Miske Witt & Associates Inc. UNGEI Advocacy for Education for All Transition to Post-Primary Education: Focus on Girls

Miske Witt & Associates Inc.

UNGEI Advocacy for

Education for All

Transition to Post-Primary Education: Focus on Girls


The Time is NOW

• Transition to Post-Primary Education (PPE) must be given high priority in all countries

• PPE is especially critical for girls; the barriers must be addressed

• UNGEI can make a difference!


What is Post-Primary Education?

PPE includes all learning opportunities for adolescents:

• lower and upper secondary• tertiary education• vocational/technical education, job training • life skills, health education, income

generation programs• even basic education for youth who have

not completed primary school


Post-Primary Education is. . .

1. a human right, and important for achieving gender equity

2. Important to improving health and life chances of individuals, families, and communities

3. Important for national development - economic, social, political

4. Necessary for reaching MDGs, EFA and for maintaining UPE


Education is a Human Right

• Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), ages 0-18“Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child. . .” (CRC, Article 28)

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• The commitment to achieving gender equity; gender differences in participation and achievement are more pronounced at the post-primary level


PPE is Key to Improving Life Conditions

• …of individuals, families, and communities• More education means healthier families,

and lower fertility rates• Educated youth are more likely to send

their own (future) children to school for longer periods

• Lack of post-primary options further marginalizes the already disadvantaged and adversely affects life chances


PPE is Key to Development

• Development of knowledge, skills, and competencies are essential to success in the job market and important for participation in civil society (Lewin, 2005)

• Globalization and development are increasing the amount of knowledge and level of skill individuals need; more education is necessary.


PPE is necessary . . .

• To achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015

• To achieve the goals of Education for All by 2015

• To achieve and to sustain Universal Primary Education


Post-Primary Education is important and necessary.

• for the development of civil society,• for more complex and sustainable

economic and political infrastructure, • for healthy families and societies, • for the protection of the environment,

and • for cultural and human rights in global

contexts that are increasingly complex


II. PPE is especially critical for girls.

As shown by • gender gaps in

recent data • benefits to girls of

Post-Primary Education


Benefits and Barriers

• Girls’ benefit from PPE in a variety of ways

• There are many barriers to girls’ education– System barriers– School barriers– Household barriers


Benefits to Girls of Post-primary Education

• Health and well-being of the young woman and of her (fewer) children

• Economic: New skills for paid work

• Empowerment through emancipatory knowledge (e.g., rights, understanding of sexuality, norms that restrict empowerment)

• Capacity to avoid HIV/AIDS


Barriers to Post-Primary Education for Girls

• Barriers are overlapping, intertwining, and multisectoral

• Poverty

Children from the richest 1/5 of households in SSA are 11 times more likely to reach Grade 9 than those from the poorest 2/5 of households.

The ratio of boys to girls is 4:1 among the poorest 2/5 of households for Grade 9 participation. (Lewin, 2005)


Barriers to PPE for Girls

• System level– Lack of schools– Insufficient number of teachers– Absence of plans – Constrained resources to deal with

expected increased demand


Barriers to PPE for Girls

Barriers at the School level– Poor quality of curriculum, textbooks and

gendered images, gender-biased instruction, – Lack of facilities/privacy for menses– Gender violence

• Barriers at the Family/Household level– Cultural norms– Care-giving roles


UNGEI can make a difference!

Advocate for gender parity, equity, equalityUse lessons from EFA and Basic Education• Attend to access and quality simultaneously• Develop a “seamless system” of post-

primary education • Use a system-wide approach• Ensure involvement of partners and

stakeholders in policy and planning discussions


UNGEI can make a difference!

Design by

Text from Girls’ Transition to Post-Primary Education, prepared for UNGEI by

Documents

Miske Witt & Associates Inc. UNGEI Advocacy for Education for All Transition to Post-Primary Education: Focus on Girls