School

Education is a fundamental human right to which every child is entitled. Yet, education remains an inaccessible right for millions of children around the world. Worldwide over 72 million primary school age children are not in school.

About 780 million adults are illiterate and do not have the necessary qualifications to develop both their and their children's living conditions. More than 60 % of the people who lack basic literacy are women. These individuals would have limited access to poorer health and well-being, economic and productive services, and greater barriers to engagement and decision-making spheres.

Gender inequality in schools?

A professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging, Professor Gina Rippon, stated out that gender roles have an effect on the perspectives of children regarding their abilities and aptitudes towards their future accomplishments and possible failures. She added that such signals are transmitted to children in various ways, such as through the toys they are given to play with (e.g. LEGO and cars are "boy toys" and "girl toys" are dolls and housekeeping) and the language used to characterize their successes or mistakes (what a pretty girl/what a brave little boy).

Gender stereotypes limit children’s futures when they see certain careers as ‘girl jobs’ and ‘boy jobs’. Children are often immersed in their environment's gendered perceptions and expectations, such as how the school nurse is a woman, so all nurses must be a woman, or how the bus driver is a man so that only men can be bus drivers, drawing predetermined assumptions about their world and role in it.

“By the time they are about six years old, they have normally aligned themselves firmly to their own gender and made up their minds about what this means for them, what it means they can do and how they should behave. Sadly, this can also include firm beliefs about what they can’t do; six-year olds don’t think girls can be ‘really, really clever’; nine-year old girls think maths is a ‘boy thing’ and not for them,” said Professor Rippon.

„I was told Physics is not for me, and if I had good grades, it was because I had luck.”

„I am studying engineering. I often hear that people say things like: Why are you studying that and not something else, like Arts?”

„I was told Math and Sciences is for the boys, because they 'have a higher IQ'.”

Responses of girls from our Gender Equality Survey

Development

„If we continue to leave vast sections of the people of the world outside the orbit of education, we make the world not only less just, but also less secure.”

Amartya Sen, Indian economist and philosopher

While gender gaps in primary education are narrowing, regional disparities are still very large, especially in much of South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Social norms, culture, religion, poverty, conflict situations, child labour practices, climate change, and HIV and AIDS all affect girls and boys, and women and men, differently and in turn affect school enrollment, attendance, survival or retention.

Gender gaps in schooling attainment have declined over the last century but many countries are still far from achieving gender equality in the classroom. Sixty years ago, almost 50 percent of women had no formal schooling and their average level of educational attainment was just about 3years. By 2010, only a fifth of adult women had no formal schooling and their average attainment had increased to 7/8 years. This is great progress.

In fact, both girls and boys are getting much more education today than they were 60 years ago. The average level of education among adult men was 4 years in 1960 and more than double that 8/9 years in 2010. The share of men with no formal education dropped from 37 percent to 10 percent over the same period..

„Education is neither eastern nor western. Education is education and it's the right of every human being.”

Malala Yousafzai, Noble Peace Prize Winner

In surveys of 30 countries with more than 100,000 out-of-school children, 28 per cent of girls were out of school on average compared to 25 per cent of boys. Completion of primary school is a particular problem for girls in sub-Saharan Africa and Western Asia. Many of the largest declines occurred in the Middle East and North Africa: Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates all saw the gender gap in attainment decline by more than two years. Not surprisingly, the countries that saw the largest increases in the gender gap—Afghanistan, Benin, CAR, Haiti, Liberia, India, Togo, and Yemen—still have large gender gaps today.

Fortunately, worldwide, women are more educated today than at any point in history, but still not as educated as men.

Main reasons to drop out of school

An estimated 130 million girls worldwide remain out of school in 2016. This includes 34.3 million girls of primary school age, 30 million girls of lower secondary school age, and 67.4 million girls of upper secondary school age. They all face multiple barriers to education.

These include distance to school, cultural norms and practices, school-related gender-based violence and early or forced marriage. Boys and girls face barriers to getting a good education in conflict-affected areas where safety and security can be compromised, and in households that depend on their labor or income.

„All girls, no matter how poor, isolated or disadvantaged, should be able to attend school regularly and without the interruption of early pregnancy, forced marriage, maternal injuries and death, and unequal domestic and childcare burdens.”

International Women’s Health Coalition

Poverty

We’re talking about girls’ education, but it’s important to remember that countries with gender gaps tend to be the same countries where boys are also getting a lousy education. If a lot of girls are out-of-school, lots of boys are too. And those boys and girls who are out-of-school are likely to be very poor. Even if education is free, the cost of uniforms and or supplies can make education inaccessible. Many families usually don’t even have the money to send a child to school, which is why it seems impossible for several children. As educational opportunities first become available to poor households, boys often get sent to school first while girls stay at home. Girls are often kept home from school to help with family care and housework. You can read about the preference of sons in families in our Culture episode, as well as the housework planning in our Home episode.

Early or forced marriage

Moreover, harmful practices such as early or forced marriage, gender-based violence still prevent millions of girls from enrolling and completing their respective education.

Many girls are not in school because schools are inaccessible or expensive, or because the importance of education is not seen by parents, either because it is of low quality or because it is not seen as important to their lives. With few alternatives, parents often see marriage as the best option for their daughter. Girls who have no education are three times more likely to marry by 18 compared to girls with secondary or higher education. Education can be one of the most powerful tools to enable girls to avoid child marriage and fulfil their potential. The longer a girl stays in school, the less likely she is to be married before the age of 18 and have children during her teenage years. Girls tend to drop out of school during the preparatory time before the marriage or shortly after. Child brides are almost always forced to drop out of school. Her new role of wife or mother often comes with the expectation that she will take care of the home, the children and the extended family.

When girls have access to safe, quality secondary education, the benefits are widely felt. Educated girls develop skills, knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions including if, when and whom to marry. Being in school also supports the perception that girls are still children and are therefore not of a suitable age to marry. There are practical and legal obstacles on married girls’ way back to school. Girls who live far or have children to look after may not be able to resume their education. Sometimes, the stigma of pregnancy keeps girls from returning to school. Some countries also forbid pregnant girls and young mothers from returning to school.

The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening girls’ education as never before. School closures increase vulnerability to child marriage, early pregnancy and gender-based violence, all of which decrease the likelihood of girls continuing their education

What will be different if everyone goes to school

Not being able to read or write is a significant barrier for underprivileged women, since this can lead to their failure to make use of even the rather limited rights they may legally have (to own land or other property, or to appeal against unfair judgment and unjust treatment)

Each extra year of a mother’s schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by 5-10 per cent. Children of mothers with secondary education or higher are twice as likely to survive beyond age 5 compared to those whose mothers have no education. Improvements in women’s education explained half of the reduction in child deaths between 1990 and 2009. A child born to a mother who can read is 50 per cent more likely to survive past age 5. In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 1.8 million children’s lives could have been saved in 2008 if their mothers had at least a secondary education. In Indonesia, 68 per cent of children with mothers who have attended secondary school are immunized, compared with 19 per cent of children whose mothers have no primary schooling. Wages, agricultural income and productivity—all critical for reducing poverty— are higher where women involved in agriculture receive a better education. Each additional year of schooling beyond primary offers greater payoffs for improved opportunities, options and outcomes for girls and women.