Post-2015 IFUW Pushes for a Standalone Global Education Goal

At the Rio+20 Conference In 2012, United Nations Member States agreed to launch a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) building on the progress achieved by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate global poverty, prioritise primary school education and promote gender equality. The SDGs are expected to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when the deadline passes on 21 January 2015.The core principle for framing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be long-term, multi-sectoral development, which will include economic, social and environmental goals.

Education and women’s empowerment are the most powerful investment for sustainable development, and progress in these areas in particular will generate progress across all dimensions of sustainable development. For this reason, the International Federation of University Women (IFUW) urges states to place greater emphasis on access to education and gender equality at all levels if they are to realize the full potential of their economies. Universal access to secondary, tertiary, continuing and non-traditional education for girls and women sustains development and should be a standalone goal in the Post-2015 agenda.

While there has been significant progress worldwide in providing millions of children with access to primary education, far too many girls and women across the globe continue to be denied access to all levels of education. According to a report by UNESCO (2013), 31 million girls are out of primary school, while 34 million female adolescents cannot access lower secondary education. The Post-2015 development agenda should therefore include an explicit goal to ensure that girls and women have universal and equal access to quality secondary, tertiary and non-traditional education. As outlined by the Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF), quality learning includes seven domains. These are: physical well-being, social and emotional well-being, culture and the arts, literacy and communication, learning approaches cognition, numeracy and mathematics and science and technology. Accessing education of this type empowers girls with the knowledge, skills and determination necessary for pursuing and accessing higher paid careers and transitioning from the informal to the formal economy.

The number of children currently out of primary and secondary school is over 60 million and the majority of these are girls (UNESCO, 2012). This has damaging consequences on their future success, both in terms of their professional potential and personal empowerment and independence. Gender disparities continue to hinder progress in education. Nearly two-thirds of the 774 million illiterate people in the world are women (UNESCO, 2013). As long as girls do not have equal access to lifelong education, gender equality will not be reached. Quality secondary school education is a critical means to empower girls and women by providing them with skills and knowledge, academic, social and personal, which they will bring from adolescence to adulthood. According to surveys by UNICEF (2013), completion of secondary school remains a problem for girls in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and Western Asia. It is time to break the barriers that prevent access to secondary education for girls so that all women and girls can reach their full potential and enjoy bright futures. These growing barriers to accessing secondary education include; child marriage, living in conflict zones, violence at or en route to school, and lack of appropriate sanitation facilities. For example, one in every four adolescent girls in the developing world is currently married (UNICEF, 2010).

The quality of education remains low in many countries. Millions of children are emerging from primary school without basic literacy and numeracy skills. All future education goals must include literacy and numeracy targets, empower teachers and provide girls with quality education. Creating a global education framework is vital in the Sustainable Development Goals because economic development requires the participation of well-educated girls and women in society. The post-2015 agenda needs to recognise that higher education is fundamental to long-term social, economic and environmental development.

Raising the bar from enrolment in primary education, IFUW believes that the SDGs should expand access to education to all levels and establish better pathways for the transition between primary and secondary education, as well as increasing access to higher education for girls. Secondary and tertiary education provides the skills that people need to contribute to their economies. Focusing on completion of secondary school should also be a priority of the Post-2015 development agenda. While primary education is essential it is simply not enough.

IFUW supports lifelong education and improved access to secondary, tertiary and continuing education for all ages, which help empower women in their lives. The Post-2015 education goals should put gender equality in education first. Educated women are an integral part of the solution to all Post-2015 development challenges.

Lorraine Mangwiro, IFUW