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26 UN ENFOQUE DE LA EDUCACIÓN PARA TODOS BASADO EN LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS
CAPÍTULO
2 Un marco conceptual de la educación basado en los derechos humanos 27
UN MARCO CONCEPTUAL
DE LA EDUCACIÓN BASADO
EN LOS DERECHOS
HUMANOS
INTRODUCCIÓN
L
a concepción y aplicación de un enfoque de la educación
basado en los derechos humanos necesita de un marco
general que aborde el derecho a tener acceso a la educa-
ción, el derecho a una educación de calidad y el respeto de los
derechos humanos en la educación. Estas dimensiones son inter-
dependientes y están interrelacionadas y la educación fundada en
los derechos humanos requiere que se ponga en práctica las tres.
El derecho a la educación exige el compromiso de asegurar el

acceso universal a ella, comprendida la adopción de todas las
medidas necesarias para llegar a los niños más marginados. Mas
no basta con llevar los niños a las escuelas; eso no garantiza una
educación que habilite a las personas para alcanzar sus objeti-
vos económicos y sociales y para adquirir las competencias, los
conocimientos, los valores y las actitudes que hacen surgir una
ciudadanía responsable y activa. En un estudio del Consorcio
del África Meridional y Oriental para Supervisar la Calidad de la
Educación (1995–1998), por ejemplo, se ha medido la capacidad
de lectura de los alumnos de enseñanza primaria, comparándola
con las normas establecidas por expertos nacionales en lectura
y docentes de sexto curso. En cuatro de siete países, menos de
la mitad de los alumnos de sexto curso tenían una competencia
mínima en lectura21. Los malos resultados resultan asimismo
patentes en un estudio efectuado por el Programa de Análisis de
© UNICEF/ HQ06-0829/Shehzad Noorani
los Sistemas Educativos (PASEC) de la CONFEMEN en seis paí-

ses africanos francófonos en 1996–2001: Los niveles alcanzados
fueron “bajos” en francés o matemáticas hasta en un 43% de los
alumnos del quinto curso de los seis países y a más del 40% de
los alumnos del Senegal les costaba mucho ordenar varias cifras
con dos decimales22. Establecer una educación de calidad es
también un grave problema en los países industrializados. Según
varios estudios recientes, son muchos los estudiantes de los
países ricos que no adquieren los conocimientos prácticos básicos necesarios para ser
competentes en el mundo actual23.
Para asegurar una educación de calidad acorde con el Marco de Acción de Dakar (2002)
y los propósitos de la educación tratados en detalle por el Comité de los Derechos del
Niño24, se debe prestar atención a la pertinencia del programa de estudios, la función
desempeñada por los docentes y la índole y los valores del entorno del aprendizaje. Un
enfoque basado en los derechos humanos requiere el compromiso de reconocer y res-
petar los derechos humanos de los niños mientras estén en la escuela –comprendido el
respeto de su identidad, su autonomía y su integridad, lo cual contribuirá a aumentar las
tasas de retención escolar y hace además que el proceso educativo sea habilitador, par-
ticipativo, transparente y responsable. Por lo demás, habrá niños que seguirán estando
excluidos de la educación si no se toman medidas para satisfacer sus derechos a no
ser discriminados, a un nivel de vida digno y a una participación positiva. No se puede
alcanzar una educación de calidad sin tomar en cuenta el derecho de los niños a la salud
y el bienestar. Los niños no pueden desarrollarse óptimamente si se les somete a casti-
gos humillantes o malos tratos físicos.
Este marco conceptual pone de relieve la necesidad de un enfoque global de la educa-

ción, como corresponde a la universalidad y a la indivisibilidad de todos los derechos
humanos. En las secciones que vienen a continuación se establecen los elementos esen-
ciales que, por lo dicho, es preciso abordar en cada una de las tres dimensiones antes
mencionadas.
1. El derecho al acceso a • La educación en todas las fases de la niñez y

la educación después de ésta
• Disponibilidad y accesibilidad de la educaciónn
• Igualdad de oportunidades
2. El derecho a una • Un programa de estudios amplio, pertinente

