In isolated hamlets of Africa, 12-year-old girls are convincing their parents to allow them to postpone marriage until they graduate from school. As such, they will belong to the first generation of educated girls in their communities.
In rural regions of Bangladesh, girls’ enrolment in secondary school has doubled in less than a decade. Mali’s community school programme ensures that half the students are girls, while local women are trained to become teachers and class hours respect the rhythm of the farming seasons.
In some of the world’s most deprived areas, girls are realising their right to an education and joining the drive to eliminate the gender gap in primary and secondary education by the year 2005. Three years ago, at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, some 160 nations committed themselves to achieving this target, along with ensuring a complete quality primary education for all children by 2015. Recognising education’s pivotal role in eliminating poverty, these targets were included in the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals, endorsed by 189 nations.
UN agencies, along with teachers’ unions, NGOs and citizens’ groups worldwide, are spearheading a global lobbying effort to speed up progress on girls’ education. Much remains to be done. Close to 60% of the world’s out-of-school children are girls. In some sub-Saharan African nations, the gender gap has widened in recent years. For some 50 countries, the 2005 gender parity target remains a tall order at the primary and secondary levels.
The rationale for girls’ education is now indisputable: it translates into lower infant and maternal mortality, smaller and healthier families, higher agricultural productivity and higher per capita income. It is the single most effective preventive weapon against HIV/Aids. More fundamentally, education is a human right, for girls and for boys. It is about gaining the power to question and acquiring the tools to better one’s life.
Getting girls into school means acting on what keeps them outside the classroom. Even if girls do not work outside the household, many parents require their daughters to fetch water, help out in the fields and care for siblings. Even when fees are abolished, the cost of clothing, shoes and textbooks is beyond the reach of poor families. Then there is the fear of sexual harassment by male teachers or students. Finally comes the perception that education is of little value in societies where girls are expected to marry early and remain within the narrow household circle. Yet most families will send girls to school when costs are reduced and quality is improved.
Progress goes hand-in-hand with hiring female teachers when they are in a minority and training all teachers to have positive expectations towards girls. In Bangladesh, the government reserves 60% of teaching positions for women in primary schools. Separate latrines, safe drinking water, free meals and schools close to home are having a direct impact on boosting girls’ attendance in many poverty-strapped regions of Asia and Africa. Just as important, curricula are challenging stereotypes about girls’ lives and responsibilities, and teaching them about health, nutrition, hygiene and their local environment.
The message is clear: education is synonymous with empowerment. Women — who make up two-thirds of the world’s
860-million illiterate adults — are learning to read and write through programmes that teach them how to manage credit, maintain water pumps, and take on issues like health and violence that directly resonate in their lives. Their new-found confidence makes them the strongest advocates of their daughters’ right to education.
Therefore, investing in female education is a win-win strategy. We must act on two fronts at once: empowering women and exploring every path that opens the doors of learning to girls. Speeding up progress will require creativity and sustained commitment on the part of governments and the international community. Reversing a decade-long downturn in development aid, industrialised nations have pledged to increase assistance to some of the world’s poorest countries where education reforms are underway. In a wide-reaching initiative, 13 UN agencies are pooling efforts to help governments expand quality education for girls.
There are varying estimates of the annual aid bill for achieving universal primary education by 2015, ranging from .5- to .6-billion per year, but let there be no mistake: substantial increases in domestic spending will also be required. The issue is one of human security, in a world that spends USD 800-billion annually on defence.
The Millennium Development Goals will not be reached without educating girls. Denying girls the right to learn deprives the next generations of a better future. In the 21st century, this is unacceptable.
Koichiro Matsuura (director-general, Unesco); Mark Malloch Brown (administrator, UNDP); Thoraya Obaid (executive director, UNFPA); Carol Bellamy (executive director, Unicef); James D Wolfensohn (president, World Bank); Juan Somavia (director-general, ILO)