Mind the gaps… What will it take to get all girls in school and learning?

• In Event: Minding the gaps: with more sub-Saharan African governments introducing free secondary school education, what barriers persist for marginalized girls?

Proposal

Our experience of school fee abolition in the early years of the Education for All (EFA) movement demonstrates the tremendous impact of fee-free schools on girls’ enrolment in primary education. With the elimination of school fees across the developing world, families were no longer required to make hard decisions about whether to invest in the girl or boy child. SDG 4 calls for a new level of ambition, with the extension of free and equitable secondary education to all girls and boys. With this comes new expectations that girls, families, communities and nation states will reap the benefits of girls completing 12 years of education: better economic growth and higher incomes; reduced infant mortality, maternal mortality, child marriage, incidence of HIV/AIDS, and malaria; and increased levels agricultural productivity, resilience to natural disasters, and women’s empowerment (Sperling, G B & Winthrop, R. 2015).

To date, research findings on the impact of the abolition of secondary school fees in developing countries is limited. However, a review of programs by leading NGOs such as AGE Africa, FAWE and CAMFED indicate that the elimination of school fees is not enough to keep girls in school and learning. In GPE’s analysis of barriers to education faced by girls, the cost of schooling is but one of 10 factors listed. Similarly, the World Bank’s recent research into why adolescent girls drop out of school found that while school fees are an important factor, a range of other costs including uniforms, guard fees, transport, and lunches, as well as the opportunity costs of families losing their daughters’ labor made the investment appear to outweigh the possible returns. Parents also listed failure in exams, lack of secondary schools, forced withdrawal of pregnant girls, and pressure for girls to be married as key factors leading to drop-out (Wodon, Q; Montenegro, C; Nguyen, H; Onagoruwa, A. 2018). Others highlight gendered barriers faced by adolescent girls, including an inadequate number of women teachers at secondary level, insufficient attention to menstrual hygiene management, and school-related gender-based violence – abuse and harassment of girls in school and on the way to school.

Further, can we be sure that by eliminating school fees at secondary level, the most marginalized girls in rural, under-resourced regions will not be left even further behind?
Thus, if eliminating school fees is not enough, what will it take to ensure that all girls take up and benefit from equitable quality education? What policies need to be in place? What will it cost? What new skills and competencies will ministries need to ensure that all girls can complete 12 years of quality education?

In addressing these questions, UNGEI will reference early findings of a research partnership with the Malala Fund on costing and financing girls’ education as well as three years’ experience with the Global Partnership for Education on Gender-Responsive Education Sector Planning.

Authors

• Nora Fyles, UN Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI)

• Sarah Winfield, UNGEI