Basic education and gender equality

Introduction

Education is a basic human right, vital to personal and societal development and well being. All children deserve a quality education founded on a rights-based approach and rooted in the concept of gender equality. A rights-based approach to education will address inequalities in our societies that are deep-rooted and often gender-based. Such inequalities exclude millions of children, particularly girls, from school or condemn them to educational experiences of very poor quality.

Education enhances lives. It ends generational cycles of poverty and disease and provides the means for sustainable development. A quality basic education will better equip girls and boys with knowledge and skills needed to adopt healthy lifestyles, to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and to take an active role in social, economic and political decision-making as they transition to adolescence and adulthood. As educated adults, they are more likely to have fewer children, to be informed about appropriate child-rearing practices, and to ensure their children start school on time and are ready to learn.

UNICEF advocates quality basic education for all children — girls and boys — with an emphasis on gender equality and eliminating disparities of all kinds. In promoting equity, UNICEF focuses on the most disadvantaged children through a range of innovative programmes and initiatives in education. We work with a range of local, national and international partners to realize the education and gender equality goals established in the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All Declaration and to bring about essential structural changes needed to achieve social justice and equity for all.