ACTIONS, PAST AND PRESENT

GIRLS' EDUCATION

Situation The WSC Plan of Action noted that providing the girl-child better access to education is key to the efforts to eliminate discrimination. Substantial evidence shows that educated girls, especially those who have completed secondary education, were less likely to marry young, to have an unwanted pregnancy and to engage in high-risk behaviour such as drug abuse and unsafe sex. While the Education for All Assessment 2000 reveals that the net enrollment ratio increased in the 1990s in all major regions of the world, nearly 130 million primary school-age children are not in school and approximately 60 per cent of them are girls.

Even in countries where quantified gaps are minimal, inequalities in educational content, methods, and facilities may exist, resulting in major differences in achievement. Thus, the lack of an obvious gender gap still masks great gender inequalities.

Similarly, adult illiteracy has declined from 25 per cent to 21 per cent. Of the estimated 960 million illiterate adults over the last decade world-wide, however, two-thirds are women. Illiteracy is increasingly concentrated among women, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Actions UNFPA has invested in programmes and has given its financial support to ensure the education of the girl-child. UNFPA participates with other UN agencies in the 10-year UN Girls' Education Initiatives which aim to eliminate gender discrimination and gender disparity in the educational system by emphasising basic education. This is part of the global effort to reduce poverty and is closely tied to the global Education for All movement. For this, UNFPA advocates for young girls education and supports adult women literacy programmes. Both have been found to be associated with better child's survival.

Population education which started in the late 1960s as a major area in UNFPA programme assistance in many countries continues to this day. In co-ordination with UNESCO and other UN agencies, it remains to be a major component of education programmes in some 90 countries world-wide.

UNFPA's current efforts have linked education with measures to improve content, quality, and life skills. Through the sexuality education programmes it supports, UNFPA has contributed to better quality education for young people through the inclusion of new curricula which cover life skills, HIV/AIDS prevention, gender issues, reproductive health, family life, and sexuality education.

In Jamaica, UNFPA supported a programme through an alliance with the Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation during 1992-1996. The programme provided over 10,300 pregnant teens with vocational training and counselling. To keep them in school or help them find jobs, the Foundation referred these young girls to family courts and medical practitioners. The programme enabled more than 6,500 girls to return to school and helped about 2,500 girls acquire technical skills.
In Papua New Guinea, UNFPA sponsored 'Role Model Visits' to schools to present women in various careers who have been successful in their own right. One of the main objectives of this project was to inspire girls to continue with their studies. The activity also made boys understand the challenges women have to face in pursuit of their career goals, and the need to give women their support.