EDITORIAL — When I was at school I remember a poster on the wall in my history classroom that read: “Education for women is the greatest investment in the world today.” The picture showed a young woman, perhaps Indian, reading a book with her daughter. In the background was a mystic collage of Wall Street buildings, dollar signs, construction cranes and other symbols of development or capitalism.
I never understood what the poster meant—but I do today. By sending girls to school, we increase a family’s ability to provide for itself; we expand our workforce; we give rise to a more educated population. Educated women are much more likely to send their own children to school too.
Not only that—education for girls and women ensures less unwanted pregnancies, less unsafe abortions, a lower rate of infant mortality. It leads to greater family healthcare and a more stable family environment.
As we in Myanmar move from an agrarian economy into a developed world, it is expected that rural women will give birth less frequently, and start sending their children to school because they no longer need them to work in the fields.
But the same policy must be offered to Rohingya [Bengali] children. Our Immigration Minister Khin Yi last week complained that many Muslim women in Rakhine State have 10 or 12 children. But he goes on to say that "Almost all of the Bengali women are very poor, uneducated.”
The point is that an enforced 2- or 3-child policy is immoral and cannot truly be controlled. Health workers say it will only increase backstreet abortions. Fining families will only impoverish them even further.
Though its benefits will not be seen immediately, in the long term a policy of education—not only for Muslim girls, but Karens, Kachins, Shans and everyone in the country—will inevitably lead to lower birth rates and a healthier society.
In one generation in Italy—between the early 1960s and the mid-1980s—the average age for women getting married jumped from 17 to 26. That remarkable change in attitude between mother and daughter was directly related to the number of girls who attended further education, something that was once taboo in Italy.
In most other developed countries, birth rates have reduced while health rates have increased as policies of national education for both boys and girls are implemented.
Speaking at the World Bank headquarters in Washington in September last year, UN Secretary-General addressed world leaders, economists and financiers. “The greatest return comes from investing in girls and women,” he said.
“When they are educated, they drive development in their families, communities and nations. We need to transform this understanding into results. Consultations with countries have already identified bottlenecks. Development partners are armed with ideas about supporting this effort.”
