Healthy Schools - a vehicle for developing global citizenship
An article from Kenya's newspaper Saturday Nation on the Web www.nationmedia.com
Comment
Saturday, April 12, 2003
Investing in girls' schooling a win-win strategy
By U.N. TEAM In isolated African hamlets, 12-year-old girls are convincing their parents to allow them to postpone marriage until they graduate from school, so they will belong to the first generation of educated girls in their communities.
Mali's community school programme ensures that half the students are girls, local women are trained to become teachers and class hours respect the rhythm of the farming seasons.
Away from Africa - in rural Bangladesh - girl enrolment in secondary school has doubled in less than a decade.
In some of the world's most deprived areas, girls are realising their right to an education and joining the drive to eliminate the gender gap in primary and secondary education by 2005.
Three years ago, at the World Education Forum in Dakar, some 160 states committed themselves to achieving this target, along with ensuring a complete quality primary education for all children by 2015.
Recognising education's pivotal role in eliminating poverty, these targets were included in the UN Millennium Development Goals, endorsed by 189 states.
Poverty alleviation
Last week, UN agencies, along with teachers' unions, NGOs and citizens' groups worldwide, were spearheading a global lobbying effort to speed up progress on girls' education. Much remains to be done.
Close to 60 per cent of the world's out-of-school children are girls. In some black African states, the gender gap has widened in recent years. For some 50 countries, the 2005 primary-secondary gender parity target remains a tall order.
The rationale for girls' education is now indisputable. It translates into lower infant and maternal mortality, smaller and healthier families, higher agricultural productivity and higher per capita incomes.
It is the single most effective way to prevent HIV/Aids. More fundamentally, education is a human right, for girls as for boys. It is about gaining the power to question, make choices and acquire the tools to better one's life.
Getting girls into school means acting on what keeps them outside the classroom in the first place. Often hidden, girls' work outside the home is a major obstacle.
Even where girls do not work outside the household, many parents require their daughters to fetch water, help out in the fields and care for siblings. Even then, the cost of clothing, shoes and textbooks is beyond poor families' reach. Then there is the often justified fear of sexual harassment on long walks to school or even at school, by male teachers or older students.
Finally comes the perception that education is of little value in societies where girls are expected to marry early and remain in the narrow household. Yet most families will send girls to school when costs are reduced and quality is improved.
MaProgress goes hand in hand with hiring female teachers when they are in a minority and training all teachers to have positive expectations from girls.
Separate latrines, safe drinking water, free meals and small schools close to home are having a direct impact on boosting girl attendance and learning in many poverty-strapped regions of Asia and Africa.
Just as important, curricula are challenging stereotypes about girls' lives and responsibilities and teaching them about health, nutrition, hygiene and the local environment.
The clear message is that education is synonymous with empowerment. Women - who make up two thirds of the world's 860 million illiterate adults - are learning to read and write through programmes that teach them how to manage credit, maintain water pumps and take on issues like health and violence that directly resonate in their lives.
Their new-found confidence makes them the strongest advocates of their daughters' right to education. Therefore, investing in female education is a win-win strategy.
We must act on two fronts at once: empowering women and exploring every path that opens the doors of learning to girls. Speeding up progress will require creativity and sustained commitment by governments and the international community to put girls first.
The development goals will not be reached without educating girls. Denying girls the right to learn simply deprives the next generations of a better future. In the 21st century, this is simply unacceptable.
This article has been written by Unesco director-general Koichiro Matsuura, UNDP administrator Mark Malloch Brown, UNFPA diretor-general Thoraya Obaid, Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy, World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn and ILO executive director Juan Somavia.
Reference:
Title: Investing in Girls' Schooling a Win-win Strategy
Author: UN Team
Date: 2003
Link: http://www.eenet.org.uk/resources/docs/investing_school_strategy.php
