The Girls' Education Initiative in Egypt

Opening Address Presented at the Federation of University Women of Africa Conference, Lagos, Nigeria, 2009

Girls’ education on the African continent has reached a crossroads. The gender gap has lessened significantly over the last 15 years, particularly in primary education, with the high priorities placed on girls’ education in national, continental and international education policies and laws, conventions and agreements. These include country education policies, poverty reduction and economic development strategies, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All (EFA) campaign. However, there are still millions of girls without access to primary and secondary education across the continent. This paper describes the foundations of girls’ education at the beginning of the 21st century and explores the macro-level, socio-cultural, legal/policy and school-related factors causing the gender gap in primary and secondary education. The paper details recent successes in achieving the MDG and EFA goals and outlines the way forward for closing the gender gap.

Co-authored with Gene Sperling and Rebecca Winthrop. Hard-headed evidence on why the returns from investing in girls are so high that no nation or family can afford not to educate their girls. Gene Sperling, author of the seminal 2004 report published by the Council on Foreign Relations, and Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Center for Universal Education, have written this definitive book on the importance of girls’ education. As Malala Yousafzai expresses in her foreword, the idea that any child could be denied an education due to poverty, custom, the law, or terrorist threats is just wrong and unimaginable. More than 1,000 studies have provided evidence that high-quality girls’ education around the world leads to wide-ranging returns: -Better outcomes in economic areas of growth and incomes -Reduced rates of infant and maternal mortality -Reduced rates of child marriage -Reduced rates of the incidence of HIV/AIDS and malaria -Increased agricultural productivity -Increased resilience to natural disasters -Women’s empowerment What Works in Girls’ Education is a compelling work for both concerned global citizens, and any academic, expert, nongovernmental organization (NGO) staff member, policymaker, or journalist seeking to dive into the evidence and policies on girls’ education.

This report contains a situation analysis of girls’ education in Iraq and recommendations for improving girls’ access to good quality schooling. The situation analysis is based on enrolment data provided by the Ministry of Education in Iraq, a range of currently available reports and other documentation, and on the responses of 80 Iraqi girls to a questionnaire relating to their own experiences of school and their views on girls’ education. The picture is incomplete because no data on girls’ attendance or success rates are available and these are crucial to a full situational analysis. In Iraq the overall number of children receiving primary education has declined between 2004-05 and 2007-08 by 88,164, with no improvement in the percentage of girls enrolled. Gross enrolment figures provided for the academic year 2005 – 2005 show 5,163,440 children enrolled in primary education. Girls account for 44.74% of students. Figures for 2007-2008 show 5,065,276 children enrolled in primary education, with 44.8 % being girls. This means that for every 100 boys enrolled in primary schools in Iraq, there are just under 89 girls. This under representation of girls in primary school in Iraq has been known for many years. The fact that there are declining numbers of girls in each successive grade has also been identified analyses of the data. Analysis of the 2007 -2008 data shows the same picture. In every governorate a smaller percentage of girls than boys start school. There are no governorates where the number of children completing primary education is acceptable, and it is even less acceptable for girls. The current data replicate previously available data in showing a generally declining percentage of girls in each successive primary school grade. Some 75% of girls who start school have dropped out during, or at the end of, primary school and so do not go on to intermediate education. Many of them will have dropped out after grade 1. When all governorates’ figures are combined, there are 21.66% fewer girls in grade 2 than in grade 1. Similarly there is a 28.63% national drop in the number of girls between grades 5 and 6. By the first intermediate class, only 25% the number of girls in grade 1 are in school; by the third intermediate class the figure is 20%. The percentage of girls in primary school classes in highest in Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniya. These three governorates also have the highest percentage of children in pre-school education. In Erbil 15.8% of children attend preschool provision, Dohuk 11.3% and Sulaimaniya 11.4% compared with, for example 5.7% in Baghdad, 8.6% in Kirkuk, or 3.3% in Diyala. There is also a major issue with the number of children in each grade who are over age. The difference between gross and net enrolment data for 2007-08 shows that 659,896 children are above the age for the grade that they are in. This represents 13% of all primary school children - more than one in every ten. Of those children, 228,829 children were still attending primary school when they were aged 13 – 15+. The net enrolment rate for girls 45.8%, as against a gross enrolment rate of 44.8%. This shows a significantly greater number of overage boys than girls. For example, only one third of teenagers still in primary schools were girls. 5 In order to increase girls’ participation in education, it is vital to gain an insight into why they never attend school or drop out before completing their basic education. A small scale survey of 80 Iraqi girls was therefore included in this piece of work. While this is not a large or statistically valid sample, their responses provide a clear insight into many of the reasons why girls do not go to school. As would be expected, parents, particularly fathers, play a major role in whether the girls can attend school or not. The girls refer to a range of reasons why families do not support girls attending school. These include concerns about safety, family poverty, a reluctance to allow adolescent girls to continue to attend school, the distance from home to school, early marriage and the need to help at home. The journey to and from school presents problems caused by fast traffic, dogs or boys. Girls are frequently demotivated by the behaviour of teachers who beat them, distress them and are unwilling to explain subject matter that a student does not understand. Their answers make frequent references to being beaten or insulted by teachers, and to teachers being unwilling to give explanations in lessons or support students in their learning. The girls describe their schools are unwelcoming and unpleasant with too few facilities and resources. Schools are described as dirty, poorly maintained and uncomfortable, with dirty lavatories and no drinking water available. Safety is an issue, particularly in areas of major instability and insecurity. The concerns about safety relate to both military conflict and civil crime such as abduction and rape.

African Journal of …

Northern Nigeria"s high gender inequity in education places the majority of young girls at a severe disadvantage. This cross-sectional study examined enrolment, dropout, and primary school completion rates in three communities in Kaduna State. Less than half of young people (6 -25 years) living in northern Nigeria are currently enrolled in school and the majority of students are males (60%). This study"s findings indicate there are nearly twice as many boys graduating from primary school as compared to girls, and the dropout rate for boys is close to half (3%) of the dropout rate for girls (5.4%). Sustained imputs are needed to boost female enrolment in junior secondary schools, create girl-friendly school environments, and to better enable communities to understand the value of girls' education (Afr.

SAGE , 2013

2007

Reproductive Health Matters, 2005

Without achieving gender equality for girls in education, the world has no chance of achieving many of the ambitious health, social and development targets it has set for itself.