Accountability

Many Countries Fall Short on Expanding Girls’ Access to School

By The Associated Press — October 20, 2015 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

More than half of the world’s countries have failed to achieve gender parity in education for girls in primary and secondary schools, missing a key goal set out in the Education for All forum 15 years ago by an international coalition convened by the United Nations.

In a report released this month, UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency, focused on progress in the Education for All initiative—launched in 2000 when 164 countries met in Dakar, Senegal, and agreed on common education goals, including schooling access for girls.

Although 62 million girls are still denied their basic right to an education, the number of out-of-school girls has declined by 52 million in the last 15 years, according to the Paris-based organization.

The number of countries that did reach gender parity, achieving equal participation of girls and boys based on their proportion in the relevant age groups, has risen in both primary and secondary education from 36 to 62 since 2000, the report said. No country in sub-Saharan Africa, however, is expected to meet that goal by this year’s deadline.

And without tackling gender-based access issues, countries will remain far from the goal of educational equity, the report said.

“Until all girls and women exercise their right to education and literacy, progress in achieving [Education for All] will be stymied, and a dynamic source of development and empowerment will be squandered,” the report said. “Fifteen years later, the road to achieving gender parity and reducing all forms of gender inequalities in education continues to be long and twisting.”

Barriers Remain

Even if schools technically permit girls to attend, structural and cultural barriers often prevent them from obtaining an education, the report said. Child marriage is a persistent barrier to girls’ education. UNESCO data show that in 2012, almost 1 in 5 women married were between 15 and 19 years old.The report also stressed that “the lack of progress in literacy among adult women is especially stark.”

In 2015, an estimated 481 million women aged 15 and over lack basic literacy skills, 64 percent of the total number of adults in the world who are illiterate, a percentage virtually unchanged since 2000.

The report recommends that governments recruit, train, and support teachers to address gender inequality. By changing norms, girls will feel more empowered to stay in school and to continue through higher levels of education, it says.

“In the learning environment, the content, processes, and context of education must be free of gender bias, and encourage and support equality and respect,” the report said. “This includes teachers’ behaviors and attitudes, curriculum, and textbooks, and student interactions.”

The report also calls for school fees to be abolished, and costs for textbooks, uniforms, and transport to be covered by government and non-governmental organizations. In some countries, families who can’t afford to send all their children to school opt to send their sons, and keep daughters at home to help with household duties, advocates have said. Other barriers include long travel distances to school and the lack of water and sanitation facilities, the report said.

“Educating a girl educates a nation. It unleashes a ripple effect that changes the world unmistakably for the better,” Irina Bokova, the director-general of UNESCO, said in a statement. “We have recently set ourselves a new ambitious agenda to achieve a sustainable future. Success in this endeavor is simply not possible without educated, empowered girls, young women and mothers.”

Copyright 2015 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Staff writer Evie Blad contributed to this report.
A version of this article appeared in the October 21, 2015 edition of Education Week as Most Nations Fall Short in Equal Access to Schooling for Girls

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Accountability Sponsor
Demystifying Accreditation and Accountability
Accreditation and accountability are two distinct processes with different goals, yet the distinction between them is sometimes lost among educators.
Content provided by Cognia
Various actions for strategic thinking and improvement planning process cycle
Photo provided by Cognia®
Accountability What the Research Says More than 1 in 4 Schools Targeted for Improvement, Survey Finds
The new federal findings show schools also continue to struggle with absenteeism.
2 min read
Vector illustration of diverse children, students climbing up on a top of a stack of staggered books.
iStock/Getty
Accountability Opinion What’s Wrong With Online Credit Recovery? This Teacher Will Tell You
The “whatever it takes” approach to increasing graduation rates ends up deflating the value of a diploma.
5 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Accountability Why a Judge Stopped Texas from Issuing A-F School Ratings
Districts argued the new metric would make it appear as if schools have worsened—even though outcomes have actually improved in many cases.
2 min read
Laura BakerEducation Week via Canva  (1)
Canva