Achieving Gender Equality in Education : Examining Progress and Constraints

The World Bank is the largest external financier of education worldwide. This note examines trends in girls’ education and spotlights interventions that support girls’ education. Key takeaways include the following: It is simply not enough to get girls into school. Efforts must ensure they stay in school, learn well, and are able to translate their schooling into future gains. Programs that focus on getting girls into school through scholarships, cash transfers, and stipends improve girls’ enrollment outcomes. Interventions that address additional challenges that girls face while in school, such as improving conditions for menstrual health and hygiene and reducing gender-based violence (GBV), make girls feel safe and included in schools. Teaching and learning-focused programs for girls, such as combating stereotypical gender norms in pedagogy, textbooks, and curriculum, help reduce gender-bias in schools and empower them to reach their full potential. It is important to strengthen the role of schools for adolescent girls’ empowerment and for shifting mindsets and norms by engaging girls and boys on issues pertaining to gender equality including on GBV, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), and women’s economic participation.