Greater Efforts Are Urged to Get and Keep Girls in School
19 May 2010
Pakistani girls in Peshawar last year. Their classes were held privately after Islamic militants reportedly blew up their school in an effort to prevent girls from getting an education.
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
An international conference took place this week in Dakar, Senegal, to find new ways to get and keep girls in school.
The United Nations Children's Fund says nearly seventy-two million children were not in school in two thousand seven. More than half are girls, and more than two-thirds are in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and West Asia.
School attendance has improved in many areas. But the head of UNICEF, Anthony Lake, says:
ANTHONY LAKE: "Unless we all work harder, there may still be fifty-six million children out of school in two thousand fifteen."
He says progress and economic development depend on educating girls as well as boys. Educated girls are also at lower risk of violence, abuse and diseases like H.I.V./AIDS.
The U.N. Girls' Education Initiative organized the meeting of two hundred scholars, aid workers and government officials from twenty-two countries. The initiative was launched in Dakar ten years ago. The aim is to bring primary school education to all girls and boys worldwide by two thousand fifteen.
In Senegal, the number of public schools has doubled in the last ten years. But UNICEF's Anthony Lake said schools still lack gender equality. He said girls in one Dakar school told him about a lack of bathrooms and textbooks for them, and bullying from boys.
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