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EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
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Ten years ago in the drive to promote Education for All, the
world committed to focusing on girls, the largest population
excluded from receiving a basic education. The level of awareness
of girls' education has grown significantly, due partially to
advocacy on the part of communities through to international
agencies. Over the decade, there have been great improvements
in some areas and, unfortunately, reversals in others. Many
things have been tried, and much is known about what works and
what does not in educating girls. New challenges have emerged
over the decade. We know that all children have the right to
acquire a quality basic education, and realistic plans and targets
can be put in place for this. During the first decade of the
new millennium, stakeholders at all levels (from government
policy makers to local school committees, to teachers, to communities,
to families, and girls themselves) need to mobilize resources
and get all girls in school and make it possible for them to
complete a basic education. It can be done. It must be done. |
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This Thematic Study sets out to describe what has been accomplished
since the historic World Conference on Education for All held
in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, outlines the major trends, presents
the major lessons learned, identifies emerging issues, and proposes
priorities for the next ten to 15 years.9. |
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| Progress |
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Since 1990, there has been general acceptance of the critical
importance of education to human development, and of the key
role played by girls' education within this. From a human rights
perspective, girls' education must remain a priority as girls
still constitute almost two thirds of the children excluded
from a basic education. This acceptance has led to commitments
in a number of countries around the world, and to substantial
progress in identifying obstacles to girls' education and in
understanding how to overcome these obstacles. |
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Over the decade, several countries in the Middle East region
have demonstrated that getting girls into school is quite possible,
and data from other regions show some encouraging gains. The
largest number of girls not realizing their right to a basic
education remain in South Asia. Sub-Saharan Africa still presents
the greatest challenge-both in terms of the size of the gender
gap and because population growth rates remain high and so further
challenge sufficient availability of school places. At the same
time, Sub-Saharan Africa has also demonstrated its willingness
to try new initiatives and innovations specifically directed
at attracting girls to school and keeping them there. Worldwide,
discrimination on the basis of gender remains a problem, and
the focus on girls' education from a gender perspective has
raised important questions about the education of boys as well.
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There have also been some disappointments in the struggle for
gender equality in education since Jomtien. In some cases, investments
in girls' education have, unfortunately, increased, rather than
decreased the gender gap. In other cases, consistent gains have
been halted, or even reversed, due to negative conditions in
the environment external to the education system. Data gaps
make it difficult to accurately assess what is happening to
girls in the difficult economic circumstances in parts of Eastern
and Central Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Similarly, data are hard to find on the extent of the impact
of conflict and external stress on the education of girls in
approximately 50 affected countries. |
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| Lessons
learned |
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Most important are the lessons that the decade has given the
world. The thoughtful and careful application of these lessons
on a situation by situation basis will enable acceleration of
girls' education so that the target of Education for All can
be met within 15 years. There is a great number of lessons,
but they are presented in six general categories for the purpose
of summarization. Girls' education is more than an educational
issue. It is deeply influenced by such things as poverty, tradition,
habit, legal systems, and discrimination-all requiring political
will, not just to educate girls, but also to eliminate those
non-education obstacles. |
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The evidence is clear: strong and committed leadership at every
level is essential to put in place the changes that are required
to make girls' education a possibility and to maintain the momentum
to make it a reality. To be effective, leaders must have sufficient
evidence that the change they are supporting is in the overall
best interest of those they are serving. Thus, it becomes important
to have supportive fora for sharing information and for advocacy.
These latter two lessons require up-to-date and practical information
that is derived from an ongoing and serious research base that
also supports the refinement of existing education data bases. |
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These first four categories of lessons are, perhaps, somewhat
self-evident. The other two essential areas are less obvious.
It is clear that for sustainability and to address issues of
quality, equivalence, and demand, it is essential to take a
systemic approach to reforms so that girls are no longer excluded.
Finally, the only way that all these areas have been adequately
pulled together in a coherent way that facilitates the kinds
of change that are required to get all girls into a basic education
of good quality is through extended and expanded partnerships.