educación de calidad integradorm
• El aprendizaje y la evaluación basados en los

derechos humanos
• Un entorno que no resulte hostil al niño, seguro y

saludable
3. El derecho al respeto • El respeto de la identidad

en el entorno del
• El respeto de los derechos de participación
aprendizaje
• El respeto de la integridad
CAPÍTULO
1. EL DERECHO AL ACCESO A LA EDUCACIÓN
Obligaciones para asegurar el derecho al acceso a la educación
• Instaurar la enseñanza primaria gratuita y obligatoria..
• Poner en práctica formas de enseñanza secundaria disponibles y accesibles a todos y adoptar

medidas para impartir educación gratuita y asistencia financiera en los casos de necesidad.
• Instaurar una enseñanza superior que sea accesible, recurriendo a todos los medios necesarios,
a quienes posean capacidad para cursarla.
• Facilitar información y orientación accesibles sobre educación y enseñanza profesional.
• Implantar medidas que fomenten la asistencia sistemática a la escuela y disminuyan las tasas de
abandono de los estudios.
• Impartir la educación conforme a la igualdad de oportunidades.
• Asegurar el respeto del derecho a la educación sin discriminación alguna por ningún motivo.
• Establecer un sistema educativo integrador en todos sus niveles.
• Establecer medidas de acogida y apoyo razonables para que los niños con discapacidad
tengan realmente acceso a la educación y la reciban de manera propicia al logro de su mayor
integración social posible.
• Asegurar un nivel de vida suficiente para el desarrollo físico, mental, espiritual, moral y social.
• Prestar protección y asistencia para asegurar el respeto de los derechos de los niños refugiados
o solicitantes de asilo.
• Proteger frente a la explotación económica y el trabajo que obstaculiza la educación.
Fuentes: Artículo 26 de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos; artículos 2, 22, 23, 27, 28
y 32 de la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño; artículo 13 del Pacto Internacional de Derechos
Económicos, Sociales y Culturales; artículo 10 de la Convención sobre la eliminación de todas las formas
de discriminación contra la mujer; artículos 4 y 5 de la Convención de la UNESCO relativa a la lucha contra
las discriminaciones en la esfera de la enseñanza; artículo 24 de la Convención Internacional sobre los
derechos de las personas con discapacidad (abierta a la firma el 30 de marzo de 2007).
El derecho al acceso a la educación comprende tres elementos: la prestación de edu-

cación en todas las fases de la niñez y después de ésta, de forma coherente con los
objetivos de la Educación para Todos; la existencia de plazas escolares accesibles o de
oportunidades de aprendizaje en cantidad suficiente; y la igualdad de oportunidades.
La educación en todas las fases de la niñez y después de ésta
El aprendizaje es un proceso que dura toda la vida. El enfoque de la educación basado

en los derechos humanos busca crear oportunidades para que los niños alcancen sus
capacidades óptimas a lo largo de la niñez y después de ésta. Necesita un planteamiento

que abarque todo el ciclo vital, invertir en el aprendizaje y asegurar transiciones eficaces
en cada fase de la vida del niño.
Aunque la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño no impone obligaciones explícitas
de proporcionar educación en la primera infancia, el Comité de los Derechos del Niño
entiende que el derecho a la educación empieza cuando se nace y guarda relación estre-
chísima con el derecho del niño al desarrollo máximo. Exhorta a los gobiernos a velar
por que los niños de corta edad tengan acceso a programas de atención de salud y de
educación concebidos para promover su bienestar y subraya que el derecho al desarro-
llo óptimo entraña el derecho a la educación en la primera infancia, con la intervención
sistemática y de calidad de la familia.
La educación de calidad en los primeros años de vida desempeña un papel vital en

el fomento de la preparación para la escuela y es además la mejor garantía de la pro-
moción de un desarrollo económico y social sostenible y del logro de los Objetivos de
Desarrollo del Milenio y de las metas de la Educación para Todos y de Un mundo apro-
piado para los niños25. Según un estudio de los niños de Nepal, más del 95% de los que
han asistido a un servicio preescolar no oficial cursaron la enseñanza primaria, donde
también obtuvieron mejores resultados que los que no habían tenido esa experiencia
formativa. Cerca del 80% de los del primer grupo aprobaron el primer curso, frente al
60% del grupo sin experiencia preescolar26.
La legislación de derechos humanos afirma que todos los niños tienen derecho a una
enseñanza primaria gratuita y obligatoria, pero las obligaciones respecto de la ense-
ñanza secundaria no son tan categóricas. Al respecto, el deber consiste en alentar su
desarrollo y hacer que esté a disposición de todos los niños y que sea accesible a ellos
y, donde sea posible, gratuita. Esta formulación menos terminante no refleja un empeño
menos firme hacia la enseñanza secundaria, sino el reconocimiento de que actualmente
el hacerla gratuita y obligatoria supera los recursos de muchos países 27. Desde que se
redactaron esos convenios, ha ido en aumento el reconocimiento de la importancia
fundamental de la enseñanza secundaria.
Además, el desarrollo de una persona no concluye cuando cumple 18 años. La educa-

