We all recognize the name Malala Yousafzai – she was in headlines, in college application essays, and all over the television a few years ago. In case you forgot, she’s the girl, probably younger than most everyone reading this article, who was shot three times by the Taliban in 2012 while on her way to school in Swat, Pakistan. She was 15. Before she was shot, she kept anonymous journal entries on the Urdu language site of the BBC where she recounted life in the Swat Valley under Taliban control. She started keeping these journals after the Taliban expanded its reach in 2007 and began to impose strict Islamic law, destroying and shutting down girls’ schools and essentially preventing women from taking an active role in society.
In addition to Malala Yousafzai, there are more than 62 million girls worldwide who are denied or do not have access to education. Written out, that looks like 62,000,000. 62 million. To put that in perspective, according to the UVA website, 15,669 undergraduate students are enrolled at the Charlottesville campus. That means for every one student on Grounds, there are approximately 3,957 girls without access to an education. So, for every one student at UVA, a cohort approximately one-fourth of the size of the entire UVA student population is not able to attend school.
Because we don’t see these girls, know them, or have any real personal connection with them, it is extremely easy to go about our day-to-day lives without any thought about what it really means to be at this school. It’s likely that for some students at UVA, and even me personally, school was never a privilege. I’m speaking for myself, and maybe others, when I say that my parents never had to decide whether or not they would send me or my brother to school. My parents were never forced to contemplate which child they should invest in an education for. Not once did I have to question whether I would have to stop my education due to the resources that I was surrounded by.
Instead, in high school and still in college, I worried about whether my parents would let me go to the football game after school or if I would be home early enough to watch Scandal on a Thursday night. I lamented about tests and four-page papers that I had weeks to write. My friends and I complained, and still do complain, about the stress we’re under at school, intentionally trying to outdo one another in educational-overload horror stories, because we have the opportunity to be overloaded with work. In high school, I always tried to stay home on the days that we went to, in my opinion, the same three Smithsonian museums. I had the privilege to do that. I had the privilege to complain about tests and homework, and I got to revel in the stress of balancing extracurriculars and schoolwork.
Accounting just for myself, there are 3,957 girls who won’t get to see the inside of a school, the place I sometimes tried my hardest to avoid.
For Americans, it’s sometimes hard to understand why other children and teens don’t have the same access to education that we have. There are multiple factors that keep girls around the world from attending school. Here are the three largest:
1. The cost. Unlike the United States, in many countries parents are required to pay school fees if they want their children to receive an education. Many families simply can’t afford this. And, if it comes to choosing between sending a son or a daughter to school, tradition typically holds that the son will be sent.
2. The distance. Not all countries have as many large metropolitan areas like the United States. For some students, the closest school may be multiple hours away. For girls especially, many families will choose to not send their daughters to school if there is no safe way to get there.
3. Gender barriers in the home and the classroom. In addition to traditional gender norms that call for women to stay home, many girls who may live close enough to a school or have the resources to attend school are kept home each time they get their menstrual cycle. Worldwide, many schools do not have adequate bathroom facilities, or communities may not have access to tampons and pads. A shocking number of 1 in 10 women skip about 50 days a year of education or work due to their period. As girls continually miss up to a week of school a month, they fall farther and farther behind in class, and must drop out.
Despite these factors, the statistics applauding the benefits of girls’ education are hard to ignore.
There are educational benefits: Once enrolled in school, women are more likely to complete their education as compared to men.
There are economic benefits: Just one extra year of education is correlated with a 20% increase in a woman’s salary as an adult.
There are welfare benefits: A child born to a mother who can read and write is 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5.
So what if every woman had the ability to complete primary or secondary school?
According to a 2013 study done by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (you know them as UNESCO)…
If all women had the ability to complete primary (not even high school) education:
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Maternal deaths would decrease by two-thirds, which would save 98,000 lives.
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There would be 15% fewer child deaths.
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There would be 14% fewer child marriages.
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1.7 million children would be saved from stunting from malnutrition.
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10% fewer girls would become pregnant under the age of 17 in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia.
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The birthrate in sub-Saharan Africa would drop. Currently, women with no education have 6.7 births, on average. The figure falls to 5.8 for those with primary education.
Comparatively, if all women had the opportunity to complete secondary education:
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Child deaths would be cut in half, saving 3 million lives.
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12 million children would be saved from stunting from malnutrition.
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There would be two-thirds fewer child marriages.
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Almost 60% fewer girls would become pregnant under the age of 17 in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia.
