NEW YORK, 5 May 2011 – As the world celebrates Global Action Week for education, the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) called for greater efforts at both national and international levels to make education for girls and women a priority.
This year’s Global Action Week focuses on Education for Women and Girls, as females continue to constitute 53 per cent – more than half – of the population of out-of-school children.
“Making sure that both girls and boys have an equal opportunity to education is a huge challenge for the global community,” said Cheryl Gregory Faye, Head of the UNGEI Secretariat. “With only four years left until the Millennium Development Goals deadline, we must step up our efforts to ensure all children everywhere their right to a quality education. Recent key reports have warned the progress made in education and gender equality over recent years is slowing down,” she continued. “UNGEI calls on the global community to step up the momentum.”
There have been impressive gains over the last two decades to ensure girls and boys have equal access to primary education. However, at least 69 countries are yet to achieve gender parity in primary school enrolment and many are unlikely to achieve this target by the 2015 deadline, according to the 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report. And in 26 countries, there are fewer than nine girls in primary school for every ten boys. The gap widens at secondary level.
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