ción puede y debe tener lugar a todo lo largo de la vida de conformidad con el tercer
objetivo de la Educación para Todos, que consiste en satisfacer las necesidades de
aprendizaje de todos los jóvenes y adultos dándoles acceso al aprendizaje y a progra-
mas de enseñanza de competencias para la vida activa. Los gobiernos deben apoyar el
logro de una base sólida para el aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida, mediante una educa-
ción orientada a una autonomía responsable, el aprendizaje sin necesidad de tutores y
la preparación a la ciudadanía plena.
CAPÍTULO
Disponibilidad y accesibilidad de la educación
Los Estados tienen obligaciones en cuanto a establecer el marco legislativo y norma-

tivo, junto con recursos suficientes, para cumplir el derecho a la educación de todos los
niños. Así pues, se debe proveer a todos los niños de una plaza escolar o de la oportu-
nidad de aprender, junto con docentes adecuadamente formados y recursos y equipos
suficientes y adecuados28. El nivel de la oferta de enseñanza primaria debe ser acorde
con la cantidad de niños con derecho a recibirla.
Todos los entornos de aprendizaje deben ser accesibles material y económicamente a

todos los niños, comprendidos los más marginados. Es importante reconocer que un
establecimiento escolar que es accesible a un niño puede no serlo a otro. Las escuelas
deben hallarse a una distancia que se pueda recorrer con seguridad o ser accesibles por
medios tecnológicos (por ejemplo, mediante un programa de “enseñanza a distancia’).
Deben resultar asequibles a todos29.
Igualdad de oportunidades
Todos los niños tienen igual derecho a asistir a la escuela. Hacer que las escuelas sean
accesibles y estén disponibles es un primer paso importante para cumplir este derecho,
pero no es suficiente para asegurar su realización30. Sólo se puede alcanzar la igual-
dad de oportunidades suprimiendo los obstáculos existentes en la comunidad y en
las escuelas.
Incluso allá donde hay escuelas, diversos factores económicos, sociales y culturales
–entre otros, el género, las discapacidades, el SIDA, la pobreza de las familias, la per-
tenencia a una etnia determinada o a una minoría, la orfandad y el trabajo infantil– se
conjugan a menudo para mantener a los niños sin escolarizar. Los gobiernos tienen obli-
gaciones en cuanto a promulgar leyes y poner en práctica políticas y servicios de apoyo
para suprimir los obstáculos existentes en las familias y las comunidades que dificultan
gravemente o impiden el acceso de los niños a la enseñanza.
Las propias escuelas pueden impedir directa o indirectamente el acceso de algunos

niños a ellas, por ejemplo, por reflejar una cultura en la que predominan los varones,
hay pautas generalizadas de violencia y abusos sexuales o prevalecen normas sociales
como la división en castas. Las actitudes negativas de los docentes hacia las niñas, las
orientaciones sesgadas de los programas de estudio, la inexistencia de profesoras y de
mujeres que puedan servir de ejemplo y la falta de acceso suficiente a la higiene y el
saneamiento también pueden impedir la matriculación y contribuir a que los resultados
escolares sean deficientes y haya tasas elevadas de abandono de los estudios31. Las
escuelas pueden negarse a aceptar a niños con alguna discapacidad o SIDA. La falta
de flexibilidad de los sistemas escolares puede excluir a muchos niños trabajadores.
Los gobiernos deben adoptar medidas para que se imparta una enseñanza que sea
integradora y no discriminatoria y que esté adaptada para garantizar la igualdad de

oportunidades de todos los niños en lo que hace a cursar estudios.
2. EL DERECHO A UNA EDUCACIÓN DE CALIDAD
Obligaciones para asegurar el derecho a una educación de calidad
• Desarrollar las personalidades, los talentos y las capacidades mentales y físicas de los niños en
toda la medida de lo posible.
• Promover el respeto de los derechos humanos y las libertades fundamentales y preparar a los
niños para una vida responsable animada por deseos de paz, tolerancia, igualdad y amistad.
• Promover el respeto de la identidad, cultural, el idioma y los valores del niño, de sus progenitores
y de otras personas.
• Promover el respeto del entorno natural.
• Asegurar el acceso del niño a información de diversas fuentes.
• Asegurar que se tenga siempre muy en cuenta el interés superior del niño.
• Promover el respeto de las capacidades en evolución de los niños en el ejercicio de sus

