The Literacy Mission of Rotary: Why Educate Girls?
As per unicef.org/gender-equality, 60 million girls worldwide have no access to basic education. Of the 960 million people who are illiterate worldwide, two-thirds are women. Around 129 million girls are out of school, including 32 million of primary school age, 30 million of lower-secondary school age, and 67 million of upper-secondary school age. In countries affected by conflict, girls are more than twice as likely to be out of school as girls in non-affected countries https://www.unicef.org/. Globally, 1 in 4 girls (age 15-19) are neither employed nor in school, compared with 1 in 10 boys. As per a World Economic Forum report https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2021, women continue to face economic impediments, unequal wages, challenging workplace conditions, and exclusion from meaningful economic and political productivity. As per a new report on https://www.unesco.org/en, the costs for gender gap in education, adds up to $10 billion a year.
Some of the critical outcomes of elevated levels of Girls’ Education include:
- Better employment opportunities leading to greater levels of financial independence among girls. In the US, for example, the mean earnings for women in 2021 stood at $65,987 per year. However, there was a difference of $97,380 in the income of women with a high school diploma versus a professional degree https://www.statista.com/. An extra year of secondary school for girls can increase their future earnings by 10 to 20 percent.
- STEM and digital literacy as pivotal tools for lucrative careers for girls. The global participation of women is much lower than men in the STEM workforce. As per https://www.undp.org/, “Skills in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) are vital tools for women to play a constructive role in tackling critical and urgent sustainable development problems, ranging from climate crises to food security to gender-based violence.”
- Rising graph of economic productivity in family, community, and society co-relates with girls’ education. As per https://www.usaid.gov/ (2017-20), if 10% more adolescent girls attend school, a country’s GDP increases by 3%. Cutting down the school drop out rates both for girls and boys would increase annual GDP growth by 1 to 2%.
- Better Health and Wellness Outcomes for Families, including mental health and substance abuse disorders. A child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past age 5. Increasing educational opportunities for girls and women leads to reduced domestic abuse and violence, and a reduction in the rate of social malpractices like child marriage. Education empowers women with an increased ability to promote safe environment for children and young generations to thrive https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/criminol/1/1 (2018).