With women in particular, accounting for a big portion of the human race that are illiterate, gender equality in education is a crisis that requires resolution as a global priority.
Factors contributing to observed gender inequality in education include being poor, being located in areas with a lack of access to educational facilities, being of a group considered the minority, being of a group classified as disabled, being forced into early marriages the consequence of which is often pregnancy, exposure to gender-based violence and society’s view of the women and the perceived role they are expected to fulfil within the realm of certain cultures and specific households.
A step towards gender equality in education entails ease of access to education, be it via physical means or virtually (as the traditional sense of the class-room is not always accessible to all).
To not prioritise gender equality in education is to miss out on a fundamental step in poverty alleviation. To this end:
- the well know UNESCO organisation has made gender equality in education a global priority linked to its Education 2030 Agenda. This requires gender equality in education to be approached in such a way that people not only gain access to and complete education cycles but are equally empowered in and through education. Female education in particular has the power to save lives, reduce poverty, early childhood marriage and early pregnancy.
- the United Nations is another organisation that advocates for education as the pathway to gender equality, going on to further state that “human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” Completion of primary school for girls in less developed countries is highlighted with surveys conducted by the UN showing that although the majority, girls account for less of those in school at different stages of the education cycle, the majority of the illiterate population are women (who were once girls who were denied a fundamental part of growing up).
Bringing gender equality in education back home to Africa, advocates include the likes of Graca Machel through her Graca Machel Trust which advocates for the notion of “realising women’s rights for an equal future,” (amongst other agendas), Peace Ayo, an educational activist and co-founder of Youth Advocate For Sustainable Development from Nigeria, Qabale Duba from Kenya, founder of the Qabale Duba Foundation, a community based organization that champions the rights of women and girls by teaching them how to read and write and Akua Koranteng, co-founder of 100ABC (100abc.co.za), an organisation based in South Africa that seeks to drive change within the South African educational landscape by providing scholarship funding to young girls embarking on their high school journey as well a community funding to assist community based educational initiatives.
Author: Akua A. Koranteng