derechos.
• Respetar el derecho de los niños al descanso, el ocio, el juego, la diversión y la participación en

las actividades artísticas y culturales.
Fuentes: Artículo 26 de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos; artículos 3, 5, 6, 12, 17, 29 y 31 de

la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño; artículo 13 del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos,
Sociales y Culturales y artículo 24 de la Convención Internacional sobre los derechos de las personas con
discapacidad (abierta a la firma el 30 de marzo de 2007).
El Marco de Acción de Dakar compromete a los países a proporcionar una enseñanza

primaria de buena calidad y a mejorar todos los aspectos de la calidad de la educación32.
Aunque no existe una definición única de “calidad’, la mayoría de los intentos de definirla
recogen dos perspectivas fundamentales. En primer lugar, que el desarrollo cognitivo
es un objetivo primordial de la educación, y que la eficacia de ésta se mide por su éxito
en lograr ese objetivo. En segundo lugar, que la educación debe promover el desarrollo
creativo y psicológico, respaldando los objetivos de la paz, la ciudadanía y la seguridad,
fomentando la igualdad y transmitiendo los valores culturales mundiales y locales a las
generaciones futuras.
Estas perspectivas han sido integradas en las finalidades de la educación recogidas en

la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño, que formula una doctrina del respeto de los
niños en tanto que personas, reconociendo que cada niño es “único, por sus característi-
cas, intereses, capacidades y necesidades33”. Establece un marco general de obligaciones
CAPÍTULO
para proporcionar una educación que promueva el desarrollo óptimo de los niños. Su
artículo 29 insiste en “la necesidad de que la educación gire en torno al niño, le sea favo-
rable y lo habilite y subraya la necesidad de que los procesos educativos se basen en los
mismos principios enunciados 34”.Todos los niños tienen derecho a una educación que los
habilite inculcándoles competencias para la vida activa, aprendizaje y otras capacidades,
la autoestima y la confianza en sí mismos. Para impartir una educación de calidad hay que
prestar atención al contenido del programa de estudios, el carácter de la enseñanza y la
calidad del entorno de aprendizaje. Entraña la necesidad de crear entornos de aprendizaje
flexibles, eficaces y respetuosos que sean receptivos a las necesidades de todos los niños.
Un programa de estudios amplio, pertinente e integrador
En los tratados de derechos humanos esenciales figuran unas mismas orientacio-

