Education for Girls: A Right or a Privilege?

 by Georgia Radford

Education of girls is one of the most powerful tools for women’s empowerment, yet discrimination continues to keep girls out of school.

When the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, the 17 global goals were designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all," by 2030. Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all, and Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, are interlinked in their mission to enhance girls' education and gender equality. 

Four years later, in 2019, a report by Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, entitled, “50 years of progress on Girls’ Education,” demonstrated clear progress towards achieving SDG4 - providing 12 years of universal primary and secondary education. In Southern Asia, the average number of years girls spend in school had tripled since 1970, from 3.8 to 12 years. In Northern Africa and Western Asia, school duration for girls had more than doubled, from 5.3 to 12.7 years. While this is an impressive achievement on the surface, gender disparities disadvantaging girls in education persist today in many parts of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

COVID19 has undoubtedly exacerbated the global educational crisis, particularly for children living in marginalised and poorer areas of the world, many of whom will never return to school.  Around the world, 132 million girls are currently out of school. In the world's most deprived countries, one third of girls will have never been to school and as many as 48% of girls remain out of school in some regions of the world. As a result, there continues to be a large gender gap in women's access to decision-making and leadership opportunities, further exacerbating the gender inequality cycle. 

What a difference an education makes…

·     If every girl completed primary education, maternal deaths would decline by two-thirds.

·     If all women in low and middle-income countries completed secondary education, the mortality rate for children under five would fall by nearly half, saving three million lives annually.

·     Every year of secondary school education is correlated with an 18 percent increase in a girl’s future earning power.

·     If every girl received 12 years of schooling, child marriage would plunge by two-thirds, and girls’ higher lifetime earnings would grow economies by as much as $30 trillion.

·     A child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past the age of 5, 50% more likely to be immunized, and twice as likely to go to school.

We know that education is a human right that plays a crucial role in building stable communities founded on mutual respect, greater understanding and equal opportunity. Despite this, many obstacles still stand in the way of millions of women and girls being able to benefit from an education: early marriage and pregnancy, gender-based violence, poverty, geographical isolation, minority status, disability, and traditional attitudes about the status and role of women. Equipping every global citizen with the knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills to tackle gender disparities is vital if we are to collectively build a sustainable future for all.

“We must work at all levels, from grassroots to global leaders, to put equity and inclusion at the heart of every policy so that all girls, whatever their circumstances, go to school, stay in school and become empowered citizens.” Director-General Irina Bokova (UNESCO)