Number of girls in education around the world falls by hundreds of thousands

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The number of girls who are not in education increased from 130.3 million to 130.9 million according to the latest available figures from 2015.

The total number of girls entering education worldwide has fallen for the first time in 10 years in what has been described as a “global crisis which perpetuates poverty”.

The number of girls who are currently out of education has increased from 130.3 million to 130.9 million based on a report by The ONE Campaign citing Unesco data from 122 countries across the world. 

The research reveals that the countries with the lowest proportion of girls in school are also some of the world’s poorest with South Sudan, theCentral African Republic andNiger topping the list. 

In South Sudan alone, which has been beset by civil war since it declared independence from Sudan in 2011, 73 per cent of girls aged between six and 11 are not in school and in CAR there is just one teacher for every 80 pupils.

The report highlights some of the reasons why girls are struggling to get to school.

The ONE Campaign said that the majority of the countries were among the world’s poorest and several of them were in places torn apart by war making it more difficult – and more dangerous – for any child to get an education.

Other factors include the fact that in some parts of the world it costs money to send a child to school rather than getting them to start work and parents will often favour boys over girls. 

In addition, in some areas there are cultural barriers to women getting a good education such as in Niger which has the highest proportion of girls under 18 who are married – 76 per cent of all girls in the country in 2016, according to Unicef.