Say Yes, Winter 2004: Girls, Education and Development

UNICEF’s annual report, The State of the World’s Children 2004 was launched in Ankara on December 16th. The report is a call to action which argues that realisation of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed by world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000 rests on the foundation of achieving gender parity in education. Each year, many more girls than boys are excluded from the school system worldwide. In Turkey, the report was introduced to the press with a panel discussion addressing field experience of the Haydi Kızlar Okula! education campaign from a variety of perspectives.

Girls are the focus of the report because they are the ones who are usually left behind, because what benefits them will also benefit boys (the reverse not always being the case) and because they are more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation when left uneducated.

Gender parity in education is considered to be so vitally important that the scheduled worldwide completion date for the goal is 2005 -- ten years in advance of the other MDGs.

Unfortunately some 65 million girls continue to be excluded from education around the world -- a figure roughly equivalent to the entire population of Turkey -- and 1 per cent of those girls are living in Turkey itself.

Since June, 2003, the Ministry of National Education (MONE) and UNICEF have been leading the MDGs campaign in a drive to increase school enrolment and attendance rates for girls in basic education. This year, the campaign will be extended to include a further twenty-three provinces, including İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir in addition to the first ten to reach over 300,000 girls who are out-of-school. Haydi Kızlar Okula! is far-reaching in it’s objectives and it is expected that the benefits will extend beyond the immediate welfare of girls to positively affect boys, families and society as a whole.

At the launch of the campaign in the eastern province of Van, UNICEF Executive Director, Carol Bellamy said that:

Education is the right of all children. Fulfiling the right of every girl to a quality, basic education is the key to promoting true equality between boys and girls and men and women. Turkey can make no better investment in preparing for the EU than investing in education.

We don’t want to waste half of our human resources for lack of education, said Minister of National Education, Dr Hüseyin Çelik at the time, we should make the message clear that education is for all.

The campaign involves children and families from the remotest regions of Turkey, their teachers, community leaders and officials right up to the highest echelons of government. But there remains a great deal to be done in order to succeed. As Songül from Diyarbakır, one of the first ten target provinces put it:

For me, there is no difference between girls and boys and for that reason, I’m calling for all parents to let your daughters study -- one day, they could be doctors, engineers or lawyers.

A major block to girls’ education is that families often keep their daughters working at home and arrange early marriages for them. Songül spoke from personal experience of the issue:

Because my friend’s older sister got married this year her father intends to take her out of school next year. He says why should girls go to school?

School space is also at a premium and the lack of facilities presents problems for even the most willing students and their communities, as Songül describes:

There was no teacher in my school to take the fifth class so for a time I stopped going. My father wanted to send me to school but there was no teacher. When a teacher came, I carried on with my studies. In fact, I knew that I would go back to school.

This year, the scope of the campaign will not just be broadened geographically but also in operational terms with more intensive media coverage at local and national levels. UNICEF Turkey will work with local media in all the provinces to ensure that the message that education is for all gets across.

The State of the World’s Children 2004 closes by saying that:

The rights of children around the world are abused daily … ensuring the rights of girls to an education is the bridge to safety and protection for all children.

The situation in Turkey

• 600,000 girls are out of school;
• 250,000 of these girls live in ten of the eastern and southeastern provinces;
• Haydi Kızlar Okula! aims to achieve gender equality in primary school enrolment through the provision of quality basic education in 53 provinces where the enrolment rate of girls is lowest, by 2005;

Early results in Turkey

• Siirt 19% improvement in girls’ enrolment rates;
• Van 11.5% improvement in girls’ enrolment rates;
• Muş 7% improvement in girls’ enrolment rates;

From The State of the World’s Children 2004:

The goal for educating girls

• Universal education;
• Gender equality and the consequent empowerment of women.

The value of educating girls

• Enhanced economic development;
• Education for the next generation;
• Reduction in infant and child mortality;
• Healthier families;
• Fewer maternal deaths;

The cost of not educating girls

• Girls will be more vulnerable to poverty and hunger;
• Girls will be more at risk of HIV/AIDS infection, sexual exploitation and child trafficking than boys.

The State of the World’s Children 2004 argues that gender discrimination and the failure to recognise education as a basic human right are at the top of a long list of reasons why girls are systematically excluded from school the world over. UNICEF Executive Director, Carol Bellamy’s report concludes:

We cannot walk any deeper into the 21st century with this piece of 20th century business left unfinished.

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