Social exclusion: The emerging challenge in girls’ education

D and developing countries alike have recognized the importance of girls’ education: the worldwide surge in girls’ primary school enrollment over the past two decades is testament to their commitment. The growth in girls’ schooling also coincides with the global trend toward mass education that took off after the end of World War II and accelerated in the postcolonial period. Over the past 60 years, most countries have adopted mass education and have accelerated school expansion to accommodate the growing demand for education (Baker and LeTendre 2005). Particular attention has been given to girls’ schooling, not only because of its importance in reaching universal education but also because of its demonstrated social benefits. In much of the world, girls have reached education parity with boys, at both primary and secondary levels, and in some countries—principally in Latin America and the Caribbean and the oil-exporting regions of the Middle East—girls’ participation at the secondary level exceeds that of boys. More than half of developing countries had achieved gender parity in primary school by 2002 (table 1.1). At the secondary level, girls’ participation lags boys’ participation in 46 developing countries, exceeds that of boys in 29 developing countries, and is at parity in the remaining 38 developing countries for which data are available (UNESCO 2005). Social exclusion: The emerging challenge in girls’ education