Vansa loves school. Her eyes lit up as she told me about how she dreamed of becoming a physician so she could help her community of Ggaba, a low-income area just south of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. “I’m smarter than the boys in my class,” the 13-year-old stated proudly, “and I get better marks, too.” But, as the eldest of six siblings, she was expected to help her mother sell goods at the market each morning, and take care of her younger sisters and brothers in the evenings. The quality of education at public secondary schools in her area was so poor that the only option would be to attend a private school outside her district for high school. She feared she would not be able to stay in school beyond the following year, since school fees were unaffordable to her family and would take her away from her income-earning and care-taking duties. Despite her high grades and ambitions, the boys in her family were prioritized for further education.
Vansa’s story is all too common, especially in the developing world. During adolescence, factors such as menstruation, gender-based violence, and early pregnancy and marriage force many girls to drop out of school. Other obstacles prevent girls from even making it to school in the first place, including poverty, disability, cultural practices, and being affected by conflict or emergencies.
I met Vansa in 2014, while working for BRAC, a nonprofit group working to fight poverty. While gender parity in education has improved, the U.S. government estimates that more than 62 million girls are missing from classrooms worldwide.
A 2014 report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)shows that in Sub-Saharan Africa, boys are expected to achieve universal primary completion by 2046. However, there will only be universal primary completion for the region's poorest girls by 2086.
Improving access to education for girls across the globe requires action and progress on multiple fronts. Ahead, a look at some of the factors keeping girls out of school today.
Early pregnancy
Early pregnancy is one of the leading causes of girls dropping out of secondary school. The financial costs and practical considerations of a baby place incredible demands on adolescent mothers living in poverty. They must care for their infant while likely handling a heavy burden of domestic chores and working to earn income. Few teen girls caught in this predicament are able to continue their studies, even if they want to go back to school. Besides the severe psychological impact, early pregnancy is also a major contributor to maternal mortality rates in many countries.
The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world — though it has declined considerably in recent years. 30% of American girls who drop out of high school cite pregnancy or parenthood as their reason for leaving school.
In areas like rural Tanzania and Rajasthan, India, where early pregnancy is common, various programs have found that creating “safe spaces” where girls in school and out of school can gather to discuss problems, receive mentorship and social support, and learn life skills is an effective model for ensuring the sexual and reproductive rights and agency of girls. A key topic of these programs is pregnancy prevention, which is covered through a combination of health education to promote the effective use of contraception and empowerment to resist pressures to become sexually active before girls are ready.
Caption: A 14-year-old girl carries her 10-month-old baby in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines.
A lack of girl-friendly environments
Girls are disproportionately affected by lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene at school, increasing absenteeism and the likelihood that girls will drop out. According to UNICEF, school conditions can range from “inappropriate and inadequate sanitary facilities to the outright lack of latrines and safe water for drinking and hygiene.”
Girls and boys both thrive when given a sanitary and hygienic learning environment, but the lack of sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools has a stronger negative impact on girls, especially once they start menstruating. Having your period at school is much more than an inconvenience when there is no private, clean space to care for your personal hygiene and wash your hands. Girls — and female teachers — need clean, well-maintained, gender-specific sanitation facilities to manage menstruation and daily needs. One in 10 schoolgirls in Africa miss class or drop out because of their period, according to one widely cited UNICEF statistic. In Nepal and Afghanistan, an estimated 30% of girls report missing school because of their periods.
If there is no on-site water access at home, girls may be forced to spend large parts of their day fetching water. Providing water closer to homes increases girls’ free time and boosts their school attendance. However, the expectation that girls will bear the burden of water collection occurs at school, too. Discriminatory attitudes and practices are reinforced when girls are called on for service tasks, like cleaning latrines, hauling water, and garbage disposal.
Caption: A volunteer appointed by the education minister in New Delhi, India, inspected a toilet during a visit to a New Delhi government school on January 8, 2014.
Conflict and war
Adolescent girls living in countries affected by conflict are 90% more likely to be out of school than those in peaceful areas. In a 2015 report, UNESCO noted that war and conflict compound girls’ pre-existing disadvantages when it comes to education — girls that are worse off to begin with suffer greater consequences when conflict breaks out. In times of conflict, children may become separated from their parents and girls will be required to take on responsibilities heading their households.
