Gender and Education for All THE LEAP TO EQUALITY

Executive summary

Executive summary All countries have agreed to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005. In its opening chapter, this second edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report sets out the powerful human rights case for achieving parity and equality in education. Chapter 2 monitors progress towards the six EFA goals through a gender lens. The next two chapters look at why girls are still held back and highlight policies that can lift barriers and improve learning. Strategies to remove gender gaps in education are part of a much broader reform effort underway in many countries, as Chapter 5 shows. This agenda cannot be met without much bolder international commitments and better co-ordination, which is assessed in Chapter 6. It is in the interests of all states and peoples to remove the gender gap and it should be a top priority in all educational programmes, as the final chapter concludes.

Chapter 1. Rights, equality and Education for All The international community is committed to eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary schooling by 2005, and to achieving gender equality by 2015. This chapter highlights the solid human rights framework that underpins education and identifies the social and economic benefits of educating girls and women. Education is a human right, enshrined in international treaties and conventions that are legally binding on signatory states. The two most recent conventions – the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990) – contain the most comprehensive set of legally enforceable commitments on the right to education and gender equality. This legislation, however, has had only partial success in boosting equality. It was reinforced politically, in the 1990s, at a series of UN conferences, which reaffirmed, and in some cases extended, the gender and education provisions in the human rights treaties. The Dakar Framework for Action and the Millennium Declaration both established time-bound gender equality goals to which all states are committed. These help to drive outcome-related reforms, monitor progress, identify policy gaps and pinpoint where international assistance is needed most. There is also a powerful developmental case for achieving gender equality. It is clearly in the private and social interest to eliminate gender inequalities in education wherever they exist. The personal and social benefits are immense. Livelihoods are improved, families are healthier and better nourished, education is valued, and civic responsibility is enhanced. It is an affordable investment with high pay-offs.

Chapter 2. Towards EFA: Assessing progress Using the most recent data on education systems for the year 2000, this chapter monitors through a gender lens progress towards achieving the six EFA goals. The Report distinguishes between parity and equality. The first is a purely numerical concept. Equality is a more complex notion. Full gender equality in education would imply that girls and boys are offered the same chances to go to school and enjoy teaching methods, curricula and academic orientation unaffected by gender bias. And more broadly, equal learning achievement and subsequent life opportunities for similar qualifications and experience. There has been a strong global move towards greater gender parity, particularly at primary level, where the ratio of girls to boys enrolled improved from 88% to 94% between 1990 and 2000. Girls’ enrolment has increased faster than boys’ and in the three regions where gender inequalities are greatest – sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States and South and West Asia – disparities have eased substantially. But many countries, despite great efforts, have made little progress. Population growth has remained strong, and partly because of this, the number of the world’s out-of-school children declined by only about 3% over the decade. Girls continue to face sharp discrimination in access to schooling. Nations with the highest gender disparities tend to be the most disadvantaged, often with a per capita income of less than one dollar a day. On the basis of past rates of change, the Report finds that 60% of the 128 countries for which data are available are likely to miss reaching gender parity at primary and secondary levels by 2005. Twenty-two countries should achieve parity in primary and secondary education by 2015. Forty-percent of countries are at risk of not achieving gender parity either at primary (9) or secondary level (33) or at both (12), even by 2015. In many of these countries, policies are available that can deliver parity within a few years, as the following chapters explain. The report introduces a new EFA Development Index, which incorporates data on four indicators: UPE (measured by net enrolment ratio), adult literacy (literacy rate of the 15-and-over age group), gender parity (average value of the gender parity index in primary and secondary education and in adult literacy), and quality of education (survival to primary Grade 5). EDI can be calculated for 94 countries based on 2000 data. Results show that no country from sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States and West Asia (except the Maldives) is close to achieving these goals. They also reveal that the gender parity variable is the most efficient predictor of achieving EFA.

Chapter 3. Why are girls still held back? A three-stage rights agenda is used to analyse the multiple dimensions of inequality. First, problems affecting the exercise of rights to education include constraints in the family and within society that affect girls’ access to school. Countries in which there is strong cultural preference for sons also tend to have the greatest gender inequalities. Early marriage massively impedes the educational progress of girls. The global HIV/AIDS scourge, armed conflict and disability all play a part in curtailing their right to education. Children’s need to work is one of the main reasons they do not go to school. Parents are the main employers of children, a fact not necessarily reflected in statistics that omit those engaged in domestic chores, many of whom are girls. Policy must affect the circumstances and attitudes of parents if all girls are to have the chance to learn. School fees also act as a major barrier to schooling and are levied in at least 101 countries. Second, rights within education focus on how school systems take girls’ specific needs into account through curricula, teaching methods and the learning environment. The Report notes that girls are disproportionately the victims of sexual harassment and violence in school, leading to under-achievement and high drop-out rates. Finally, rights through education concern how girls perform in school and how achievement translates into equal opportunities in social and economic spheres. Evidence that girls are outperforming boys in several developed countries has created a public stir. In many developing countries where gender parity is still far off, both boys and girls fare badly. Boys’ under-achievement in the educational arena has not yet resulted in their falling behind in economic and political spheres. Assessing the extent to which girls are held back at each stage of the rights agenda leads to specific policy answers. But achieving parity does not end with equal numbers: equal opportunities, treatment and outcomes in education and in society are the crucial yardsticks of progress.