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The birthrate in sub-Saharan Africa would nearly halve to 3.9.
It’s relatively easy to understand why so many people realize that girls’ education is imperative, but fail to act on it: we don’t know how. Especially as students ourselves, we are in the perfect stage of life to understand what these girls go through, but since we don’t put faces to the girls, it’s hard to think of them as real people. We think of these girls as the number 3,957 or the number 62 million. While acknowledging the existence of this disparity is part of the battle against education inequity, there are many ways for students to get involved that fit in well with a college lifestyle.
Perhaps the easiest first step is signing a pledge to support educational equality: You can pledge to take action and support girls’ education in partnership with Let Girls Learn here.
Additionally, listed below are a number of student organizations on Grounds from @UVA, Madison House, and The Women’s Center that work to promote education in some way, shape, or form. While the list below is in no means an exhaustive list of ways to make a difference, it does provide many organizations that are a great way to get involved in the fight against education inequity.
CIOs:
“College Mentors pairs local youth with college student mentors. ‘Buddy pairs’ meet in groups for weekly activities on campus that focus on higher education, culture and diversity, and community service.”
“Asha for Education is a secular organization dedicated to change in India by focusing on basic education in the belief that education is a critical requisite for socio-economic change.”
“The Education Club strives to generate energy, passion, and appreciation around the education industry by presenting career pathways for business students interested in education and raising awareness of education issues among future business leaders.”
Girls Excited about Math and Science
“GEMS is a service organization aiming to close the gender gap in math and science subjects. Through hands on participation in experiments, elementary and middle school girls in the Charlottesville area are encouraged to become more involved in STEM fields”
“Dream Corps at U.Va is part of Dream Corps International. Our mission is to promote education equity in China through quality resources and sustained participation. We hold various activities to publicize our organization and raise awareness on Grounds.”
“The Aspiring Minds Program (AMP) is a formal platform to accelerate learning of the community while allowing advanced undergraduates to explore their interests.”
Cavs & Panthers Mentorship and Enrichment Program (C&P)
“Cavs & Panthers is a program that pairs university students with students at Red Hill Elementary in need of academic help for weekly tutoring and mentoring. The program also incorporates field trips and enrichment activities at Red Hill Elementary.”
“The United Nations Women USNC at the University of Virginia aims to increase awareness of UN Women’s community service programs in the United States that benefit underprivileged, oppressed women worldwide. It works to give more authority to women by helping improve women’s economic security and social rights, abate violence against women, reduce HIV/AIDS amongst women, and give them a stronger voice in the workplace, and government.”
Madison House:
“The mission of Cavs in the Classroom is to give a boost to the classrooms of Charlottesville and help children adapt and improve in school. The program concentrates on the volunteer’s relationship with preschool through sixth grade children who need assistance with specific skills.”
“The Tutoring program aims to improve the success of students in the Charlottesville and Albemarle County public schools by providing personal academic attention and establishing meaningful relationships with UVA tutors. Students work one-on-one or in small groups with their tutor, where they work on a range of subjects including English, Math and ESL. Tutoring takes place primarily during the school day for elementary and middle schools and in after-school programs for high schools.”
“The Big Siblings program seeks to develop consistent, long-term, one-on-one relationships of friendship and trust between the volunteer and the child. This program provides an opportunity for the volunteer to have an impact on the life of a child who is in need of more positive relationships. We hope that the time spent together between the volunteer and the child results in the formation of a deep friendship.”
“Bridging the Gap volunteers are devoted to befriending and mentoring refugee children from Burma, Congo, Iraq, Kenya, Liberia, Nepal, Russia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand and Togo who have resettled in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area. BTG volunteers seek to inspire and help refugee youth, typically ranging from 5 to 15 years of age, develop the tools necessary to obtain greater opportunities in U.S. society.”
“Youth Mentoring works with several different organizations within the area to provide volunteers that teach young students a variety of different skills while serving as mentor and role model. Each of the sites has a distinct way in which the volunteer is meant to connect with the student. These activities include tutoring, playing chess, teaching computer skills, teaching one how to play an instrument, and interacting with exhibits at the locally-run children’s museum!”
Through the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center:
The Young Women Leaders Program
“The Young Women Leaders Program is an innovative mentoring program founded by the Women’s Center and the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia in 1997. It is designed to support and enhance the sense of competence, connection and autonomy of a diverse group of college women and middle school girls by promoting women’s and girls’ leadership abilities.”