Vital to empower the girl child

Africa’s G20 plan to become a global player hangs on making sure that girls get what they need

- Helen Grange

Across sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 34 million adolescent girls of secondary school age remain out of school, according to Unesco statistics. This is a travesty in light of the gains girls make in primary school, where they outperform boys in many African countries, and are likely to continue to do so — if they have the chance.

“We clearly see where the injustices begin and how they accumulate through the lives of the most marginalised girls and women,” observes Silvia Montoya, director of the Unesco Institute for Statistics.

“But the data also show girls who do manage to start primary school and make the transition to secondary education tend to outperform boys and continue their studies.”

The Africa Gender Index 2023, which draws together statistics from all 54 African countries, confirms that if girls keep attending school into their teens, they do comparatively well, outnumbering boys in graduations at lower secondary and upper secondary levels across many African countries.

The drive to empower girls, therefore, needs to be sharply focused on the critical turning point at which they transition to secondary school, the point where enrolment and school retention rates for girls begin to fall steeply. Unesco and Unicef data shows, in many countries, only 40 to 50% of girls who finish primary move on to complete lower secondary.

The key reasons for this are early marriage or expectations to help at home; menstruation without adequate sanitation or support; long distances to secondary schools; rising school costs (fees, uniforms, transport); cultural attitudes that undervalue secondary education for girls and safety concerns, including gender-based violence on the way to or at school.