School gender gap has high costs
School gender gap costs developing world US $92 billion
Failure to offer girls the same educational opportunities as boys costs developing countries US $92 billion each year in lost economic growth, according to research by Plan.
A report called Paying the Price: The economic cost of failing to educate girls has been released today and reveals that gender gaps in secondary school achievement in 65 developing and former Eastern Bloc countries cause them to miss out on huge annual growth.
This is only slightly less than the total US $103 billion spent annually by the industrialized nations on overseas development aid.
Heavy cost
CEO Tom Miller said: “Education is a real investment which reaps real rewards not just for the individual child but for society as a whole. Failure to educate girls to the same standard as their brothers has been rightly criticized as unjust and damaging to girls.
“Our analysis reveals for the first time the heavy economic cost of this failure to developing countries. It is a missed opportunity they can ill-afford.”
The startling figures are the result of an analysis of UN and World Bank statistics by Plan. A recent World Bank study found that failure to provide girls with secondary education reduces economic growth by an average of 0.3 percentage points for every 1 percent of girls out of school.
Plan action
Plan invests more in education than any other program area and works to ensure children and adults get the basic learning and life skills they need to realize their full potential.
Last year, Plan trained 80,799 teachers, built or rehabilitated 7,533 child-friendly schools and worked with thousands of communities to promote girls’ education.
Failure to offer girls the same educational opportunities as boys costs developing countries US $92 billion each year in lost economic growth, according to research by Plan.
A report called Paying the Price: The economic cost of failing to educate girls has been released today and reveals that gender gaps in secondary school achievement in 65 developing and former Eastern Bloc countries cause them to miss out on huge annual growth.
This is only slightly less than the total US $103 billion spent annually by the industrialized nations on overseas development aid.
Heavy cost
CEO Tom Miller said: “Education is a real investment which reaps real rewards not just for the individual child but for society as a whole. Failure to educate girls to the same standard as their brothers has been rightly criticized as unjust and damaging to girls.
“Our analysis reveals for the first time the heavy economic cost of this failure to developing countries. It is a missed opportunity they can ill-afford.”
The startling figures are the result of an analysis of UN and World Bank statistics by Plan. A recent World Bank study found that failure to provide girls with secondary education reduces economic growth by an average of 0.3 percentage points for every 1 percent of girls out of school.
Plan action
Plan invests more in education than any other program area and works to ensure children and adults get the basic learning and life skills they need to realize their full potential.
Last year, Plan trained 80,799 teachers, built or rehabilitated 7,533 child-friendly schools and worked with thousands of communities to promote girls’ education.
