Commonwealth Secretariat
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  2. What We Do
    1. Mitigating the Impact of HIV/AIDS
    2. Universal Primary Education
    3. Eliminating Gender Disparities
    4. Supporting Education in Difficult Circumstances
    5. Improving Quality in Education
    6. Overcoming Geographical Barriers
    7. Collaborative Partnerships
    8. Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol
    9. Statistics
  3. Background
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    1. 16CCEM - Cape Town Communiqué
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    3. Speeches
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  7. Resources
  8. Publications

Background

Eliminating gender disparity by increasing access to education for girls is ultimately integral to the attainment of the 2015 Education MDG on Universal Primary Education.

Barriers towards girls' access and retention in primary and secondary school are myriad varying between countries and regions, although there are some commonalities throughout the Commonwealth countries that experience the problem.

Socio-economic and cultural factors play a part, and in some cases, families favour boys over girls for entrance into school, especially if access to quality education is not free. More generally, the broader obstacle of poverty continues to keep girls (and boys) in varied labour environments in order to help their families subsist.

In some situations, the fear of girls being exposed to unacceptable peer practices in co-educational schools -- such as sexual orientation that could result in pregnancy, or violence and general harassment -- prevents parents from allowing their female children to access basic schooling. These same factors can also contribute to the rise of girls dropping out of school in some countries as they move through the education system.
In many cases, statistics put forward by the Human Development Report showed that those countries where disparity in girls' enrolment could be seen at primary level exhibited an even more increased disparity at secondary level.

Initiatives for tackling these issues within the Commonwealth therefore need to be far-reaching and require coordinated efforts at both the Government and community level within countries. Concerted efforts to include programmes that tackle gender disparity within broader education plans are needed, with local-level initiatives to confront particular cultural and social specifics.

The provision of more qualified female teachers is one consideration that could eliminate some of the cultural factors preventing girls from accessing education, while more single-sex schools for girls in certain specific situations is potentially another. The process of education, including the curriculum, needs to focus on empowerment and equity issues.

Greater emphasis needs to be placed on gender mainstreaming in education policy and related national development plans including poverty reduction strategies as critical to the required resource allocation in reducing gender disparities.

While girls’ access and completion remain a challenge, boys’ underachievement is a growing concern. A close review of policies, cultural
practices, and curricula in Commonwealth countries would assist in addressing all gender-related issues.

Conversely, the Secretariat is now also becoming increasingly aware of the problem of boy's underachievement in some countries. The problem is being focused primarily among the Commonwealth's high and middle-income countries, although some low-income countries are also noting similar patterns where male school children start to underachieve from the late primary/early secondary school grades.

Publications

Documents