A fair chance - United Nations Girls' Education Initiative

compulsory education in order to combat lingeringcultural and social discrimination against girls andother marginalised groups.Girls have too much to do at home‘Needed at home’ and/or ‘need to earn money’ aremajor reasons why poor girls dropout of school inmost countries (see Figures 9 and 10). Opportunitycosts refer to labour time lost to the parent when thechild goes to school. These opportunity costs ofschooling are usually much higher for girls than forboys, since girls are expected to do more domesticwork than boys (see Table 7). By the age of 10, girls inBangladesh and Nepal may be working up to 10 hoursa day in productive activity inside and outside thehome, while Ethiopian girls of primary age work for14–16 hours a day (Watkins 2000: 191). A study inEgypt showed that girls do 85 per cent of thehousehold chores given to rural children, whereasboys only do 15 per cent (Rugh 2000: 31).Girls often have to walk long distances to fetch waterand firewood as well as look after young siblings. Inaddition to their domestic chores at home, girls areexpected to do work around the school, leaving veryBox 6:Yamata lives in Delanta, Ethiopia. She is nine years oldand has to collect water every day before she eventhinks about going to school. It will take her aboutthree hours to fetch the water at the nearest well. Afterschool she is faced with more chores around thehouse, leaving little time to study. She is not alone.One girl talked about her difficulty, “After we get backfrom school we do many works at home and are sotired that we cannot even study.” Girls in general willmiss several days of school each week due to work.Division of labour in the household is one of manyobstacles for girls not going to school.“Girls are not given all the necessary support to go toschool,” said one teacher in Delanta. Yamata’ssituation is not unique.Source: Ethiopia reportlittle time to study and complete homework. They areoften too exhausted to be able to concentrate in class.Sometimes girls and boys are able to juggle work athome with school, but attendance often suffers. Insome cultural and economic settings, girls and boyshave high rates of absenteeism. For example, if theharvest is underway, both boys and girls frequentlytake time off from school. For this reason, in ruralareas, flexible timetables have been suggested.Official dropout rates would be a lot higher if thelong periods absent from school were taken intoconsideration.Figure 9: Reasons for never attending/dropping outof school among 6–17 year olds in India, 1999(percentages)29%16%4%19%5%6%6%15%Source: DHS from the India country report.failed examsneed to earn moneygot pregnantdid not like schoolstudied enoughgot marriedcould not pay school feesotherFigure 10: Reasons for never attending/dropping outof school among 6–17 year olds in Nigeria, 1999(percentages)16%18%24%5%13%24%Source: DHS from the Nigeria country report.school too far awayeducation not necessaryneeded for work at homeand/or elsewherecosts too muchnot interested in studyingother24