Education and girls
In many countries not as many girls as boys go to school. This can be for a variety of reasons. These are some of the possible obstacles against girls attending school:
Poverty
If parents cannot afford to send all of their children to school, they may just send their sons, believing that to be a better long-term investment. Girls are more often kept at home to help look after the household and younger siblings, or are sent out to do paid work.
Early marriage and pregnancy
This is widespread in many countries, and usually puts an end to a girl's education as they are expected to stay at home, or have children to care for.
Safety
Families may keep their girls at home if they feel the journey to school is too long or that it's dangerous to walk to school alone. They may also be worried about bullying and sexual harassment.
Sanitation
There may not be any suitable toilets provided for girls at the school. A lack of running water and poor sanitation can make it difficult to keep clean.
Stereotyping
In some countries people have lower expectations of girls, and do not expect them to do well at school. A lack of female teachers can also be a discouragement to girls, and school learning materials may contain stereotypes or gender bias against girls (e.g. only portray women as mothers or doing housework).
The effect of education on girls can have important repercussions for their future lives. Of course it is very important for both boys and girls to go to school, but the results show that the effect of education on girls, their own children and their community is huge. Their ability to get a job and earn money, the health and survival of their children and the likelihood of them sending their own children to school all improve with their level of education.
- An infant born to an educated woman is much more likely to survive until adulthood. In Africa, children of mothers who received five years of primary education are 40 per cent more likely to live beyond age five.
- Failure to educate girls and women means more people needlessly go hungry. Increases in women's education contributed most to reducing malnutrition between 1970-1995, playing a more important role than increased food availability.
- Women with education are better able to successfully resist practices such as female genital cutting, early marriage and domestic abuse by male partners.