GPE / Jok Solomon

Globally, access of the poorest girls to school remains an acute problem

The World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), managed by the GEM Report and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, highlights the powerful influence of gender, combined with other factors over which people have little control, such as wealth, ethnicity and location, but which play an important role in shaping their opportunities for education and life.

WIDE data, which feature on a fact sheet to mark International Women’s Day, show that in some countries, the gap in primary out-of-school rates between the poorest girls and the national average is at least 25 and up to 45 percentage points. While in some of these countries (such as Chad and Nigeria), poor boys and girls are almost equally disadvantaged, in others (such as Benin and Cameroon) girls are almost 10 percentage points more likely to be out of school – and in Pakistan the gap is 17 percentage points: 59% of the poorest primary-age girls are out of school, compared to 42% of the poorest boys.

Out-of-school rates among primary age children, by gender and wealth, selected countries, 2000-20

On International Women’s Day, it is sobering to see such gaps – before one looks at even worse gender gaps among secondary school age adolescents and youth.

Young women of upper secondary school age are more likely to be out of school in most lower-middle- and in practically all low-income countries. In a few countries, disparities are of the same magnitude for rural and urban and even for the poorest and richest girls. But in many countries, including Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Sudan, rural and poor girls are at a particular disadvantage, as we showed in the baseline report for the G7 global objectives on girls’ education.

Gender gap in school attendance among youth of upper secondary school age, by wealth, low- and lower-middle-income countries, 2014–2019

At that level, girls’ exclusion from education is due to many factors – including child marriage, early pregnancy, household labour division, and the lack of easy and safe access to schools near where they live – which ultimately boil down to discriminatory gender norms in society. While progress towards gender parity in access to education is notable in many parts of the world, we cannot turn a blind eye to continuing injustices against some of the world’s most disadvantaged girls.

See your country’s data on the WIDE database.

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