UNESCO’s fact sheet – Investing in girls’ and women’s education: A smart investment to accelerate development – released for International Women’s Day shows investment in girls’ education has generated huge dividends over the past two decades. There are now fewer girls (122 million) out of school than boys (128 million) and according to the most up-to-date figures, 114 women are enrolled for every 100 men in higher education worldwide. Behind the global figures, however, stubborn pockets of exclusion remain. The ten countries with the highest out-of-school rates for girls are all in Africa apart from Afghanistan. In eight of them, over half of school-aged girls are out of school; in Afghanistan, 75% of girls are out of school.
Read UNESCO’s blog, International Women’s Day: Investment in girls’ education pays off.