This post by Meagan Neal, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), is the second post in a blog series on overcoming barriers to girls’ education, based on J-PAL’s new synthesis of the evidence on improving student enrollment and attendance. Read the first post summarizing these barriers here. In 2007, Afghanistan’s rural province of Ghor faced low primary school enrollment and a dramatic gender gap: Only 35 percent of boys and 18 percent of girls were attending school. School...
Thanks to the diligent work of dedicated ONE members, we’re one step closer to helping 263 million children—including more than 130 million girls—around the world gain access to education! The READ Act — also known as HR 601, the Reinforcing Education Accountability in Development Act of 2017 — has been signed into law. As anyone who has followed the bill’s progress knows, getting to this point was no small feat! Throughout 2017, ONE members worked hard to engage with their senators and...
By Rachel Glennerster, Executive Director, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) I’ve worked for more than 13 years in rural Sierra Leone. In this time, I have watched a quiet revolution take place: education has become the norm. Few of the adults in the communities in which I work ever saw the inside of a school, yet nearly all of their children are enrolled in school. This is a remarkable transformation in the space of one generation, and Sierra Leone...
By Anne Smiley and Nurudeen Lawal, FHI 360 In Northern Nigeria, the vast majority of third-grade pupils cannot read a single word in any language. Teaching materials are few and far between, and most teachers receive little training or support. But in Katsina and Zamfara states, communities are excited to see kids starting to learn how to read in Hausa, a language that almost everyone can speak and understand. Learning to read is the first step to learning across all...
Story and photos by Ray Mwareya Nancy Chandala, 13, sits in a classroom at Joel Community School in rural Zambia, fixated on a small computer screen. “I wish all my textbooks were loaded on the tablet,” she says. “I would read even when out in the maize fields at home. No carrying of heavy books.” Students at Joel Community School in rural Zambia. Nancy is one of more than 2,000 children from rural areas who are benefiting...
By Imogen Calderwood, Street Child For many families in Sierra Leone, education is out of reach for one reason: poverty. Thousands of children are kept out of school simply because their parents don’t earn enough money so, instead of going to school, these young children have to generate income – often in dangerous work environments out on the streets. This tragic pattern, unless broken, has the potential to repeat itself endlessly and trap families in poverty for generations. But with a small helping...
Story and photos by Cooper Inveen. It’s a sunny afternoon on Freetown’s sandy beachfront, and 11-year-old Fatima Morenike is eating ice cream with Agnes Mimi Bengali, a Sierra Leonean biologist. Over the last year, Fatima and Agnes have met twice a month to touch base and talk science. Fatima is one of two girls put forward by her school to take part in a mentorship program designed by STEM Women Sierra Leone – a local collective of 58 women in the...
This piece is part of a reporting partnership between ONE and Refugees Deeply. Fatuma Omar Ismail currently studies chemical engineering at the University of Toronto in Canada on a scholarship. But she spent most of her childhood in Dadaab, a complex of refugee camps in northern Kenya, near the border with Somalia, where much of her family still resides. Below, she describes the daily challenges she faced as a 12-year-old determined to change her future. The muezzin calls the...
By Aaron Benavot, director of the GEM Report, UNESCO One answer: poverty. Despite every government in the world promising free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education to everyone, 130 million girls are out of school today. It’s difficult to comprehend what that means for each one of the one hundred and thirty million girl children and adolescents, but a new blog from the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report released for International Women’s Day helps to break down that number...
Pop quiz: what are the benefits of sending girls to school? You might answer that they will learn how to read, write and do arithmetic, all of which equip them to enter the workforce, earn an income, and contribute more to the economy … And you would be correct. But that’s only part of the answer. Beyond improving their knowledge, skills and earning potential, educating girls can have a big impact on their health, and the health of their...