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More girls in school but dropout rates high

A group of refugee youths take a language class at the New Eastleigh Primary School. The International Rescue Committee, which works with urban and camp-based refugees, supports the language classes Jane Some/IRIN
Education officials and advocates have helped get more girls into primary school worldwide but many girls are still dropping out before secondary level, say education experts meeting in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

The UN Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI) is taking place 10 years on from the World Education Forum, which helped launch government action plans to reach the Millennium Development education targets for 2015. The goals include eliminating gender disparity at all school levels and ensuring that all children complete basic primary education.

In the past decade more girls are attending school in central and Eastern Europe, east Asia and Latin America, with two-thirds of countries achieving gender parity at primary level as of 2006. Twice as many primary schools are operating worldwide than in 2000, said Anthony Lake, recently named executive director of UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

But only about one-third of countries maintained gender parity at secondary level. And some 72 million children are still not in school – two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa or south and east Asia.

“All development work hinges on educating girls – and boys,” Lake told reporters at an 18 May press conference. “There is a lot of work ahead.”

Retention through quality

“Retention is the issue for girls’ education,” May Rihani, co-chair of UNGEI and head of non-profit Academy for Education Development (AED), told IRIN.

Primary-to-secondary dropout rates fell from 14 percent to two percent in Rwanda when the government introduced a straight nine-year school programme, Education Minister Mathias Harebamungu told reporters.

Mauritius has done the same, and Senegal is considering it, according to Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta, West Africa director at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Senegal has nearly achieved gender parity at primary level, but girls make up just 15 percent of secondary school students, according to Education Minister Kalidou Diallo.

Experts said quality is crucial to boosting retention levels.

Neither girls nor boys will stay in school if they are not getting a quality education, said UNGEI co-chair David Wiking, education team director at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). He said violence in schools and poor-quality teaching are hampering gender parity. “Millions of children go to school and do not learn. We need to look beyond education and understand why they don’t learn….schools should not be crime scenes.”

UNESCO’s Ndong-Jatta agreed. “We can convince anyone on access, but 75 percent of children in Africa still fail their exams,” she told IRIN. “Curricula are outdated…when we look at quality we have to ensure education is relevant, and can guarantee jobs; we need to prepare children for the world of work.”

Meeting in Dakar 18 to 20 May, delegates from 22 countries will discuss poverty, violence in schools and quality of education, working to incorporate solutions into country action plans.

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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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