Education for Girls

Greater access to schooling for girls and young women – especially beyond the early grades – leads to lower birth rates in almost all countries and cultures. A secondary school education correlates with later marriage, knowledge and use of contraception and small family size. Secondary schooling also increases the likelihood that women will take paying jobs or launch small businesses and otherwise contribute more to families, to their communities and to national economies. In addition, education for girls and women improves the survival rates of mothers and children, as parents’ knowledge about preventive care is one of the most important contributors to family health.

In Peru, a woman who has completed 10 years of education typically has two or three children. A woman who has never attended school has seven or eight. Research in 23 developing nations shows that the average woman with a secondary school education has her first child three and a half years later in life than a woman with no schooling. Like smaller families, such delays in first births exert a powerful brake on population momentum by lengthening the time span between generations. Average family size and child death rates are lowest in countries such as South Korea and Sri Lanka that combine high levels of education for women with strong family planning and health programmes.