Transition to Post-Primary Education with a Special Focus on Girls

Despite a sincere commitment to achieve Education for All, there is a huge gender gap in secondary schooling: In African countries only one in five girls enrol in secondary school,and countries have large gender gaps. Boys continue to have higher transition rates to secondary school than girls, and even in the five countries of southernAfrica with relative gender parity, having equal numbers of girls and boys inschool does not mean gender equality has been achieved.Many barriers to post-primary education exist, especially for girls - barriers that are overlapping, intertwining, and cut across sectors. With a dynamic model that arises from such a conceptualization, it is possible to create educational systems that are responsive to individuals and society in diverse contexts, and that have potential for understanding the underlying cultural and structural influences that perpetuate current gender and economic inequities. This paper from UNGEI has identified several areas in which research would inform policy formulation and planning.