A fair chance - United Nations Girls' Education Initiative

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South Asia has a large number of such bridgingcourses, which are essential given that so manyindividuals ‘drop through’ the education net.Although these courses and projects are remedial,they make a huge difference to women’s and girl’slives in particular. The idea of attaching bridgingcourses to a government school would seem sensibleand likely to reinforce the importance of themainstream. However, such schemes should not beaccepted as permanent solutions. The aim should beto get the education system functioning properly, sothat the need for such programmes is graduallyreduced and eventually eliminated.Involving and nurturing genderadvocatesIn an earlier study, the author found that contrary tothe common belief that it was donors who pushedgirls’ education to the fore in Malawi, ‘evidenceindicates that it was local women’s groups wholobbied for special attention to be given to femaleeducation’ (Swainson 1998: 35). In particular, theorganised political power of the League of MalawiWomen greatly enhanced the influence of genderadvocates within the Ministry of Education andMinistry of Community Services. Additionally, thefirst woman Minister of Education, appointed in1993, ‘played a central role in steering through thepregnancy and school uniform reforms... she wasideally placed as a gender advocate to introduce whatwere culturally-sensitive and controversial measures,such as those dealing with schoolgirl pregnancy’(Swainson 1998: 37).Similar conclusions can be derived from theBangladesh experience. According to Jahan (1998:33–34), the Government’s commitment to girls’education was galvanised in the mid-1990s by asubstantially strengthened women’s movementwhich effectively ‘articulated women’s demand forequal access to, and control over, all social resourcesand services’. Their leverage was increased by theactions of international bodies, resulting incommitments to women’s education and genderequity that were signed by the Government.A recent assessment of three Sector Wide Approaches(SWAPs) to donor aid for education, suggests thattheir success in promoting gender equity goals couldbe greatly increased if donors made more activeefforts to reach out to, consult and support,indigenous gender networks. Donors should ‘work onthe assumption that gender equality is an inseparablepart of the sustainable development agenda, whichalready has the support of many key players ineducation in the partner country; [and] ensure thatsupport to ‘champions of reform’ extends to these‘gender champions’’ (Norton et al 2000: 15).Promoting early childhood educationand carePre-school children benefit greatly from attendingearly childhood development and care centres (ECDC)in terms of improved socialisation and improvedlearning; and such facilities also free up older girls toattend class instead of looking after younger siblings.Community-based pre-schools have been establishedon a pilot basis in Cambodia, in order to promotegirls’ enrolment in Grade 1, with excellent results. InIndia, ECDC centres attached to primary schools haveincreased the attendance and enrolment of girls, whocan bring their younger siblings to the centre ratherthan having to stay at home to look after them.However, cost considerations have prevented mostcountries from significantly expanding this type ofeducational provision. In India, less than 20 per centof primary schools have ECDC facilities. A study onearly learning childhood development programmes inKenya concluded that ‘in addition to increasing thefuture productivity of children, low cost ECDCprogrammes would be likely to produce the twin effects ofreleasing the mothers’ time for market work and allowingolder girl siblings to participate in school. ECDCprogrammes may be seen as optimal investments thataffect both the current and future welfare of householdswith small children’ (Lokshin et al, 2000: 22).42
