Gender and the MDGs
Beyond access for boys and girls: how to achieve good quality, gender-equitable education
Issues and challenges in achieving gender equality in education
Authors:
; Oxfam
Publisher:
Oxfam, 2005
This introductory paper frames the issues and challenges to be faced in achieving gender equality and quality Education For All (EFA). The issues - which include not only ensuring access to education for girls and women, but the completion of good quality education for both boys and girls so that they can use their education to have a positive effect on their futures - are taken up in more detail in subsequent papers.
Issues in achieving good quality, gender equitable education include:
- education and the Millennium Development Goals
- culture within schools
- teacher conditions and retention
- wider society
- government responsibilities
- partnership
- HIV and AIDS
Key developments needed to move towards good-quality, gender-equitable education for all include:
- adequate resources: financial and human
- increased individual, institutional, and organisational capacity to deliver gender equality in education
- participation by NGOs, community-based organisations, teachers, parents, and students themselves, especially girls and women
- networking and partnerships between organisations for greater impact on change
- good documentation of what works and what does not work, and why.