It is these new and creative partnerships that have brought
the necessary dynamism into education systems, defined broadly,
and enabled them to expand and reach out to include girls. |
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Within each of these categories there is a wide range of strategies
and approaches that have been tried. They are not all equally
effective and it is clear that some are more applicable to some
contexts than others. There have also been some difficult lessons
to learn-for example, discovery that some of the approaches
that were believed to be simple and easily adapted to a wide
range of environments are, in fact, quite limited. |
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| New
challenges |
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Since the Jomtien conference much has changed and, as a result,
new questions and issues have emerged. The Thematic Study selects
some of these and shows how they create new and nuanced challenges
in the new millennium. Certainly the focus on girls' education
from a gender perspective has raised many important issues about
boys' education, and it is fully recognized that a gender-sensitive
education is one of the things that will make the vision of
Education for All a reality. Similarly, the evolution over the
decade in girls' education and, in particular, attempts to better
understand the gender gap have resulted in a much better understanding
of exclusion-from school, but also in the classroom, even for
many who are already in school but excluded from effective learning.
This work, often pioneered by a focus on girls, can make it
possible to adapt what is known to include other excluded and
marginalized groups. One of these groups, among many, that is
a challenge consists of adolescents. |
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The HIV/AIDS pandemic presents unexpected challenges of enormous
proportions. Girls are disproportionately negatively affected,
whether they are infected or not. Immediate and concerted effort
is essential or the hard won gains in girls' education of more
than a decade will be eliminated in a few years. |
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It is very apparent from the work in girls' education that access
to and quality of education are inextricably linked-it would
be easier if this were not the case. This bears on very closely
to two other critical aspects of girls' (and boys') education:
the need to understand both demand and supply and how these
play out, one against the other. Everybody agrees that quality
is important, but the experience of and challenge arising from
girls' education is that the very notion of quality must change
in some very fundamental ways. A quality education includes
learning the basics and learning how to learn in a safe, secure,
gender-sensitive, healthy, and protective learning environment.
This finding presents an enormous challenge to systems that
often find it difficult to offer basic education meeting the
conventional definition of quality. |
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New research on globalisation is showing the enormous potential
of the processes that accompany it to increase disparity. This
is particularly alarming as women are already the bulk of the
poor and globalisation could exacerbate the situation. In the
face of this challenge and to break the cycle of women's poverty,
girls' education has to take on a new urgency. On the other
hand, the promise of the possibility of new information and
communication technologies being brought to bear to close the
growing digital divide could make an enormous difference in
alleviating unfair disparities. A challenge for girls' education
is deeply embedded in this possibility, however. There is a
growing body of evidence that girls and women are less likely
to benefit from these new technologies than their male counterparts. |
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A challenge that is not discussed much, but is emerging, is
a worldwide growing push from forces in support of religious
fundamentalism. Often this results in a decrease in, rather
than increase in, the rights and empowerment of girls and women.
The links of fundamentalism to patriarchy and their implications
for educational change deserve more attention if girls' education
is to move ahead at an accelerated pace. |
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Understanding these challenges and monitoring how they are affecting
girls' education require more robust data that extend beyond
the conventional education statistics. It also demands disaggregated
data so that the nature of challenges can be properly understood. |
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| Priorities |
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It is not possible to address all issues simultaneously. Priorities
have to be set-some can be set globally, but good analysis at
local and national levels is critical to determine how best
to overcome the barriers to girls' education in a timely manner.
Simple access to any kind of basic education remains a major
issue for millions of children, the majority girls. |
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Careful and strategic application of lessons learned to close
the gender gap and address educational quality are essential
if all are to receive a quality basic education. There is no
single intervention that will work everywhere-each context will
have to adapt what is known to the particular and nuanced circumstances
that are working against girls' education. Linked to this is
the fact that efforts in support of girls' education must move
from what are primarily limited efforts to go to massive scale.
