Education Is Every Child

Girl's education Education is vital to ensuring a better quality of life for all children and a better world for all people. But if girls are left behind, those goals can never be achieved. In country after country, educating girls yields spectacular social benefits for the current generation and those to come. An educated girl tends to marry later and have fewer children. The children she does have will be more likely to survive; they will be better nourished and better educated. She will be more productive at home and better paid in the workplace. She will be better able to protect herself against HIV/AIDS and to assume a more active role in social, economic and political decision-making throughout her life. UNICEF’s aim is to get more girls into school, ensure that they stay in school and that they are equipped with the basic tools they need to succeed in later life. As part of its on-going efforts to ensure every girl and boy their right to an education, UNICEF’s acceleration strategy is speeding progress in girls’ enrolment in 25 selected countries during the 2002-2005 period.

Education is every child’s right. It equips them with the knowledge and skills they need to realize their potential and to protect themselves from harm. And the better quality of life education brings, translates into huge benefits for society. That's why education is essential to the development of every country. However, girls are far too often left behind. If this continues, such progress will never be made.

Exemple of aicha Aïcha is an 11-year-old girl living in Morocco who has done something no other girl or woman in her family has accomplished. She is the first female member in her family to attend school. She is in the fourth grade. Her sister Meryem, at 16, is one of the 60 per cent of girls in Morocco who, a decade ago, could not have imagined entering school. Times are changing for Aïcha. Having enrolled at the age of seven, she is doing very well and has successfully passed every grade. Despite the expense of sending their daughter to school here in Morroco, Aïcha’s family has decided that illiteracy for their child would be far more costly.

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It takes community to keep girls in classrooms Aïcha goes to a school that was built in her village. The year she entered school, the community, with UNICEF assistance, installed village water sources. Having water closer to homes meant that women and girls spent less time carrying it. A young female facilitator of women’s literacy classes also encouraged the installation and use of modern household stoves, reducing the time spent collecting wood, and thus providing more time for classwork. The school director helped Aïcha’s enrollment, accepting her into the school even though she did not have a birth certificate. He also helped her parents to get all their children officially registered. The school provides meals through another government programme. At first the community distributed sandwiches in the dusty school yard. Later, it gave out more substantial meals. As a result, Aïcha’s stomach no longer rumbles and she remains alert and attentive in class. Dreams and determination Other factors threaten Aïcha’s education in spite of the child-friendly environment created in school. This year, the long-awaited rain fell to turn parched land into luscious fields of green. Lucky for Morocco. Worrisome for Aïcha. Abundant fields mean that all family members need to help by working the land, caring for the house and minding the younger children. She has already seen many of her friends absent from class. Aïcha may face many obstacles but she is determined to finish school, even if it means getting up earlier to help with daily chores. She wants a better life than her mother and elder sister who work from dawn to dusk. In Morocco, the legal age for a girl to marry is 15, but school has shown her a different way. Aïcha wants to delay marriage and become a teacher. The primary school has given her much more than dreams. The reality is that her life, and the life of the community, has been enriched by coming together to make literacy and numeracy possible for girls and boys. By offering health services and adult literacy classes, the students and their parents are receiving the support they need for the future. The teacher, trained in health care by UNICEF and the Moroccan health and education ministries, monitors the children’s hygiene, watches out for symptoms of illness and encourages parents to take their children to the health centre located about 20 kilometres away. Aïcha has a long road to travel if she is to fulfil her dream of becoming a teacher, but she is not making the trip alone. Her family and community helped pave the way by joining the Moroccan Government, UNICEF and its other partners to build a learning environment for girls and boys. The formula was simple: Erect a safe, clean building. Add education, water, sanitation and health care. Then top it off with children.

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Investing in girls’ education globally delivers huge returns for economic growth, political participation, women’s health, smaller and more sustainable families, and disease prevention, concludes a new report from the Council’s Center for Universal Education by Senior Fellow Gene Sperling, former national economic adviser in the Clinton administration, and Barbara Herz, who brings more than twenty years of expertise at the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Treasury, and the World Bank. To effectively support and expand programs that increase girls’ educational opportunities, countries need to develop comprehensive national education strategies and ensure that heads of state and ministers prioritize education, which in turn can mobilize sufficient resources to get the job done. The report summarizes the extensive body of research on the state of girls' education in the developing world today; the impact of educating girls on families, economies, and nations; and the most promising approaches to increasing girls' enrollment and educational quality. The overall conclusions are straightforward: educating girls pays off substantially. While challenges still remain, existing research provides us quidance on how to make significant progress.

Why is girls' education important? Investment in girls’ education yields some of the highest returns of all development investments, yielding both private and social benefits that accrue to individuals, families, and society at large by: •

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Reducing women’s fertility rates. Women with formal education are much more likely to use reliable family planning methods, delay marriage and childbearing, and have fewer and healthier babies than women with no formal education. It is estimated that one year of female schooling reduces fertility by 10 percent. The effect is particularly pronounced for secondary schooling. Lowering infant and child mortality rates. Women with some formal education are more likely to seek medical care, ensure their children are immunized, be better informed about their children's nutritional requirements, and adopt improved sanitation practices. As a result, their infants and children have higher survival rates and tend to be healthier and better nourished. Lowering maternal mortality rates. Women with formal education tend to have better knowledge about health care practices, are less likely to become pregnant at a very young age, tend to have fewer, better-spaced pregnancies, and seek pre- and post-natal care. It is estimated that an additional year of schooling for 1,000 women helps prevent two maternal deaths. Protecting against HIV/AIDS infection. Girls’ education ranks among the most powerful tools for reducing girls’ vulnerability. It slows and reduces the spread of HIV/AIDS by contributing to female economic independence, delayed marriage, family planning, and work outside the home as well as greater information about the disease and how to prevent it. Increasing women’s labor force participation rates and earnings. Education has been proven to increase income for wage earners and increase productivity for employers, yielding benefits for the community and society.

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Creating intergenerational education benefits. Mothers’ education is a significant variable affecting children’s education attainment and opportunities. A mother with a few years of formal education is considerably more likely to send her children to school. In many countries each additional year of formal education completed by a mother translates into her children remaining in school for an additional one-third to one-half year.

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