In Syria, five years of civil war has had a devastating effect on school attendance. Before the conflict broke out, an estimated 97% of Syrian children were enrolled in primary school. But by 2013, roughly 45% of the country's 4.8 million children and teens were out of school, UNICEF estimates. In the three years since then, the conflict has only escalated, driving millions to flee their war-torn country. Providing access to education for refugee children has continued to be a challenge. Neighboring Lebanon is implementing double-shifts at schools to serve as many refugee children as possible. A cease-fire agreement may be the first sign of relief, but the country is far from stable, and it will be an immense challenge to normalize education.
The grave education situation in war-torn countries like Syria has garnered attention from global policymakers. Former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who serves as the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, has called for a fund to be created that would be committed to education in times of conflict.
Caption: A wounded Syrian girl at a makeshift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital, Damascus, following shelling and air raids by Syrian government forces on August 22, 2015.
Child marriage
One out of every three girls in the developing world is married before age 18, and one in nine weds by 15. Often, that means school is no longer an option.
Early marriage robs girls of their childhood and endangers their health and personal development. Girls Not Brides, a nonprofit that works to address the issue around the world, describes the harmful impact of marriage on girls who are forced into adulthood too soon: “Child brides are often disempowered, dependent on their husbands, and deprived of their fundamental rights to health, education, and safety. Neither physically nor emotionally ready to become wives and mothers, child brides are at greater risk of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, becoming infected with HIV/AIDS and suffering domestic violence. With little access to education and economic opportunities, they and their families are more likely to live in poverty.”
Cecilia Zvosec, a gender, youth, and rights specialist at global advocacy organization, Women Deliver, describes the causes and effects of early marriage as complex: “influenced by social, cultural and religious norms, poverty and economic incentives, deeply influenced by local context and embedded in systematic discrimination against girls and young women.” In part because of the variety of causes and effects of child marriage, “there is no one-size-fits-all solution to keep more girls in schools and reduce the number of adolescent girls who are married early,” she said.
Prevention is key, which may involve engaging community members to change norms and see the value in delaying marriage. Zvosec cited government-sponsored conditional cash transfer programs that give married girls monetary incentives to delay marriage and stay in school as one effective approach to keep girls in school once they’re married. Young people themselves are also critical actors in the global movement to end child marriage. They are lobbying members of their respective parliaments to introduce policies that raise the age of marriage, and contributing their voices, perspectives, and expertise in spaces like the African Girls' Summit on Ending Child Marriage to forward these advocacy efforts. Increased access to education for girls can help lower the child marriage rate.
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) has found that girls with higher levels of schooling are less likely to marry as children. “In Mozambique, some 60% of girls with no education are married by 18, compared to 10% of girls with secondary schooling and less than 1% of girls with higher education,” ICRW said in one report. UNICEF estimates that providing secondary education to all girls in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would cause the child marriage rate to fall by nearly two-thirds.
Caption: 15-year-old Nasoin Akhter poses for a video on the day of her wedding to a 32-year-old man in Manikganj, Bangladesh.
Poverty
Poverty is the greatest barrier to accessing an education. The financial burden of education for those living in poverty includes the direct costs, including school fees, uniforms and shoes, supplies and books, transportation, and the cost of a child being in school instead of helping contribute to the household income. Even if tuition is free, other mandatory fees can add up to approximately $250 per child per year in places like rural Kenya, where the typical household income is just a few hundred dollars per year. If a choice has to be made between sending a boy or a girl to school, the boy will usually be given preference.
Strategies to promote education for girls must consider how to reduce extreme poverty, which causes girls’ education to be given a lower priority by families who are struggling to survive. "We have to be thinking about how to defeat poverty at the same time, because poverty is holding so many of these girls back," Julia Gillard, former prime minister of Australia, said at a #62MillionGirls event in New York City. Interventions that help the poorest girls stay in school include incentive programs, which give subsidies to cover school costs, and school feeding programs, where girls get breakfast and lunch at school.
Caption: An Iraqi girl searches through garbage for recyclable items at a waste dump on the outskirts of the city of Najaf, on February 6.
Gender-based violence
Girls who do pursue an education can become targets of bullying, harassment, and even physical attacks. In some places, girls encounter extreme threats on a daily basis, but they continue to show up despite the risk of physical harm.
