In the lead up to the Commission on the Status of Women 2024 on the theme of poverty, NCW urges the UK government and international community to make accessible education a key policy aim. According to UNESCO estimates, around the world, 129 million girls are out of school, including 32 million of primary school age, and 97 million of secondary school age.i 132million boys are also out of school.ii Sixteen million girls, between the ages six and 11, will never start school compared to eight million boys if current trends continue.iii Only two thirds of countries have reached gender parity in primary school enrolment and in low-income countries girls tend to leave school before boys.iv Girls continue to lag substantially behind boys in secondary completion rates.
In terms of girls’ education, better educated women tend to be more informed about nutrition and healthcare, have fewer children and marry at a later age. Their children are usually healthier, should they choose to become mothers.v Financing girls’ education is not an alternative to, but is complementary to tackling climate change, because it reduces overpopulation.
“˜Girls’ education is also about ensuring that girls feel safe and learn while in school, complete all levels of education with the skills and competencies to secure jobs, make decisions about their own lives, and contribute to their communities and the world’. World Bank.vi Girls’ attendance can be undermined by long journeys to school, by sexual harassment at school and lack of provision for their periods.
Across the world, women are in the lowest-paid work. Globally, they earn 24% less than men and at the current rate of progress, it will take 170 years to close the gap.vii
Women and girls’ education can help lift households, communities, and countries out of poverty. A recent World Bank study estimates that the “limited educational opportunities for girls, and barriers to completing 12 years of education, cost countries between US$15 trillion1 and $30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings.”viii
Unicef says that global crises continue to disrupt women’s access to nutritious food. In 2021, there were 126 million more food insecure women than men, compared to 49 million more in 2019, more than doubling the gender gap of food insecurity.ix Women are twice as likely as men to be malnourished.
Countries with higher levels of gender equality tend to have higher income levels, and evidence from a number of regions and countries shows closing the gap leads to a reduction in poverty. In Latin America for instance, an increase in the number of women in paid work between 2000 and 2010 accounted for around 30% of the overall reduction in poverty and income inequality.x
Thanks to UK aid, there are more girls in school, fewer early marriages and more grassroots women’s organisations. But the fact that the UK aid budget has been cut limits these benefits at a time of particular need.
Speech on Girls’ Education and Poverty ““ Ann Davison
Some years ago, I was lucky enough to visit fairtrade vineyard projects in South Africa. I was proudly introduced to two young women, about to leave their estate for the first time ever. Becoming Fairtrade had enabled the growers to sponsor their education. Excited and nervous, they were off to train, one as a nurse and the other as teacher so they could come back and serve their community.
How different from the lives of so many girls in developing countries, condemned to a childhood of collecting wood and water, household chores, followed by early marriage and a struggle to raise large families of their own. Kenya, for example, is home to over 4 million child brides; 1 in 4 young women were married in childhood. Most child brides have had little or no education.xi The link between poverty, lack of education, low status of women and girls and large families makes it clear that the urgent need to reduce CO2 emissions and overpopulation is interconnected with girls’ education.
Back in 2012 the United Nations called for action by all countries ““ poor, rich and middle-income ““ to promote prosperity while protecting the planet through 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Quality education is goal 4 of the UN’s sustainable development goals and gender equality is goal 5. Aims are:
- free primary and secondary schooling for all boys and girls by 2030,
- equal access to affordable vocational training,
- eliminate gender and wealth disparities,
- universal access to quality higher education.
However, an estimated 300 million children and young people will still lack basic numeracy and literacy skills by 2030. About 40 per cent of countries have not achieved gender parity in primary education. It is clear that this issue needs to be pushed to the fore internationally and at the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2024 in particular, when the theme will be poverty.
Sub-Saharan Africa faces the biggest challenges in providing schools with basic resources. The situation is extreme at the primary and lower secondary levels, where less than one-half of schools have access to drinking water, electricity, computers and the Internet. Safety issues deter girls from attending school.xii For example, in Matandani school, near Zomba in Malawi, the headteacher said younger pupils were in classes of more than 180 children and pupils might walk 5km or 6km to school.
So, even for girls in school, their education can be precarious. They may be at risk on the way to and from school, or even in school itself. At home, girls are often expected to do more chores than boys, giving them little time for homework. Girls’ education is less likely to survive big changes: the death of a parent or becoming a refugee can take them out of school for good.
Society’s beliefs about girls’ abilities, and their worth, often mean their choices for the future are made for them. Many girls never get the chance to go to school, or to finish their early grades, especially girls with a disability and those growing up in families with a limited income.
These disadvantages in education translate into lack of access to skills and limited opportunities in the labour market for young women.xiii It is no coincidence that countries which fail to educate women and girls are low income. High quality female education empowers women, reduces poverty and unleashes economic growth.
Improving education in developing countries, particularly in Africa, would create a better, safer, fairer and more prosperous world – which is good for all of us. Education is the key that will allow many other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved.
Education also helps to reduce inequalities and to reach gender equality. It empowers people everywhere to live more healthy and sustainable lives. Education is crucial to fostering tolerance between people and contributes to more peaceful societies.
The prime minister has said the international target of ensuring all girls can have 12 years of good quality education would be the “simplest and most transformative thing we can do” to tackle poverty and to “end the scourge of gender-based violence”.
“The benefits of educating girls are enormous – a child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past the age of five and twice as likely to attend school themselves. With just one additional school year, a woman’s earnings can increase by up to a fifth.xiv
A UK charity working with child domestic workers in Bangladesh brings education to young girls enslaved in domestic work in Bangladesh. Local teachers visit girls like Sayeeda, 9, who works as a servant to earn money for her family, or 16-year-old Lalit, who has now learned to write her own name, having never gone to school. Because of past discrimination in education, there’s a need for many women in developing countries to catch up on literacy and numeracy skills.
Women and girls’ education is a vital building block to women’s empowerment. It
- helps girls and women engage with politics and ensure they’re represented
- enables them to participate in leadership and democracy and increase female representation, which is positive for decisions on issues from health to climate change
- contributes to more stable, resilient societies that give everybody the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
To deliver on Goal 4, education financing must become a national investment priority. Measures such as making education free and compulsory, increasing the number of teachers, improving basic school infrastructure and embracing digital transformation are key targets. And vulnerable or marginalized groups, especially girls, need prioritising.
Getting girls to stay in education is indeed transformative. It can avoid early marriage, improve their chances of getting a job and provide more income for children to be better fed. A major priority in the battle against poverty.
i. Girls’ education | UNICEF
ii. UNESCO
iii. Twice as many girls as boys will never start school ““ UNESCO report | UN News
iv. World Bank: girls’ education
v. Girls’ Education Overview (worldbank.org)
vi. Girls’ Education Overview: Development news, research, data | World Bank
vii. Why the majority of the world’s poor are women | Oxfam International
viii. Missed Opportunities: The High Cost of Not Educating Girls (worldbank.org)
ix. Malnutrition in mothers soars by 25 per cent in crisis-hit countries, putting women and newborn babies at risk ““ UNICEF
x. Oxfam op cit
xi. Child Marriage Country Profile_KEN.pdf
xii. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023
xiii. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023
xiv. Boris Johnson says girls’ education key to ending poverty – BBC News