Why
educate women and girls?
Societies prosper when women and girls are educated. Educated women are
healthier and earn higher incomes that can lift their households out of
poverty. And the benefits are transferred to their children, who are better
educated and have better health care. Communities and countries benefit from a
more educated workforce, and increasing women’s participation in the formal
economy through education leads to greater economic growth.
Not only is educating women and girls essential to achieve higher levels of
economic growth and development, it is also the right thing to do for humanity.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child both establish girls’ education as a human right.
Over the past decades, substantial progress has been made toward achieving
gender equality in education. Girls’ enrollment in education has increased at
all levels. For example, sub-Saharan Africa has experienced the greatest growth
in girls’ enrollment in primary education. Yet, there is still much work to be
done.
It is estimated that worldwide, 62 million girls — half of whom are
adolescent — are not in school. And the disparity in gender in education
remains quite real today worldwide, with 78 percent of girls dropping out of
school, compared to 48 percent of boys.
The United States has made substantial investments to prioritize girls’
education around the world. I experienced those investments firsthand in my work
at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, or MCC, an innovative United States
international development agency that has done groundbreaking work throughout
the world.
One example is a project done in Burkina Faso. Recognizing the substantial
number of primary-school- age students who were out of school in West Africa in
general, and Burkina Faso in particular, MCC partnered with the United States
Agency for International Development to invest in a project called Burkinabé
Response to Improve Girls’ Chances to Succeed — BRIGHT. The goal of BRIGHT was
to improve the quality of primary education, with an emphasis on increasing
access for girls.
Working closely with the government of Burkina Faso, a nationwide analysis
was performed to identify where girls’ education rates were the lowest. The
project built 132 primary schools, with classes from first grade through sixth
grade in the identified provinces. The project also constructed 122 preschools
in key communities to better prepare students for the leap to primary school.
A key aspect of the project was its focus on engaging the community to offer
ideas to eliminate barriers to school attendance for area children. As a
result, the project included a key social mobilization effort to support adult
literacy and technical skills necessary to better equip parents to support
their children’s educational needs.
The project also embraced other social supports that were critical to
encouraging student attendance and ensuring that students entered school
capable of learning and retaining their lessons. Burkinabé girls too often drop
out of school to get married, work around the homestead, or stay away because
their schools lack private restrooms; boys often leave school to work in gold
mines; and boys and girls miss school because of hunger or illness.
To alleviate these obstacles, MCC funded sacks of dry rice for home
consumption during the school year. The project built 264 private latrines. And
dug 10 boreholes and rehabilitated another seven to provide students access to
safe drinking water.
What this partnership between international organizations, the national and
local governments, parents and communities demonstrates is that there is a role
for everyone to play in creating a safe, healthy and encouraging learning
environment for girls. But it’s not the size of this project that makes it
significant. It is government and communities coming together to make education
a priority and to identify and dismantle social barriers that keep girls and
boys from attending school. And the results are an affirmation of their shared
commitment.
The BRIGHT Project increased primary school enrollment, attendance and
completion rates for girls in 10 of the country’s 45 provinces. Over a 20-year
period, the BRIGHT Schools Project is expected to benefit more than 272,000
students, parents and community leaders.
The BRIGHT Project is just one example of what can be done when gender
equality in education is made a priority.
The point of this example is not that large sums of money are the solution
to the problem. At the heart of the solution are individual stakeholders and
local organizations working together within communities to identify and remove
obstacles to educating girls.
A perfect example of this is happening in Malawi. There, organizations are
mobilizing “mother groups” at primary schools to monitor girls’ attendance and
encourage girls who have left because of pregnancy or marriage to return to
school. Many of these mother groups are also producing sanitary pads and
selling them to girls at reasonable prices to eliminate a real obstacle to
school attendance.
We know the facts and we know the way forward, and each of us must take it
upon ourselves to commit to the imperative of furthering gender equality in
education. There is an African proverb that says, “If you want to go fast … go
alone. If you want to go far … go together.” If we can come together to
guarantee a quality education to women and girls, we all will go far.
Source:
https://yali.state.gov/courses/women-girls-1/
