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A right and an investment: Hilary Benn in-depth on girls education
"To
be educated means … I will not only be able to help myself, but also my
family, my country, my people."
Meda, a 16 year-old schoolgirl from Ethiopia's Oromia region, is one of the lucky ones: worldwide, 104 million children do not even receive primary education, and 58 million of those are girls.
In sub-Saharan Africa and in India and Pakistan, nearly a quarter of girls are out of school. Many parents are simply unable to pay school fees.
But there are other obstacles: girls often experience physical or sexual violence at school; and women's weak position in societies means that early pregnancies or marriages often halt girls' education.
In all this vulnerability, as many as half of the girls out of school in the developing world have to work to provide income for their families, while a growing number are having to act as the carers in families where parents have died in situations of conflict, or of HIV/AIDS. In Southern Sudan, after 50 years of civil war, barely 2% of young girls are in school.
Falling short of the promise
So
Meda's vision - so simple, strong and true - is far from being the universal
reality. It seems that some of the most basic facts are being ignored.
These show that providing girls with an extra year of schooling can boost their eventual wages by 10-20%; that the children of mothers who have received at least five years of education are 40% more likely to live beyond the age of five; and that for every one boy newly infected with HIV/AIDS in Africa, there are between three and six girls.
In September 2000, 188 heads of state from around the world formally committed themselves to having equal numbers of boys and girls in school by the end of 2005. So far, 75 countries have not met this goal. A failure for one is a failure for all, and - with a few exceptions - we are falling well short of our promise.
Every girl in the developing world has the right to an education. Women are at the heart of most societies, and educating girls is one of the most important investments any country can make in its own future. So how can we safeguard that right, and ensure that dividends are received on the investment?
More money goes a long way
Part of the solution is funding. Worldwide, there is an annual $5.6 billion
shortfall in funding for education - which means that an extra $50 is needed,
each year, for each child currently out of school.
Money can transform situations: an £11 million ($20.5 million) grant to the government of Kenya's education programme in 2002 allowed it to abolish primary school fees, and saw 1.1 million pupils newly enrol within a year. The new funds are then needed to provide more teachers, for the increased numbers of children on the books. In other countries, such as Brazil, cash is provided to families on the condition that school-aged children are enrolled.
Reaching for gender equality
Image courtesy of UNESCO/Serraillier
A host of other issues needs to be addressed - the first of which is political commitment and leadership. In Yemen, for instance, where only 6 girls are currently in school for every 10 boys, the government has put gender equity in schooling as a central element of its poverty reduction strategy. Countries like Oman, Morocco, China, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mexico and India have all shown similar commitment.
South Africa and Jamaica have introduced training programmes to help teachers deal with gender violence in the classroom, while Malawi has revised the curriculum to remove gender stereotypes from textbooks. Its provision of a daily lunchtime meal now means that some 40% more girls are attending school - and recording much better results.
In Bangladesh, the numbers of women teachers in primary school have risen by 200% since 1990 - while in one district alone, new water and sanitation facilities increased girls' attendance at school by 15%.
We have also seen that charities, religious and other voluntary organisations are good for girls. Networks such as the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) and the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) have used the media to highlight the problem of girls missing out on an education, and lobbied their governments for better support.
In India, charitable foundations called samoohs bring women benefits such as education, health schemes, and savings and credit.
So international support needs to help and where possible fund developing country Governments in keeping girls' education as an absolute priority. The 'Education for All' Fast Track Initiative - a global education partnership with a secretariat based in the World Bank in Washington - was launched in 2002 to help provide additional financing and support.
It plans to include an additional 20 countries in 2005-6. Within the UN system, UNICEF runs the UN Girls' Education Initiative, while the Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) supports a global campaign to eliminate discrimination against women.
It is clear that both national and international efforts need to be dramatically stepped up if we are to meet our promises and targets.
We have seen the benefits of success; and we are also painfully aware of the continued damage of failure - to individual rights and lives; and to whole communities and countries. Girls' education can indeed build a better future for all.
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UNICEF:
State of the World's Children 2005
Hilary Benn has
been Secretary of State for International Development since October 2003