Although the number of out-of-school girls has declined by 52 million since 2000, 63 million girls are still not in school today. According to the most recent UNESCO Institute of Statistics data, girls are twice as likely as boys never to enroll in school.
Barriers to girls’ education are complex and multifaceted. In addition to unfavorable school environments, they can include discriminatory social and cultural factors, early marriage and school-related violence.
The Global Partnership for Education supports countries to develop, finance and implement gender-responsive education sector plans. Interventions made in GPE partner developing countries have allowed the percentage of girls completing primary school to increase from 54% in 2000 to 69% in 2013.
If the world commits to breaking down the barriers to quality education for all girls, we can unlock their potential and make important strides towards ending extreme poverty.
Download the full infographic here.
Related blogs
In Africa, mainly Mali, my home country girl education is considered as a loss of time,and resources because for them, girls must be in their households taking care of husbands and children. Girl illiteracy is the main roadblock of development.
Poverty and traditional norms are the most important barriers we need to break foremost. These barriers hinders the prospects of girls and in extension impact negatively on their lives later in life. We must act now and change the paradigm of girls education.
We must educate boys and girls about basics of puberty and why girls menstruate. Puberty and periods have a huge negative impact on girls' education in the developing world. We must destigmatise it. Men and boys must be involved in the whole process and understand that periods are girls' health cards
In my country Uganda specifically my community which is in the northern part of Uganda, the reason why most girls in primary school do not go to school is they cant afford sanitary facilities like pads that can make them stay comfortable in school so there fore they usually stay home during their menstruation period
Another reason some of the girls drop out of school which is a common practice in my community is early pregnancy.
In some places in Nigeria girls are not allowed access to formal education because their families still believes its a waste of time, early marriages is also part of it. Do you that in the cities such as Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja and the rest (so called urban areas) some girls still don't go to school. Why!!! They are used as maids and their bosses don't deem it fit to send them to schools.
Added to this is the fact that a lot of girls from from neighbouring West African countries Togo, Niger, Benin, Cameroon and Chad now work as house maids in Nigeria. That's a fact. We have a lot of work to do in Sub Sahara Africa.
Poverty ranked as the 10 th barrier to education in this analysis may not be true for many geographical areas especially SSA where poverty is usually listed as the main reason for girls being out of school. Even with inaccessibility, one can have the means to travel to these far places where the shools are located. Let us put our focus on tackling poverty.
Leave a comment
Your email address will not be published. All fields are required.