read? After all, the bay is where you will go’ – such sayings are often heard in the village. Dalit students should keep listening to prejudicial sermons like ‘Brahmin who reads, Kshatriya who fights’. Non-Dalits have a discriminatory understanding of Dalit knowledge, beauty and nature. They have a negative understanding of Dalits as uneducated, dirty or lazy, unable to move forward, lazy, old. Which has also affected the psychology of Dalit children. As a result, their reading mindset is lost. As a result, there is a large number of dropouts in the Dalit community.
Children of Dalit community do not even get proper environment in school. Dalit children have to face caste discrimination at school from their teachers and peers. In some schools, Dalit students are not even allowed to drink water from the vessel themselves. Due to prejudiced mentality, teachers do not pay attention to teaching and learning to Dalit children. The situation of discrimination and humiliation faced by the Dalit community is also directly affecting the education of the Dalit community. Due to various reasons such as not being able to mingle with friends because they are Dalits, due to the fact that schools are not free from prejudiced mentality, in one way or another, their personality, knowledge and abilities are not properly evaluated, they are pushed away from access to education as much as they should be.

Comparatively speaking, the economic condition of the Dalit community is also very weak.
In various plans of Nepal, priority areas have been designated by taking education as the infrastructure of development. It is also found that various measures have been adopted to provide education as education for all. Education is constitutionally included in the area of ​​fundamental rights. Women, oppressed castes and tribes, disabled, Dalits, remote areas, marginalized castes, at-risk castes etc. have also been given facilities by the government for getting education. Such facilities are provided for everything from child development to higher education. It seems that the policy of positive discrimination is adopted in law and in practice.

Because social justice cannot be achieved without education, provision is made for easy access to education in the society.

It is the policy of the state to provide equal, modern, free and quality education to all citizens. But the Dalits are still deprived of the bright sunshine of community education. According to the National Census 2068, Nepal’s literacy rate (above 5 years) is 65.94 percent. On the basis of caste, the literacy rate of Brahmins and Kshatriyas is 76.03 percent, while the literacy rate of Dalits is 52.48 percent. Even among Dalits, hilly Dalits have 61.93 percent literacy and Madhesi Dalits have an average literacy rate of 34.50 percent. According to the flash report of the Ministry of Education 2015/2016, 20 percent of Dalit students are enrolled in the primary level (class 1-5), but only 6.7 percent of the students reach the secondary level (class 11-12).

In the current procedure, it is not practical to get scholarship only after getting names for studying medicine and engineering.

In 2011, a study conducted by reliable organizations such as World Development Bank and ADB showed that the participation of hill Dalits in the civil service of the education sector was 0.69 and the representation of Madhesi Dalits was zero. According to the FLASH report 2015/2016, only 4.9 percent of the total teachers belong to the Dalit community. All these facts prove that the access of Dalits to education is weak and the condition is miserable.

According to the Higher Education Commission report, 20 Dalit children are enrolled in class 1. However, only 3 people who pass the 10th standard are found. About 85 percent of the children were lost midway. As nearly 50 percent drop out of school by class 5, participation of Dalit children is weak. The higher the class went. The number of Dalit students is decreasing. They seem to be zero in the upper classes. Its effect lasts for a long time. Dalit community’s participation in administrative bodies has an impact on politics. It will have a great impact on the socio-cultural, educational sector. The situation of Dalits in higher education seems pathetic. The condition of education of Dalits in higher education is poor. Only 1.4 percent enrollment was seen in higher education. Dalit children who pass the entrance exam are limited to 1.6 percent and Dalits who pass graduation are limited to 0.8 percent. In Nepal, 40 percent of the population is illiterate. There is a large amount of illiteracy in the Dalit community. Also, the educational condition of Terai Dalits is scary compared to the hilly Dalits. In Nepal, the national average literacy rate above 15 years is 59.6 percent. 51.8 percent of hill Dalits and 22.8 percent of Terai Dalits are literate on average. The struggle in the education of Dalits has not yet disappeared. Dalits’ access to education has not been expanded due to socio-cultural aspects, political, poverty and geographical structure. Mainly, initiative is a necessary aspect to remove barriers to education. In order to increase the access of Dalits to education, these barriers should be removed. However, because these barriers cannot be removed, Dalit children are returning from the main gate of the school.

Education is very useful in everyone’s life. Education is what sets us a part from other living beings on earth. It moves man the smartest creature on earth. It empowers human being and prepare them to face the challenges of life efficiently.