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Educating Girls Creates Healthier Countries
March 19, 2007
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
-Benjamin Franklin
-Benjamin Franklin
Fewer than one in five girls in all of sub-Saharan Africa complete secondary school, and there are millions more girls worldwide who will never move beyond primary school. A new book published by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), Keeping the Promise: Five Benefits of Girls’ Secondary Education, clearly and succinctly presents data and analysis on the importance of educating girls in developing countries. It also illustrates the impact educating girls has on the day-to-day lives of real families the writer has met through her more than 30 years of experience in the field (www.aed.org/News/pressreleases/keeping_promise.html).
According to the book’s author, May Rihani, senior vice president and director of the AED Global Learning Group, there are five main social and economic benefits that society will reap as a result of educating girls at the secondary level:
- The presence of more secondary schools will increase primary enrollment and completion and improve overall education quality.
- Education beyond primary school results in an increase in civic participation and lower rates of youth violence and human trafficking.
- Health benefits from educating girls are immense, including significant decreases in infant mortality, lower teen birth rates, smaller families, and higher immunization rates and improved nutrition for children.
- Rates of HIV and AIDS decrease when girls are educated.
- Poverty is reduced as educated girls command higher wages and increase agricultural productivity.
“Countries can’t move forward economically if girls don’t receive an education,” said Rihani, a leading expert on girls’ education who has developed successful programs in 14 countries in Africa and the Middle East. “But you have to educate at least 35% of girls at the secondary level to expect serious political, economic and social change to happen.”
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsConifer, Co, United States
While girls receiving more education can have a major impact on women in third world countries education is only a piece of the puzzle. What happens to girls whose expectations have been raised through education and then there are so few jobs that neither males or females can use that education to raise their standard of living?
UCLA Early care and education
Los Aneles, CA, United States
I was feeling so hopeful about this, especially after hearing John Woods at CAEYC and reading "three cups of tea" by Greg Mortenson (I recommend this book).
However, after reading "Places in Between" by Rory Stewart (another recommendation) I have a much more complex and somewhat less optimistic view of how long it will take to achieve even the 35% level that's needed.
I'd appreciate seeing a little more comment on the resistance in fundanmentalist Islamic communities.
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