Basic education and gender equality

UNICEF in action

UNICEF works to ensure that all children realize their right to a quality basic education. It focuses on the most excluded and vulnerable children: girls, the disabled, ethnic minorities, rural and urban poor, those who are affected by war and natural disasters, and those affected by HIV and AIDS.

UNICEF is guided by its Education Strategy and its 2006–2009 medium-term strategic plan (MTSP), as well as a number of international agreements, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Millennium Development Goals, Education for All, and the World Fit for Children goals and targets. UNICEF’s specific focus in education under the current MTSP is basic education and gender equality.

UNICEF’s priorities in education
In its Education Strategy, UNICEF is concentrating on:

• Equal access and universal primary completion: To reduce the percentage of out-of-school children, UNICEF tailors different types of support to suit the needs of specific countries, such as: the School Fee Abolition Initiative; Essential Learning Package distribution; provision of multiple essential services through schools; and establishment of school standards.
• Empowerment through girls’ education and gender equality: Through the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), UNICEF is championing gender mainstreaming, helping countries to move beyond gender parity to gender equality in education. It also promotes life skills-based education, with a gender focus in Child-Friendly Schools (CFS), and it supports female role models in education.
• Emergencies and post-crisis education: UNICEF works on quickly restoring education and protection services by setting up safe learning spaces as part of the humanitarian response to emergencies. It provides basic facilities and supplies for quality learning and other essential needs. This establishes a platform to help countries get children back to school and rebuild sustainable education systems in countries emerging from crisis as a first step towards getting these countries back on the path to development..
• Early Childhood Development (ECD) and school readiness: UNICEF’s actions to ensure all children start school on time and complete a quality basic education include: parenting education; community-based ECD programmes; formal preschool programmes that use national standards for school readiness; and the Child-to-Child School Readiness initiative.
• Enhancing quality in primary and secondary education: UNICEF promotes the CFS model as a packaged approach addressing all aspects of quality in education from a child-centred perspective. CFS models help countries to respond systematically to quality issues in education and help set standards for improvement in areas ranging from school infrastructure to learning outcomes.

An integrated approach
As a children’s agency, UNICEF is interested in the whole child and has adopted an integrated, intersectoral approach to education. Providing children with quality basic education consolidates gains in other UNICEF priority areas. These include: promoting child survival and development; protecting children from abuse and exploitation; ensuring clean water and sanitation and safe environments for children; fighting HIV and AIDS; and ensuring adolescent development and participation.