One 2015 United Nations report found that gender-based violence at schools is hurting the educational prospects of millions of children worldwide. That includes everything from targeted assaults, such as terrorists poisoning water supplies or throwing acid or hand grenades at girls’ schools in Afghanistan, to incidents of teasing, bullying, psychological intimidation, sexual harassment, and even rape. One South African survey cited that nearly 8% of all female secondary students experienced "severe sexual assault or rape while at school."
"It is clear that (school-related gender-based violence) is creating a dangerous learning environment for children all over the world, especially for adolescent girls,” Irina Bokova, director general of UNESCO, said in a news release. “School should be a safe haven for young people, especially for those in marginalized and conflict-affected countries."
While school should provide a nurturing environment, it can become a girl’s nightmare when violence is perpetuated at school by teachers, figures of authority, or fellow students. Corporal punishment, including physical beatings by teachers, is still prevalent in many areas of the world. These disciplinary tactics play out in different ways for both genders. Girls may be taunted, sexually harassed, or targeted for punishment for not being sufficiently submissive and ‘ladylike.’”
Caption: A classroom in the West Point slum of Monrovia, Liberia on February 9, 2016.
Cultural practices
Traditional, religious, and cultural beliefs can act as barriers to keep girls out of school. In some patriarchal societies where women have traditionally held a lower societal status, girls are restricted by the prevailing view that a woman’s proper place is in the home. In certain places, rituals that signify the transition to womanhood, such as forcing girls to have unprotected sex or female genital mutilation, are physically and emotionally traumatizing and may keep girls out of school for prolonged periods or even cause them to drop out.
Gender stereotypes are also harmful. Education may not be valued for girls, or may be seen as irrelevant to or in conflict with accepted roles for women in society. Parents may have limited involvement with girls’ early learning or provide little encouragement to girls in their schooling.
To change norms, parents and communities can be sensitized to the importance of girls’ education and completion of schooling through community dialogue sessions. Village committees and parent-teacher associations can strengthen links between schools and communities and promote community and parental involvement in girls’ education.
Caption: A girl carries water in a village in Togo.
Disabilities
According to the U.K.’s Department for International Development, 80% of the 1 billion people with a disability live in developing countries. Children with disabilities are unlikely to ever enter a classroom in many areas of the world, even if they are willing and able to learn. They face physical barriers, stigma, and inadequate policies that prevent them from participating in their communities and achieving their potential. Girls with disabilities are at particular risk, since they are subject to double discrimination: disadvantage for being female and exclusion for having a disability.
In school and on the way to school, disabled girls face immense physical barriers. Children may walk for miles to go to school in rural areas on unpaved or uneven terrain. If a girl has an impairment, this journey can be dangerous or even impossible. Once the girl gets to school, the facilities may not be accessible. Schools may not be able to provide adequate assistive devices and learning materials, such as braille kits, hearing aids, reading glasses, and wheelchairs to those who need them.
Girls with disabilities face massive social stigma at home and in their communities — many are marginalized and shunned, preventing them from integrating with their families and peers.
In places with very limited resources, education policy may overlook the needs of disabled children and the particular needs of disabled girls, who are among the most vulnerable and forgotten groups.
When parents have knowledge of every child’s right to education, the importance of educating girls, and the rights of people with disabilities, parents become champions for their daughters to receive an education. Dialogue about inclusion, integration, and accommodation can break down barriers by improving school accessibility and national education policies.
Caption: A disabled girl at the Clair Bois-Chambesy school and home in Switzerland.
What you can do to help
Women today have more opportunities and greater presence in classrooms and boardrooms than ever before. But much work remains to be done to ensure that girls everywhere get a safe, quality education so that they can pursue their dreams.
Not only is education a fundamental human right, but educating girls is one of the smartest investments that can be made for transforming communities and economies. Educating a girl unlocks her full potential, and creates a ripple effect of opportunity that influences her family, her community, and generations to come — altering the trajectory of opportunity and breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals include a bold call to action for inclusive and quality education for all, with a target of eliminating gender disparities in education by 2030. To learn more about how you can help 62 million girls in schools around the world, check out these organizations:
Girl Rising
U.N. Foundation Girl Up
White House Let Girls Learn initiative
U.N. Girls Education Initiative
Plan International “Because I am a Girl” campaign
Girl Effect
CAMFED Girls’ Education project
World Bank — Global Partnership for Education
Clinton Foundation “No Ceilings” campaign
Caption: A girl attends a self-empowerment class and know-your-rights workshop for young women and girls in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya.
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