During the past two decades, a mentionable change has taken place in people's behaviour towards girls' education, at least in the Punjab, the biggest province of Pakistan. Now people appear to be more convinced of the need for girls' education, even in rural areas of the province.

Historically, circumstances have been worse for girls as far as education is concerned. Girls and women have been disproportionately excluded from education worldwide. They face more challenges and have fewer opportunities to access, complete and benefit from education than boys. According to the 2012 UNESCO's Education for All Global Monitoring Report, girls are the majority of the 61 million children that are out of school at the primary level alone.

However, the situation has changed relatively at a fast pace during the past decade or so. The tragic Malala attack incident in Pakistan last year helped a great deal in drawing parents' attention towards the importance of education of their daughters. On October 09, 2012, the international community was shaken by the brutal assassination attempt against Malala Yousafzai, a 14 year-old girl from Swat. She was attacked by extremists while she was on a school bus, because of her known efforts from an early age to promote the right to education for girls, defying obstacles and even death threats.

Since 1999, school enrolment in Pakistan has gone up by over 3 million, yet more than 5 million children are still without an education; 63% of them -over 3 million- are girls. Two-thirds of the 49.5 million illiterate Pakistani adults are women. Despite these difficulties, the percentage of poorest girls out of school has fallen from 78% to 62%.

Recently, a case study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Social Sciences, showed that now people express more concern about the education of their daughters also. The study has been conducted by Hassan Ali, M. Iqbal Zafar and Sabir Hussain, students of the Department of Rural Sociology and Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.
Southern Punjab is one of the most underdeveloped regions of the country.
The study has been conducted in tehsil Darya Khan of district Bhakkar of this underdeveloped region.

According to study findings, a large majority of the respondents i.e. 99.3% were in favour of child education. However, relatively a small number of people, about 44.0% of the respondents, agreed that education would make females into good housewives.

The researchers said people believed that after getting a good education women would become good teachers or good doctors, but they might not prove to be good housewives. According to their perception, educated women become earning-hands, and independent in their decision-making; therefore, they might prove to be good wage-earners but not good housewives.

According to the study, a significant association existed between education of the respondents and their rational behaviour towards female education and employment.

As far as comparison with other nations of the world is concerned, Pakistan is one of the countries with a poor literacy rate in the world, which is 61.3% for males and 36.8% for females (Government of Pakistan, 1999-2000). However, independent sources report a much lower literacy rate in the country, as the government statistics also count a person as literate if he/she could write his/her name only.

In the country, a large number of people want to educate their sons and daughters, but only one third of the total prefer their daughters to be in jobs.
An employed woman is not only disapproved of but also strongly discouraged in our society. The socially prevalent attitude is that a father or a husband feels undignified to live on the earnings of his daughters or wife. Such an attitude had been responsible for discouraging many qualified women from joining various vocations, according to the study findings.

The findings of the study showed that a huge majority of the respondents i.e. 97.3% were in favour of their daughters' education. Majority of the respondents i.e. 86% wanted to send their daughters for education, and 88% of them agreed that women's education enhances the family's social status.
The study found out that 76.7% of the respondents did not approve of preferring males over females in provision of an education facility to their offspring. However, in rural areas many a times parents stop sending their daughters to schools when they pass their primary or middle class examinations and they have to go to another village to attend their schools.

As many as 32% respondents said they wanted their daughters to go to college to get an education. But only 44% of the respondents believed that education would make their daughters good housewives and 38.7% of the respondents agreed that education would teach them good manners.

It was strange to note that only 42% of the respondents believed that education would create more awareness about religion. According to the perception of a large majority of respondents, general education is different from religious education and the school and college education helped little in creating true awareness among the students, be they males or females.
The study findings showed that about 38.7% of the respondents agreed that educated girls could bring up their children in a better way. This was again a shocking response. But those not believing in the ability of educated mothers, claimed that such mothers give more liberty to their sons and daughters, and thus spoil them.

However, it was a good sign that a huge majority of the respondents were in favour of female employment. As many as 82.7% of them encouraged their daughters to join an occupation after completion of education. About 23.3% said that teaching is the right profession for women.

Also, a large number of the respondents, i.e. 83.3%, agreed to the suggestion that "economic condition of the family can be stabilised through female employment." 76.0% of the respondents agreed that the working women have higher social status compared to non-employed women.

Over 65.3% of the respondents agreed that "people consider below their honour to rely on their daughters'/wives' income. Despite approving of education for their daughters and even allowing them to work and earn for themselves, they find it disgraceful if they have to be dependent on their earnings. 50% of the respondents believed "if a woman earns more money than her husband, it is almost certain to cause problems (in the family)".
More than half, i.e. 52.7%, of the respondents agreed to the suggestion "working women are better companions of their husbands". 51.3% agreed to an opinion "working women are independent, so they do not respect their elders".

The study recommended that adult literacy programmes should be extensively carried out in rural areas for females, so that education may influence their decisions regarding females' education.

The study says that many a times parents are convinced of the need their daughters' education and working in the field, but they do not send them to schools or workplaces due to unfavourable and insecure environments in educational institutions and workplaces. The study recommends that in case of appointment to educational and vocational institutions, preference should be given to local females. It will definitely encourage parents to allow their daughters to seek jobs.

Even deeply conservative families agree that girls could be allowed to work if they get a job in the education department. Therefore, more job opportunities for females should be created in the education sector.

The study suggests that more programmes on electronic media should be presented and more stories in the print media should be published to create awareness about the importance of girls' education. Recently, a series of programmes on private TV channel Geo News has played a crucial role in creating awareness among the viewers about the need for education for girls. If all private TV channels, and especially the state-run PTV, launch campaigns in this regard in an interesting style, from time to time, it could help achieve the Millennium Development Goals and Education For All (EFA) goals set for the year 2015.

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