Gender bias in education: here to stay?

At the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, 164 states pledged to eliminate gender disparities in school enrolment by 2005 and to achieve gender equality by 2015. Are these key Education for All (EFA) targets likely to be met? Have the barriers that have traditionally prevented girls from getting the schooling to which they are entitled, begun to break down?

A UNESCO-commissioned report assesses efforts to enrol more girls in school. It shows that while the number of girls in primary schools has been increasing faster than that of boys, gender parity in education remains a distant prospect in many states. Thus, 57% of the estimated 104 million primary-age children out of school worldwide are girls. If gender equality in education is to be attained, major changes in a wide range of economic and social policies – as well as in education itself – will be needed.

The Gender Parity Index (GPI) – in which a value of unity indicates parity between the sexes – has risen from 0.89 to 0.93 in primary education in the past decade. However, at current rates of progress, 60% of the 128 countries for which data are available for both 1990 and 2000 are likely to miss reaching gender parity at primary or secondary levels by 2005.

In much of sub-Saharan Africa girls’ enrolment is only three quarters that of boys. Further evidence shows that:

• India’s low primary level GPI of 0.83 owes much to the absence of women teachers able to serve as role models for girls – almost 90% of single teacher schools, which account for at least 20% of all schools, are staffed by men.
• Girls, especially those involved with domestic and other labour, are more likely to leave primary school without having achieved sufficient skills in literacy and numeracy.
• Although many states have publicly acknowledged the human rights aspect of free and compulsory education, the reality is that school fees – existing in at least 101 countries – deter parents from sending children, and particularly their daughters, to school.
• Gender based violence – in schools as well as communities – and sexually transmitted diseases prevent girls finishing education: in Southern Africa and the Caribbean, girls aged between 15 and 19 are infected by HIV/AIDS at rates four to seven times higher than boys.
• Many boys do not complete secondary education, meaning that the gender parity at this level changes in favour of girls in several countries, whether developing (e.g. Bangladesh with a GPI of 1.05), middle income (eg Colombia 1.10) or developed countries (eg United Kingdom 1.17).

Key actions required in those countries unlikely to reach the gender parity goal by 2005 include:

• working to transform schools into places where gender stereotypes are undermined, not reinforced
• reducing direct and indirect fees and increasing donor funds targetted at income support and school feeding programmes (where food incentives are provided to encourage students to stay at school)
• legislating reform, especially of property and family law, to counteract deep-seated social norms that affect whether or not children go to school
• recruiting more female teachers, especially for rural schools
• prioritising HIV/AIDS prevention and sexual and reproductive health education
• realising that better sanitary facilities and furniture and lower class sizes would encourage more parents to send their daughters to school.

Source(s):
‘EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003’ UNESCO, November 2003 Full document.

Funded by: Jointly by UNESCO and bilateral agencies

id21 Research Highlight: 20 May 2004

Further Information:
Ulrika Peppler Barry
EFA Global Monitoring Report Team
c/o UNESCO
7, place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP
France

Tel: +33 1 45 68 21 28
Fax: +33 1 45 68 56 27
Contact the contributor: efareport@unesco.org

UNESCO

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'Are global goals getting girls into school?'

'Class struggles: the challenges of achieving schooling for all' Insights Education #2

'The missing 65 million: getting girls into school'

'Saving Women's Lives: Educating Girls'

More about the Millennium Development Goals on Education