Chapter 4. Lessons from good practice Although there is no ‘magic bullet’ for narrowing the gender gap and promoting equality in education, a wide range of international experience points to breakthroughs that have facilitated girls’ access to schooling and improved performance. Legislative change and reform is essential for gender equality. Establishing property rights and reforming family law can counteract entrenched social norms that also affect whether children go to school. In most countries, a strong general policy on gender equality is also needed so both women’s and men’s interests are explicitly considered in all legislation, policies and programmes. The direct and indirect costs of schooling to households impede access to education for the most disadvantaged groups. Fees are still charged in 26 of the 35 countries unlikely to reach the gender parity goal for primary schooling in 2005. Measures to reduce or remove the need for child labour are a decisive way to increase school enrolment among girls and boys. Policies can be designed specifically to change the balance of incentives that lead to girls, in particular, being excluded from school. Scholarships, income-support schemes and school feeding programmes are three types of targeting measures that have proved effective. Schools must be places where stereotypes are undermined, not reinforced, through gender-aware curricula and professional teacher training. Recruiting women teachers, particularly for rural or isolated schools, remains a high priority. Locating schools closer to homes, providing sanitary facilities and furniture, together with acceptable class sizes, are all investments that encourage parents to send their daughters to school. HIV/AIDS prevention and sexual and reproductive health education should be a priority in its own right, with adequate support given to teachers. Early childhood programmes and bridge courses for girls who get a late start in education are both fields deserving further attention. Literacy and skills training are vital to empower women and to further the chances of their daughters getting an education. In most of the countries that have made considerable progress in promoting gender parity and equality in education, the state has played a leading role. Besides subsidies to reduce the cost of education for families, governments need to pursue a range of wider economic and social policies to remove the pernicious influence of child labour and discrimination in pay and work.

Chapter 5. From targets to reform : national strategies in action This chapter analyses national policies and reforms that can make a significant contribution to achieving EFA and monitors how far countries are translating their commitments into action through specific strategies and programmes. Guided by international commitments, notably the Dakar Framework for Action and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, governments are increasingly setting specific national education targets. Decentralization is often held up as one path towards responding more effectively to local needs, broadening the revenue base and giving civil society a stronger voice. One recent survey suggests that 80% of developing countries are experimenting with some form of decentralization. As this process gains pace in many countries, particular attention must be paid to the risk of increasing disparities in educational opportunities to the detriment of children. Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have recently abolished primary education fees. This is welcome and necessary. However, it must be managed carefully: studies show it often goes hand-in-hand with a substantial drop in per-student spending and a decline in quality. Countries concerned lack qualified teachers and report significant drop-out levels. EFA is also on the agenda of industrialised and transition nations. In the first, attention to the language of instruction for minority children and to reaching youth who do not complete secondary education are pressing issues. In the second, many countries are fighting to reverse declining enrolment. As states grapple with extending educational rights to all their citizens, there is a clear case for mutual learning between different regions of the world.

Chapter 6. Meeting our international commitments Trends in aid flows to education and international initiatives provide two lenses through which to capture how global commitment to achieve the EFA goals has advanced over the past year. Bilateral aid to education fell by 16% between 1998-99 and 2000-01, and from 10% to 8% of total aid commitments. Aid to basic education, however, is rising. Support for basic education from all OECD-DAC countries increased from 13% to 24% of bilateral education aid during this same period. Multilateral aid to basic education fell due to lower contributions from the regional development banks. Overall, however, the current level of US$1.5 billion of support needed for basic education is still far short of the US$5.6 billion per year required to meet the UPE and gender goals alone. A survey by the Report also reveals that aid is attracted by better-performing education systems. An analysis of 77 countries shows that bilateral aid per out-of-school child increases significantly with the level of net enrolment. The Fast-Track Initiative designed to help achieve UPE by 2015 is at a critical juncture. By August 2003, the estimated financing gap for the first seven countries for 2003–05 remained at about US$118 million, compared with US$207 secured so far. Agreement is urgently needed on whether the Initiative is to be in the mainstream of aid to education, with the implications this has for levels of funding. Otherwise, this potentially important instrument to help secure EFA is likely to be at risk. Mechanisms instituted by UNESCO to co-ordinate EFA – the High-Level Group and the Working Group – must be strengthened to have an international impact. If EFA is to compete successfully with other major development issues for the attention of world leaders, a strong, well-co-ordinated, well-publicized ‘platform’ for its messages is essential.

Chapter 7. Gendered strategies for EFA The removal of gender gaps should have first priority in all programmes of school expansion and quality improvements. The state has a fundamental role in making good-quality basic education a right and a reality for every citizen. It must create an enabling environment for promoting gender equality, invest in redistribution strategies and mitigate the burden of conflict, economic crisis and HIV/AIDS. The international community must boldly accompany this process, using a gender lens as a focus for all aid to education programmes.