Nepal has made a major progress in the aching the target set by Millennium Development Goals in education sector particularly in the enrolment of girl child. However, Nepal has still to go a long way to achieve complete success in girl child.

Having a long experience in dealing girl education, Subarna L. Malla Singh, a Ph. D in Economics from the Victoria University of Manchester U.K., has made an effort to analyses what Nepal has achieved and what no in her book with objective interpretation.

With an aim to deepen collective understanding the critical issue that plague girl’s education in Nepal, author Malla has made intense research on the issue. With a visit of many documents prepared by national and international agencies during the last 20 over years, Malla, who also worked as international consultant to top notch international agencies, various government agencies national and international organizations, looked minutely all the issues related to the girl education in Nepal. She presented a through account of Nepali girl children.

“The educational outcomes of Nepal school girls lag behind hat of boys even though they are doing as well as boys in terms of participation, promotion and survival rates. This study disengages the constellations of factors underlying the conundrum. It also explores the intricate link between gender parity, equity and equality in school education. A cogent analysis of the ground reality of Nepali girl life situation provides the setting for the quotidian experiences of girls in public schools and their positioning in the school system in Nepal,” writes the abstract of the book.

Girls’ School Education in Nepal

A Conundrum

Subarna L. Malla Singh

Published by Vajra Books

Pages: 249

Divided in nine different chapters, the book looks at different perspectives. The chapters include introduction, Nepal some defining features, why educate girls, the girl child in Nepal- the lesser child, the school education system where do the girls stand? School Enrolment and Quality Educational Outcome- a Gender Perspective, school environment and Girl’s learning, teachers and quality learning the blame game and time to raise the red flag.

One of main characters of this book is that it is only book which thoroughly focuses on girl education in Nepal.  This book narrates a through account of the life situation of Nepali. Although the book is based on secondary data, this is the first kinds of its book which assess the trends of girl’s education in Nepal and school system as well.

Despite the several steps and reform process taken by the government to improve the girls’ education system in Nepal, the state of girls’ student is still far from satisfactory. In many rural schools, the girls’ school dropout is so high due to lack of girl friendly toilets. The studies have shown that simply improving the toilets can increase the number of girl students.

It is also high time to acknowledge that girls’ education progress is contingent on the recognition by male members’ school, concerned policy makers and society as a whole that giving space to girl to develop their full potential is not a zero sum but a win-win game,” writes author Malla.