Education and Development: The Issues and the Evidence

Education and development the issues and the evidence - Education Research Paper
No. 06, 1993, 61 p.

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1.7 The education of girls and
women

The preceding analysis has drawn attention to several respects in which access to
education amongst girls and women is inferior to that of boys and men in many, but not
all, developing countries. There is a strong case, now widely recognised, that investing
in the education of girls is a critical input for development and has a cluster of
interrelating benefits. The general case that girls and women are relatively
educationally deprived is easy to demonstrate. Female enrolments lag behind boys in
most developing countries.

Table 5: Male and Female Gross Enrolment Ratios by Level of Education 1990
and Adult Literacy (percentages)

Source: UNESCO 1991:53 Table 3.2;:26, Table 2.2)

Though disparities in enrolments have been reducing at the first level they remain high
in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States, and South Asia. At the second and third levels
progress towards more equal enrolment has been slower. Low enrolments are
associated with lower GNP per capita and the association is stronger for countries with
lower female enrolments (Behrman 1991:20).

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