Girls’ Education in the United States and Ghana

According to Schultz [14], education helps individuals to acquire knowledge and skills through teaching, learning, training and research. It is in this regard that UNESCO [16] posited that for a succesful achievement of educational goals, there should be no discrimination or whatesover with respect to gender.it should be pointed out that, education for girls is one of the ways to promote social and economic development. World Bank [17] notes that increasing the educational level of girls has a favourable impact on economic growth. Looking at the relevance of educating women in national development, special emphasis has laid on female's education. For instance, Adamu-Issah, Elden, Forson and Schrofer [1] stressed the need to educate girls and have access to a complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality. According to the report of the Pan African Conference (as cited in UNESCO [16], Africans have been behind other continents in female's participation in education and this was attributed to the belief in male superiority and female subordination.

2011

Girls' education has been promoted by the international development community for over two decades; however, it has proven harder to promote gender equality through education than it has been to promote gender parity in education. Of significance is the global circulation and coexistence of two competing rationales for the importance of girls' education: economic efficiency and social justice. The cost of ignoring how and why Southern governments and their development partners choose to promote girls' education is high: an over-emphasis on economic efficiency can mean that the root causes of gendered inequalities in society remain unchallenged, and more social justice-oriented reforms become marginalized.

SAGE , 2013

Towards gender equality in education: the case of Ethiopia Women have multiple roles. At any given time they can be mothers, leaders, students, decision-makers, farmers, workers, voters and much more. In each of these roles, the ability to be educated and healthy, to have voice and influence, and to enjoy opportunities and choices are critical to the attainment of the Goals. Gender equality and women's empowerment are central to achieving the MDGs because without these capabilities and opportunities, women are less able to reach their full potential, live a life of dignity, and be productive citizens. Gender equality helps accelerate achievement of each goal. In addition, there is solid evidence that progress in gender equality in one goal often contributes simultaneously towards progress on a number of other development goals. For example, gender equality in education also makes significant contributions to a nation's economic growth and poverty reduction as well as to reduced malnutrition, fertility, and child mortality. Ethiopia is one of the countries known for gender inequality. The statistical figures of DHS 2005 clearly show this difference. For instance, regarding literacy, sharp disparity is indicated among women and men even though it is low for both sexes. The proportion of illiterate women (who cannot read a whole sentence) was as high as 76.8 % where as for men it was 53.3 %. By contrast men are more than twice as likely to be literate compared to women, 45.1 % and 21.5 % for men and women, respectively. The difference is found to be statistically significant. With regard to educational attainment similar significant inequality is indicated. Educational attainment of women is by far lower than that of men according to the data. The majority of women (65.9%) and 42.9 % of men had no education. During the same year, 19.8 % of men had attained secondary and higher level of education. The percentage was, however, only 11.9% for women. Again the gap is found to be significant. (Ethiopian society of population study, 2005) Education Significant progress has been made in school enrollment, though gender disparities persist. The greatest progress has been made in access to primary education: net primary enrollment rates for girls doubled from 1995 to 2005, from 21 percent to 42 percent. It is notable that efforts to promote higher and more equal access to primary education have benefited lower income

1998

policy to promote girls' and womens' education 3.3.3 Policy design and implementation: strengths and weaknesses 3.3.4 Contradictions in government policy 3.3.5 Organisational and bureaucratic factors and the role of gender advocates 3.3.6 The role played by gender advocates within MOE and MOWCACDSW 3.3.7 Implementation issues 3.3.8 The girl's secondary school scholarship programme 3.4 Donor interventions 3.4.1 Donor support to education 3.4.2 USAID-Gable programme 1991-1998 3.4.3 UNICEF 3.4.4 ODA/DFID 3.4.5 Donor coordination 3.5 Non governmental organisations 3.5.1 The nature of NGO activity 3.5.2 Relationship between women's NGOs and government 3.5.3 NGOs and aid agencies 3.5.4 NGOs and government policy 3.6. Conclusion Chapter 4-Tanzania 4.1. Educational provision: An overview 4.1.1 Primary and secondary education 4.1.2 Post-secondary education and training 4.1.3 Literacy and non-formal education 4.1.4 Education funding Gender and Education: Gender analyses of education were originally undertaken in the countries of the industrial north. By the 1980s, relatively little systematic research on this topic had been done in the developing countries. 5 Most of the early literature on gender and education was concerned with girls' access to schooling and economic outcomes in the labour market (Elliot and Kelly, 1980). 5 See literature reviews in Comparative Education, 1980 and Comparative Education, 1987. Conventional human capital rationales for investing in women have been particularly influential. Research has shown that both the social and private rates of return to girls' primary education are generally high. From the late 1980s, the World Bank sponsored a number of country studies which showed very significant social and economic benefits from investing in the education of females (Floro and Wolf, 1990, Bustillo, 1989, Herz et al, 1991, King and Hill 1993). The level of maternal schooling was found to be especially important in promoting the education prospects of girls (Bustillo, 1989). Other positive outcomes that have been consistently highlighted are increased productivity, reduced fertility, reduced child and maternal mortality, and improving the environment (Herz et al, 1991 and Summers, 1992). According to this paradigm, underinvesting in girls' education is seen as being a 'waste' of human and economic potential. Most research on gender and education to date has concentrated on the access, persistence and attainment, the financing of education-the role of teachers and the curriculum have not be adequately addressed. Numerous gender specific education projects have been tried by governments, donors and NGOs in a variety of combinations in many developing countries. These have included bringing schools closer to communities, improving textbooks, increasing the number of women teachers, scholarship programmes for secondary school girls etc. Research evidence has shown that policy 'packages' are likely to be more effective than single interventions (Swainson, 1996). However, as King and Hill (1993) have pointed out, most gender activities in education have been single interventions. Analyses of gender and education produced by the World Bank and other donors have relied heavily on a simple supply and demand framework. The dominance of economic theory in the World Bank and other donor agencies has resulted in arguments in favour of better educational provision for girls being mainly couched in terms of 'efficiency'. Although World Bank sponsored research has resulted in the development of some useful strategies, it has tended to be too simplistic and economistic. Crucial issues such