This will present enormous challenges around the world, but
without such an effort the majority of excluded girls will remain
on the outside looking in for the foreseeable future. |
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To make this extra effort, to accelerate progress, will require
ingenuity, persistence, ongoing fostering of new partnerships,
and significant resource mobilisation and utilisation. There
are probably fewer "lessons learned" in girls' education with
regard to resource mobilisation than any of the other areas
selected for discussion. Yet this topic may present one of the
greatest remaining challenges. It is hard to reach girls (poor,
with disabilities, affected by conflict or HIV/AIDS, engaged
in child labour, for example) who must be included, and it is
likely to take more resources per child to reach them than it
took to reach those who are already in school. |
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To reach Education for All girls must be included-without this
the world will have failed to deliver on the promise of a basic
education for all. Girls can be included. It is possible. It
must be achieved. |
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INTRODUCTION
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| Rationale |
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In March 1990, 1,500 participants from 155 governments, 20 intergovernmental
bodies and 140 nongovernmental organizations met in Jomtien,
Thailand, moved by a common concern for the global condition
of education. They were seized by the imperative to make a fresh
start and a new commitment to fulfilling the goal of education
for all--especially for girls. |
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Three ground-breaking emphases in the drive for universal access
to quality education emerged from the conference: (1) adult
literacy as key in extending efforts to provide educational
for children; (2) the recognition that girls and women constituted
the majority of the unschooled in almost every region of the
world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia;
and (3) an expanded vision of education as a lifelong process
of learning that includes but is not limited to schooling. |
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Participants made a global commitment at Jomtien to ensure access
to, and improve the quality of, education for girls and women,
and to remove every obstacle that hampers their active participation
(Article 3, WCEFA). Every country, organization and agency dedicated
itself to achieving this goal. Getting girls into school and
ensuring that they benefited from the experience in a supportive,
enabling environment was identified as critical to achieving
education for all. |
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This decade has seen some of the greatest strides ever for women
and children. However, as participants at the mid-decade EFA
review in Amman, Jordan acknowledged, gender inequalities in
education "is an area where in most regions of the world, least
progress has been made…" Gender equity in education was reaffirmed
as a priority for action. |
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The Convention on the Rights of the Child, formulated in 1989,
claimed the right to a quality education for all girls and boys.
Article 28 states that education is a right which must be achieved
"on the basis of equal opportunity." From a human rights perspective,
girls' education must remain a top priority, since girls still
constitute almost two thirds of the children excluded from a
basic education. Education for girls means that as women they
will be able to exercise their rights to participate in political
and economic decision-making in the community as well as in
the household, as well as participate in development efforts
and in the household and in the community. |
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Educating girls has benefits at the personal, community and
social levels that make it one of the most important investments
that any developing country can make . Several decades of research
have demonstrated that educated girls become more effective
mothers who have higher survival rates among their children
because they have better nutrition and health practices. Educated
women are more likely to enter the formal labour market, earn
higher wages and thus contribute more directly to a nation's
economic productivity. There is also an intergenerational impact
in that the daughters and sons of educated women are more likely
to be educated and thus carry the benefits into succeeding generations.
A recent review and analysis that aimed to 'identify the main
elements of successful country performance in human development'
concluded that the one 'seemingly necessary condition is a high
female (primary) enrolment ratio'. |
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Since many countries dedicate significant proportions of their
national budgets to supporting their education systems, stakeholders
at all levels should work to ensure that education systems are
effective and efficient. Education systems should provide quality
education to both boys and girls, teaching them in a cost-effective
manner what they need to know for life in the 21st century.
When a significant proportion of the population is not obtaining
these benefits--as is the case in most regions of the world--all
stakeholders need to review the system's functioning to ensure
that the funding dedicated to this sector is being well spent.
Targeting girls' and women's education is a key strategy for
increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of school systems.
