Strategies for Girls' Education

While we have talked a lot about challenges for girls' education, issues around women's education, and reasons for educating the ladies, what are some of the strategies or effective approaches?*

Cost is a huge issue.  While the fee may be only $10/year or books and supplies, when a family is living on less than $1/day that is a huge portion of their income.  This is also why, historically and still culturally in many places, boys education took priority.  The way society was/is structured, boys would be able to enter the economy, make money, and advance themselves but sexism would prohibit girls from doing that therefore investing in their education was a luxury most families simply could not afford.  The higher one goes in education, the more costly it becomes, therefore many girls are forced to stop attending school unless they receive a scholarship.

Health Concerns also can impact school attendance.  In many areas, water borne disease are a huge issue.  If a child is sick with diarrhea or has worms, this will increase absenteeism immensely. According to Half the Sky, a study demonstrated that de-worming children decreased absences by one quarter.

School Uniforms are key.  This also falls under costs but studies have demonstrated simply providing students with the uniform helps to keep them in school - it is also often a barrier to enter school.  And, this is also one of the best ways to keep girls from becoming mothers at a young age.

School Feeding Programs have also been proven to keep kids coming.  As with domestic school feeding programs, often time students cannot concentrate in school because they are under-nourished.  Also, children are often responsible for helping to harvest food to feed themselves (or working to raise money to help feed the family).  If children are fed at school, or better yet receive food for their families for attending school, they are more likely to actually show up to school.  If they are being fed, for obvious reasons, they are also going to do better in school.  As mentioned earlier this week, it is often not that parents do not see the benefits of education, it is that when you are living on the edge of life or death, short-term survival becomes your priority over long-term potential.

Monetary Incentives have been proven effective.  The program Oportunidades in Mexico is the most well known program using monetary incentives.  Parents actually get cold hard efectivo for their children's attendance.  Amazing how much more likely parents are to get their kids to school when it helps cover expenses and fill the coffers.      

Bathrooms for girls.  The benefits of bathrooms were already mentioned previously, but it is worth repeating.  If you want to keep adolescent girls in school, gender-specific, safe bathroom facilities must exist.

Location/Transport  In some countries, especially where there is instability and high rates of insecurity - specifically targeted toward women in the form of sexual assault - schools that are located close to where girls live or where some kind of safe transportation exists are of extreme importance.  If a girl runs a high risk of being raped on her way to school, both she and her parents will be less likely to make education a priority.

*While some of this is taken from past reading, much of which I cannot source, some is taken from the book Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn.