Worldwide, 122 million girls do not have access to basic education

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) announced this Tuesday (10), in Paris, that, despite the “substantial progress” in the schooling of female children since 2015, there are still 122 millions without access to basic education around the world. A situation is particularly worrying in sub-Saharan Africa, where the proportion of girls integrated into the education system remains significantly lower than that of boys, and more than half of children do not attend school.

According to the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report, released on International Day of the Girl Child, the “mass exclusion of girls from education” is an alarming reality in Afghanistan, where 60% of girls do not have access to primary school, compared to 46% of male children. Furthermore, 74% of Afghan girls do not attend secondary school, while this percentage is 50% for boys.

At a global level, since 2015, there have been advances in girls’ access to education. Currently, there are 22.5 million girls in primary education, 14.6 million in the first phase of secondary education and 13 million in the second phase. The percentage of girls completing primary education increased from 86% to 89%, from 74% to 79% in the first phase of secondary education and from 54% to 61% in the second phase. Each year, five million girls complete each of these three levels of education compared to 2015.

Despite these advances, UNESCO emphasizes the need to redouble efforts by 2030 to achieve total education. The call is for governments to urgently invest in key areas, offering safe, free and quality education to marginalized girls. Furthermore, governments should analyze, analyze and utilize sex-disaggregated data and gender cross-reference statistics to formulate specific policies.

The recommendation is to create gender-sensitive legal frameworks and report the adoption of teaching and learning materials that ensure equitable representation of girls in curricula and textbooks, free from bias, stereotypes and gender norms. The persistence of gender inequality in education requires coordinated and effective action to ensure that all children, regardless of sex, have equal access to basic education.

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Source: Agência Brasil