Not only girls benefit from this focus. One of the clearest
lessons from activities of the past decade is that boys also
benefit from efforts to promote the participation of girls,
in enrolment and even in achievement. |
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| Background |
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At Jomtien participants faced the reality that the gender gap
in primary school enrolment ratios had not diminished despite
a significant expansion of education in the least developed
countries . After girls entered school, they often dropped out
earlier than boys. Circumstances needed to be more favourable
to permit girls' retention within the system. Schools had to
be cheaper, better and closer to home to attain universal access
for girls, especially in the poorest countries and the regions
of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. While other regions had
reached universal access or were close to it at the primary
level, in many countries differentials between girls and boys
still persisted at the secondary and tertiary levels in many
countries. Further, the data from higher educational levels
in almost all regions revealed that girls studied mathematics
and science and entered the more technological careers at far
lower rates than boys. |
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Beyond issues of access and subject choice, the school experience
itself was significantly different for girls than for boys.
The hidden curriculum in teaching materials, notably textbooks,
and the attitudes of teachers, administrators, and other pupils
conveyed the message to girls that they were inferior to boys
and should have lower aspirations for themselves. There was
a strong suspicion that these negative attitudes and experiences
were being reflected in the generally low attainment and achievement
levels for girls as compared to boys. These and other factors
led participants to the conclusion that many education systems
are systematically biased against girls. |
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Some populations were more likely to have low schooling rates.
For example, poorer communities, those isolated by geographic
or cultural barriers, or those who were part of religious or
ethnic minorities were much more likely to enrol fewer children,
especially girls. Governments and societies were excluding significant
portions of their population. Participants at Jomtien adopted
a Framework for Action as the guiding document to achieve education
for girls and all excluded populations by the end of the decade.
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| Scope
of Study |
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The WCEFA Framework for Action designed the following targets
and objectives for girls' education: (a) universal access to
and completion of basic education by the year 2000; and (b)
reduction of the adult literacy rate to one-half its 1990 level
by the year 2000, with sufficient emphasis on female literacy
to significantly reduce the current disparity between male and
female illiteracy rates. |
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Ten years later, the convening partners commissioned a series
of thematic studies to examine the progress that has been made
in reaching those goals. This thematic study on girls' education,
in keeping with the general EFA 2000 assessment, is global in
scope and covers girls in basic education. The focus is on developing
countries, developed countries are mentioned also. While some
clear differences between regions exist, these are of degree
and not kind, therefore a global analysis is appropriate. Female
literacy rates are addressed in places where they emphasise
the critical need for girls' education. |
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The parameters for analysing girls' education are these:
Access-Are
girls and women physically, culturally and legally able
to access educational services? How are the needs of the
excluded addressed?
Achievement-Do
girls and women within educational institutions learn as
much as boys and do they demonstrate similar achievement
patterns in their learning through standard assessment measures?
Attainment-To
what extent do girls and women progress toward secondary,
technical and tertiary levels?
Completion-Having
attained a certain level of education, what percentage of
girls and women are able to complete it?
Dropout-At
what stage and in what proportion do girls and women drop
out from educational systems?
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Teaching practices, curriculum, teacher and community attitudes,
cultural practices, and state policies help to explain the parameters
in their contextual perspective. Lessons learned from the 1990s
offer insights into the challenges to be addressed in this new
century. |
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The study is based on a review of EFA country reports ; the
review of documents provided by the convening partners and other
agencies interested in promoting the education of girls and
women; individual interviews (in person, over the phone and
via e-mail) with knowledgeable informants; and the authors'
backgrounds in this area. |
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One caveat is that a problem still exists with educational statistics.
The international databases tend to be several years behind
and there is little consistency between editions of such sources
as the UNESCO Statistical Yearbooks. This report relies on the
most recent data available, which has generally incorporated
corrections for earlier periods. Therefore, the level of enrolments
reported for 1990 is based not on data available in 1990 but
on that contained in the most recent UNESCO database (September,
1999). |
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| Return
to contents |
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