Getting Girls Out of Work and Into School

According to this 24-page policy brief published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Bangkok, in the Asia-Pacific region, girls' labour, official and unofficial, continues to constitute a major obstacle to accelerating progress towards achieving gender parity and equality in primary and secondary education by 2015.



This brief summarises the causes and consequences of girls' child labour on their educational opportunities and describes some of the instruments and strategies in place to reduce girls' labour. It also provides insights into what the publishers consider current good practice, assisting policymakers and practitioners to better understand and address the issues for getting girls out of work and into school.



It describes three initiatives to get girls out of work and into school in China, India and the Philippines. These initiatives incorporate methods such as training girls to be peer educators; direct assistance to cover education costs; incorporating life skills and sex education; creating participatory "girl-friendly" environments and outreach education for communities; community mobilisation against bonded labour; and training local girl-child activists to educate communities.

Finally, the brief sets out key actions required to increase girls' participation in education:

• support cooperation between education and social planning agencies to plan, monitor and evaluate efforts;
• implement measures to attract and retain girls in schools, such as security and sanitation, and girl-friendly methodologies;
• support initiatives to attract higher numbers of women teachers to teach in rural and slum areas, and train male teachers in girl-friendly pedagogical approaches;
• ensure that vocational training empowers girls by offering practical life skills and can lead to further formal vocational training;
• analyse good practice;
• integrate the concerns of working girls into the Agenda for Education for All (EFA) and Inclusive Education;
• use the role of girl activists and community mobilisation to address local attitudes and behaviours; and
• recognise and address family poverty through livelihood strategies for parents.

The paper concludes that the provision of education for girls that is accessible, affordable, of good quality, and relevant is ultimately a question of political will to adequately invest in education for girls.