Education:

Global Access to Education - Education

One of the major issues for many teens around the world is not having access to education, preventing them from ever being able to access higher education, jobs, etc. in order to make a better life for themselves. In many third world and developing countries around the world, low access to education is a serious issue.

A Pakistani girl receives, on average, just two and a half years of education; for boys, it’s double.  If a girl lives in a rural area, she is three times less likely to complete primary school than is a boy in the same area.  Likewise, in rural areas, the female literacy rate is 25 percent and only one in five girls is enrolled in school.  Secondary education is a luxury in Pakistan for all children, but even more so for girls, for whom enrollment drops by nearly 90 percent from 1st grade to 12th grade Global Campaign for Education

Among rural populations, access is to education is so poor, it is effecting the literacy and therefore potential of their people. Girls dropping out of school, or not being able to go in the first place is a widespread problem, as access to education is much higher for boys.

One third of women in Tanzania – more than 4 million women in total – are not literate. The net enrolment rate for girls at primary level is now an impressive 97%, slightly higher than that of boys. But the rate of transition to secondary school is extremely low: just 32% in 2008, compared to 40% for boys. The proportion of girls completing a full secondary education was a drastically low 0.8% in 2010. Almost 1.2 million adolescent girls are out of school. The pattern is repeated for women in adult and non-formal education, with only 55% making it to mainstream schools.

Global Campaign for Education, US Chapter

While primary education access is high, the rate is significantly lower for teenagers who need secondary schools. Without good education post primary school, the rate of literacy within a country remains low.

How many teens are affected?

In Sub-Saharan Africa, four out of five women do not receive any form of education...Across the globe, nearly 61 million children are deprived access to a basic education.  A 2008 estimate states that 60 percent of these children are girls...Among developing nations, 'the gender gap between boys and girls in primary school completion rates is greater than 10 percentage points.' An additional 100 million girls worldwide that begin primary school do not finish. The numbers are even starker for secondary education, which is unavailable to more than 200 million children and in which we see even more extreme disparity in enrollment and completion between boys and girls”(Global Campaign for Education). The overall access to education is not good, but it is significantly worse in rural populations and developing countries such as Tanzania, Pakistan, Bolivia, etc.

Recources to Help

The Campaign for Global Education (CGE) is a civil society movement that aims to end the global education crisis. Education is a basic human right, and our mission is to make sure that governments act now to deliver the right of everyone to a free, quality, public education…Nationally, there are over 80 education coalitions which have their own memberships comprised of teachers’ unions, NGOs and other civil society organisations committed to education.”

Through working with groups and organizations, the CGE is expanding the number of people worldwide who have better access to higher quality education. The organization is also working to close the gender gap in education and improve girls’ ability to attend school or attend school without discrimination. http://campaignforeducation.org/

The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is working toward providing education to populations that need it, and in improving gender equality throughout the world.

Since its creation in 1945, UNESCO’s mission has been to contribute to the building of peace, poverty eradication, lasting development and intercultural dialogue, with education as one of its principal activities to achieve this aim. The Organization is committed to a holistic and humanistic vision of quality education worldwide, the realization of everyone’s right to education, and the belief that education plays a fundamental role in human, social and economic development.

UNESCO launches and monitors initiatives that improve the access to education in populations that are in desperate need of it. http://en.unesco.org/themes/education-21st-century