Girls' education and gender equality

This review reveals a number of challenges in interventions to improve girls’ education and gender equality. For example targeted cash transfers may improve the chances of getting more girls into school and promote keeping them in school but increases in enrolment may have an adverse effect on learning achievement. Similarly girls’ only targeted scholarships to attend school may have adverse effects in terms of isolating the selected girls from their friends and raising feelings of the lack of fairness to disadvantaged boys. There is also insufficient evidence that the provision of toilets although beneficial on their own can improves enrolment progression or achievement. Employment of female teachers per se although essential is not enough but teacher training for higher levels of subject knowledge and gender sensitivity is vitally important for girls’ learning improvement. And extra-curricular clubs which focus on gender equality issues are an important space where girls and boys can discuss and challenge gender norms including those associated with sex gender-based violence and school progression. The review suggests that a mixture of interventions is most effective in enhancing girls’ education and improving gender equality.