Giving Compass' Take:

• Dana Schmidt outlines three outdated notions that funders, NGOs, and governments need to move beyond to make a real impact on education for girls globally. 

• How can funders help to oust outdated and incorrect information around education for girls? 

• Learn why girls are often left behind in education. 

Why are we falling short on delivering on the girls’ education promise? Because while we know why we should focus on girls, we need to get much smarter about how we focus on girls. To do that, we need to abandon three beloved ideas about girls’ education that are holding us back:

  1. If we want to educate girls, we just need to ensure that they attend school. Highlighting that 130 million girls are out of school worldwide hides the even larger number of girls who are in school but not learning.
  2. Girls don’t go to school because they don’t have the products they need. Rigorous evidence suggests that giving girls menstrual supplies does not increase their attendance.
  3. Once they’ve gone to school, girls can overcome gender inequality. Although schooling can help to reduce gender inequalities, it can also reinforce them. Girls are at risk of gender-based violence in multiple domains, and schools are no exception. Gender inequality prompts teachers to nudge girls into traditionally female occupations that pay less than alternative jobs.

Read the full article about educating girls by Dana Schmidt at Stanford Social Innovation Review.