4. Beyond rhetoric:Making gender equality in education a realityGiving all girls a fair chance to learn is practical,affordable and essential. There can be no moreexcuses for governments, both in the South and theNorth, to avoid committing the necessary resources tomake gender equality a reality for the 65 million girlswho are currently unfairly denied access to education.This is a massive injustice that must end – now.To date, only a handful of governments have made theelimination of gender inequality in education a toppriority. The reality is that those denied their right toeducation usually have little political voice, whilepeople in power in most countries have little personalstake in the government school system. On bothcounts, it has been easy until now for decision-makersto ignore the educational needs of girls and poorpeople. Without sustained political commitmentbacked up by civil society as a whole, the same fatewill befall the current gender targets as did theJomtien targets during the 1990s. Overcoming thesepolitical constraints will require organised pressure byall sections of civil society. As the process ofdemocratisation gathers pace, governments will beobliged to take these demands seriously.At the same time, the stark reality is that mostcountries with large numbers of out-of-school girlsare too poor to tackle this problem without asubstantial increase in aid and debt relief from theNorth – where a girl’s right to education has beenguaranteed for many decades. Bi-lateral and multilateralagencies must act on their commitment todramatically and rapidly increase aid to basiceducation, starting with the immediate delivery offunds already promised via the EFA Fast TrackInitiative.Setting clear operational targetsAs we have repeatedly argued throughout this report,a generalised expansion of primary education isnecessary but not sufficient to achieve the educationMDGs. Action must also be to address the genderspecificdiscrimination and disadvantage thatconfronts girls at every step along the way, from yearone enrolment, to secondary school graduation. Eachcountry must develop, as a matter of urgency, acomprehensive strategy for gender equality ineducation. Governments therefore need to translatethe 2005 and 2015 goals into clear operational targets,and put these targets at the heart of their educationsector and poverty reduction plans.Even though 2005 is less than two years away, nocountry is so far off track that it cannot eliminategender gaps in rural and urban primary andsecondary school intake rates by 2005. The nextchallenge is to ensure that completion rates betweenboys and girls are equalised by 2010. As we have seen,by far the largest gender gaps are in rural areas. So itis important to have separate rural and urban intakeand completion targets.On this timetable, gender enrolment parity will finallybe achieved in 2011 for primary education and 2009for secondary education. We cannot afford to let thistarget slip. In order to achieve the goal of universalcompletion of primary education by 2015, it isnecessary for all eligible children, both girls and boys,to start primary school on time by 2009/10, and tocomplete the primary cycle five or six years later.The essential statistics on rural and urban intake andcompletion rates, that are needed to make robustestimates for these targets, are simply unavailable inmost countries. Strenuous efforts must be made,43
Page 1 and 2: ContentsIntroduction 2Report object
Page 3 and 4: Box 1: Education Can Save Your Life
Page 5 and 6: travel on their own. As Sukhiya Yad
Page 7 and 8: 1. How big are the Education Gender
Page 9 and 10: Table 1: GER gender gaps for primar
Page 11 and 12: than 20 percentage points) in 15 co
Page 13 and 14: Figure 5: Education attainment by g
Page 15 and 16: Table 3: GER gender gaps for primar
Page 17 and 18: Figure 8: Change in educational att
Page 19 and 20: 2. Why do fewer girls go to school?
Page 21 and 22: daughters to get a good enough educ
Page 23 and 24: Fees and charges for education have
Page 25 and 26: In Nepal, girls contribute at least
Page 27 and 28: fact that it is official policy tha
Page 29 and 30: 3. What has been done to close the
Page 31 and 32: However, international agencies cou
Page 33 and 34: Free primary education for allThe w
Page 35 and 36: Box 10: The Female Secondary School
Page 37 and 38: Ensuring girls’ safety anddignity
Page 39 and 40: Community schoolsThe emergence of v
Page 41: A number of other ‘alternative’
Page 45 and 46: In Sub-Saharan Africa, the overall
Page 47 and 48: fewer resources, offer fewer hours
Page 49 and 50: governments to be able to commit ex
Page 51 and 52: Ilon, L. 1992. ‘Fitting girls’
Page 53 and 54: ANNEX 1Recommendations from the cou
Page 55 and 56: Ethiopia1.In order to reach the rur
Page 57 and 58: 4. Backward and forward linkages: I
Page 59 and 60: (iv) It has been illustrated that s
Page 61 and 62: women; legal rights counseling; HIV
Page 63 and 64: Female teachers1.Increase the numbe
Page 65 and 66: topics or subjects that will highli
Page 67 and 68: ANNEX 2Additional tablesAnnex 2 tab
Page 69 and 70: no schooling, no schooling, primary
Page 71 and 72: Annex 2 table 4: Percentage change

A fair chance - United Nations Girls' Education Initiative

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