When you visit a local elementary school, you will see little girls and boys playing together, singing together and educate themselves. There might be change when it comes to high school or university years, but you will still see girls and boys going to schools and trying their best to be successful. It is something very common for us. But it would be very strange if you saw this in some parts of Africa or Asia. There is higher chance of seeing classes with 28 boys and only 2 girls than seeing classes with equal amount of boys or girls. If you think that it is only because girls don´t want to go to school, you are wrong - the main reason is they are not allowed to do so.
Every child has right to be educated and girls are not the exception. Education is very important for girls, it can help them to get a job or they might learn about all the needs their future families and children will have. The girls who go to school are also less likely to be sold into slavery or get married at very early age. Despite recent success in bringing more girls to schools, the school attendance of girls still goes up and down and many girls drop out after a few years or even months spent at school. Especially the high school is crucial in girls´s growth and they learn how to avoid many sicknesses, such as AIDS/HIV, diarrhea or cholera and take care of themselves and their families. According to statistics, there were still more than 50-60 million girls out of the school all around the world in 2013.
There are various reasons why girls don´t go to school, while it´s no problem for boys. One of the main reasons is high tuition fees and families can either afford to send only one or two kids or they can´t afford to send any kids at all. Another reason are bad sanitation & sanitation conditions at schools - girls and boys share same toilets or showers - it leads to sicknesses and there are also reported cases or rape or other kinds of abusive behavior towards the girls. Girls can also be bullied at schools more than boys, so they often decide to leave the school on their own after negative experience. Families often sell girls to slavery or they force to marry older man to get money and after this, girls are usually forced to stay at home and take care of the household instead of studying. There are statistics which show that more than 1/3 of girls in developing countries are married before being 18 years old and another 1/3 had a first baby before turning 20 years old. However, these are only a few reasons why girls are not allowed to go to school.
In following years, we have to make sure that we try the best to make women and men more equal. The situation has been getting better and better recently, but there is still a difference, especially when it comes to school attendance. The girls are more motivated and empowered to attend the lessons and go to school and in case there is any problem, they are asked to talk about it. Education opens new doors and the girls have so many possibilites to do better things in their lives with required knowledge and experience they gain at school. So why not to change it?
Resources: United Nations, Red Cross, UNICEF
