Maureen Lewis and Marlaine Lockheed
01/04/2007
"The widespread neglect of the
education of girls is one of the most distressing problems in the world
today, which blights their future and damages the rest of the society as
well. This is a very welcome report on an extraordinarily important
problem, and I hope it will receive the attention it richly
deserves."
-Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate and Lamont university professor of
economics and philosophy, Harvard University
"...a must-read for students and practitioners of development."
-Larry Summers, former president of Harvard Unversity and World
Bank chief economist
- Buy this book
December 2006 • 180 pp. ISBN paper 1-933286-14-8 • $18.95
The images of girls returning to school in Afghanistan after the fall
of the Taliban drew attention to the lack of educational opportunities
for girls all too common in many developing countries. Girls’ education,
indisputably crucial to development, has received a lot of
attention--but surprisingly little hardheaded analysis to inform
practical policy solutions. In Inexcusable Absence, CGD non-resident
fellow Maureen Lewis and visiting fellow Marlaine Lockheed show that
nearly three-quarters of the 60 million girls not in school belong to
ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial or other minorities. Remarkable
increases in primary schooling over the past decade have brought gender
equity to the education systems of many poor countries, but the problem
of these "doubly disadvantaged" girls has yielded little to these
advances.
Based on an extensive review of empirical studies, the authors
highlight the ways in which gender inequality intersects with different
types of exclusion to exacerbate disadvantage. Then, drawing on detailed
analysis of what is already working in both developed and developing
countries, and emphasizing both the lack of household "demand" and the
socially restricted "supply" of schooling for excluded groups, the
authors offer concrete proposals for new policies and programs for
reaching these girls and their parents.
Getting socially excluded girls into school is not simple. As Lewis
and Lockheed show, reaching them is costly, in part because it often
requires fresh approaches that may differ from mainstream educational
policies. Attempts to change the "culture" of families who are reluctant
to send their daughters to school can be controversial. In the
classroom, the inclusion of local languages for instruction may make
schools more accessible, but limited proficiency in official languages
can restrict students' future opportunities in mainstream society. By
the same token, gender-segregated schools have the potential to draw
more students, but run the risk of establishing a second-class system if
sufficient resources are not channeled towards them.
But getting excluded girls into school is a realistic goal. And
giving girls the opportunity of attendance leads to high returns: this
book finds that once girls are given access to school, they often
overtake boys in the number of years completed and on measures of
learning, at least until adolescence. This suggests that lack of
opportunity is the single biggest reason that girls' achievement levels
lag behind boys'. Inexcusable Absence will be an important tool for
policymakers, informing interventions that can make a profound impact on
the lives of the 60 million out of school girls.
Buy Inexcusable Absence
*Available in pdf format
Foreword
Preface
Overview
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
References
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