The bad news: 31 million primary school aged girls were not enrolled in school
The good news: more girls than ever are attending school
When you educate young girls, you are placing a long term investment back into the community. October 11 is the International Day of the Girl Child. This year's focus is Innovating for Girls' Education. Countries around the world are getting creative by thinking outside the box to create innovated programs to break down the barriers of girls' education. An innovation is more than providing girls the basic tools necessary for school: it is about providing them the opportunity to be heard, and a chance to reach their full potential. Below is a video of how some countries are creating innovated way to solve the problem of girl's unequal access to education.
It is nice to see that more girls are attending school now ,but there is still more work to be done. Building a school that is in the village where the girls is a great idea, as it is safer and convenient for the girls to learn and end the poverty that is seen. I am glad that UNICEF is advocating that girls need an education and should go to school and be what they want t be.
ReplyDeleteThis is a step in the right direction but I feel like we need to put more funds into educating the elders as to why education is important. As we know most of our social cultural norms are founded and cemented by the elders in our communities. If we can convince them education is important then a lot more girls will be more comfortable stepping out their social norms of being housewives at 17 and actually step inside a school without feeling guilty about "wasting" their parent's lifesavings and causing shame upon their families. I know in my parent's experience the girls would usually start working abroad at the age of 12 sending home money every month in order to support families and put her brothers through school so their family can hope to end the poverty cycle. Ultimately many of the girls NEED permission to go to school(due to both money cost and opportunity cost) and organizations NEED to let the elders of their community know the value of a good schooling. http://tinyurl.com/otwugvm
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