In October 2012, a 15-year-old girl boarded a bus to head back home from school in her hometown of Mingora, a city in the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, north-western Pakistan, when a Taliban gunman boarded the bus, asked for her by name and shot her in the head. Her offence, inculcated by her father, was the belief that girls deserved the same right to education as boys.
A year later, on her birthday on June 12, Malala Yousafzai stood in the United Nations and spoke on youth education. The attack, which was intended to silence a voice, awakened the conscience of the world. She is a global voice in advancing girls’ education.
Jamaica’s circumstances are thankfully different from those that shaped Malala’s, and girls like her. Girls here are not systematically denied access to schools because of their gender. Successive governments have made universal access to education a cornerstone of national development, investing in early childhood education, primary and secondary schooling, and school-feeding programmes, student support services and policies that promote equal educational opportunities. Girls have been consistently out-performing boys, at the university almost 70 per cent of the enrolment is female.
This approach is, however, not universal. In many parts of the world, girls face the similar, if not as extreme, perspective on female education that caused Malala Yousafzai to be shot.
UNESCO estimates that approximately 122 million girls worldwide remain out of school, while conflict, poverty, child marriage and displacement continue to deny millions the opportunity to learn. UNESCO has also warned that nearly 250 million children globally are either out of school or failing to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Jamaica’s overall education outcomes remain problematic: last year, 33 per cent of grade-four students failed to achieve “mastery” in literacy, and 30 per cent fell short in numeracy. And there are gaps in the girls’ education; the island might have done things from which other countries can learn.
Important initiatives include Jamaica’s National Policy for the Reintegration of School-Age Mothers into the Formal School System, introduced in 2013. The policy affirms that pregnancy should not permanently interrupt a girl’s education and provides a framework for adolescent mothers to return to school after childbirth. Internationally, the policy has been recognised as an example of protecting girls’ right to education while reducing long-term social and economic exclusion.
The question Jamaica needs to address is: Are the students, especially girls, leaving school equipped with the knowledge, confidence and opportunities needed to thrive in an increasingly competitive world?
This could be strengthened by expanding girls’ participation in STEM and emerging technologies, establishing a national Girls in STEM Strategy, introducing coding, robotics, artificial intelligence and digital skills earlier in the school curriculum. The objective should be to create visible pathways from classroom learning to careers.
The National Policy for the Reintegration of School-Age Mothers into the Formal School System is an important step in recognising that pregnancy should not end any girl’s education. This programme should be robustly implemented by establishing dedicated reintegration coordinators in schools. Further, expanding counselling and psychosocial support, offering flexible learning options, including blended and online education and tracking the progress and completion rates of returning students would help to create a seamless pathway.
As this newspaper has highlighted, education must translate into economic opportunity. The government, through its agencies, should look at expanding programmes that prepare women for high-growth sectors.
There is also the need for increased digital access for women and girls, which could be strengthened by establishing community digital learning centres in rural communities, providing affordable Internet access and devices for needy students, expanding digital literacy programmes for women, and developing online vocational courses that allow women to learn while managing family responsibilities.
Providing opportunities for women who missed out on education will also go a long way, for this the government could consider expanding adult literacy and numeracy programmes, increasing evening and weekend learning opportunities and providing seamless pathways from adult education into TVET certifications.
Support in entrepreneurship programmes, to include business management training, financial literacy, digital marketing, bookkeeping, access to financing, and export readiness.
Gender stereotypes should be addressed by encouraging girls to pursue engineering, technology, mathematics and skilled trades.
Critically, to make informed policy decisions, research and data collection should be strengthened. Reliable data on gender-disaggregated education data covering would help determine which interventions are working and where additional investment is needed. Some of the focus areas should include STEM participation, TVET enrolment, university fields of study, employment outcomes after graduation, rural and urban disparities, women with disabilities, and adult education participation.
There should be emphasis on encouraging more girls to pursue master’s and doctoral programmes by providing funding, supporting women researchers in science, technology and innovation and developing leadership programmes for female academics and professionals.
Education policy should also be connected with broader efforts to improve women’s economic and social standing by addressing gender-based violence, safe transportation, mental health support, childcare access, workplace discrimination, and providing equal-pay opportunities.
The common lesson is that educating girls succeeds when governments combine access with quality, safety and opportunity.
Malala’s words, “one child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world”, which resonates in Jamaican parlance of “every mickle mek a muckle”, should be part of the education mantra.
