Gender and Education for All THE LEAP TO EQUALITY

Chapter - Rights, equality and Education for All

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Conclusion Arguments that equality cannot be afforded, or that it would generate pressures that conflict with other more pressing development priorities, are largely false. The rights-based arguments for achieving gender equality in education are of overriding significance. However, those countries that heed their moral, legal and political case also act strongly in their own economic and social interests. In this sense, strategies to achieve gender equality in education entail no unwelcome trade-offs. Arguments that equality cannot be afforded, or that it would generate pressures that conflict with other, more pressing, development priorities are largely false. On the contrary, a committed shift towards the creation of gender equality in education can deliver a wide range of associated benefits for economic growth and for other objectives of development policy. This report demonstrates that the task is not straightforward, and that it requires changes extending well beyond the boundaries of education policy. However, its potential benefits make it one of the most important challenges facing governments, and their societies, during these early years of the new century.