nes para elaborar los programas de estudios, lo cual indica que existe un consenso
general acerca de su contenido y alcance con miras a una educación fundada en los
derechos humanos.
El programa de estudios debe habilitar a todos los niños para adquirir los conocimien-
tos académicos básicos y las competencias cognitivas básicas, junto con competencias
esenciales para la vida activa que les permitan hacer frente a los problemas de la vida,
adoptar decisiones ponderadas y llevar una vida sana, sostener relaciones sociales
satisfactorias, reflexionar con sentido crítico y tener capacidad para resolver conflictos
de manera no violenta. Debe fomentar el respeto de los derechos humanos y las liber-
tades fundamentales y promover el respeto de las culturas y los valores diferentes y del
entorno natural. El Comité de los Derechos del Niño dispone que el programa de estu-
dios, tanto en la primera infancia como en la escuela, “debe guardar una relación directa
con el marco social, cultural, ambiental y económico del niño y con sus necesidades
presentes y futuras y tomar plenamente en cuenta las aptitudes en evolución del niño 35”
(véase el Apéndice V, página 128).
El programa de estudios debe ser integrador y ajustado a las necesidades de los niños
que se encuentren en circunstancias diferentes o difíciles. Todos los materiales didácti-
cos y de aprendizaje deben estar libres de estereotipos de género y de representaciones
dañinas o negativas de cualquier grupo étnico o indígena. Para que todos los niños con
discapacidad puedan hacer realidad su potencial, habrá que adoptar las medidas nece-
sarias para habilitarlos, por ejemplo, que aprendan a leer en alfabeto braille, darles la
adecuada orientación o enseñarles el lenguaje de signos.
El aprendizaje y la evaluación basados en los derechos humanos
Tan importante como lo que aprenden es la manera en que se da a los niños la posibilidad
de aprender. Los modelos tradicionales de escolarización que hacen callar a los niños y
los perciben como destinatarios pasivos no son compatibles con un enfoque de aprendi-
zaje basado en los derechos humanos.
Se debe respetar la autonomía de los niños y los jóvenes, a los que se debe reconocer a
condición de contribuyentes activos a su propio aprendizaje, en lugar de tratarlos como
a destinatarios pasivos de la educación36. También se debe respetar las aptitudes, en evo-
lución y diferentes, de los niños y reconocer que los niños no adquieren competencias y
conocimientos a edades fijas ni predeterminadas37. En la enseñanza y el aprendizaje deben
intervenir diversas metodologías interactivas para crear entornos estimulantes y partici-
pativos. En lugar de limitarse a transmitir saberes, los pedagogos que intervienen en la
creación o el reforzamiento de oportunidades de aprendizaje deben facilitar el aprendizaje
participativo. Los entornos de aprendizaje no deben ser hostiles al niño y tienen que propi-
ciar el desarrollo óptimo de las capacidades de los niños.
La evaluación de los resultados del aprendizaje es vital. Las pruebas o exámenes permiten
a las escuelas determinar las necesidades de aprendizaje y concebir iniciativas específicas
para prestar apoyo a determinados niños. Con el análisis de los resultados, los gobiernos
pueden valorar si están alcanzando los objetivos que se han fijado en el terreno de la edu-
cación y ajustar según proceda la política y los recursos. La difusión de los resultados es
un aspecto necesario de la rendición de cuentas y la transparencia en la educación y faci-
lita los debates sobre la calidad de ésta. Al mismo tiempo, el compromiso de realizar los
derechos de los niños a desarrollar óptimamente sus capacidades entraña la necesidad de
métodos inteligentes y constructivos de evaluación y supervisión de la labor desarrollada
por los niños, que tomen en cuenta sus distintas capacidades y no discriminen negativa-
mente a los que tienen necesidades de aprendizaje especiales.
Un entorno que no resulte hostil al niño, seguro y saludable
La obligación de dar la primacía al interés superior del niño y de asegurar su desarro-

llo óptimo exige que los entornos de aprendizaje resulten acogedores, tengan muy
presentes las diferencias sociales y sexuales y sean saludables, seguros y protectores.
Aunque las situaciones de extrema pobreza, emergencia y conflicto muchas veces pue-
den impedirlo, no debe esperarse nunca que los niños asistan a clase en escuelas cuyo
entorno sea perjudicial para su salud y bienestar. Las escuelas deben adoptar medidas
para contribuir a la salud y el bienestar de los niños, tomando en cuenta las diferen-
tes necesidades de éstos. Para ello serán precisas medidas que aseguren la remoción
de los obstáculos a la salud y la seguridad –por ejemplo, examinando la ubicación de
las escuelas, los trayectos entre éstas y el hogar, otros factores que pudieren causar
enfermedades o accidentes en el aula o el patio de recreo y la existencia de locales ade-
cuados para las niñas. También exige que se establezcan activamente locales, servicios
y políticas que promuevan la salud y la seguridad de los niños y la participación activa
de la comunidad local. Un entorno saludable debe dar además oportunidades seguras y
estimulantes de jugar y divertirse.
CAPÍTULO
3. EL DERECHO AL RESPETO EN EL ENTORNO DE

APRENDIZAJE
Obligaciones para respetar los derechos de los niños en el entorno de

aprendizaje
• Respetar por igual a todos los niños, sin ninguna discriminación por motivo alguno.
• Enseñar el respeto de los derechos humanos y las libertades fundamentales, de la diferencia y

de la vida en una sociedad en la que reinen el entendimiento, la paz, la tolerancia, la igualdad
y la amistad.
• Dar la primacía al interés superior del niño.
• Respetar las aptitudes en evolución del niño.
• Respetar el derecho de los niños a expresar sus opiniones sobre todas las cuestiones que les
afectan y de que se tomen debidamente en cuenta en función de su edad y madurez.
• Reconocer el derecho a la libertad de expresión, religión, conciencia, pensamiento y reunión.
• Respetar la privacidad de los niños.
• Adoptar todas las medidas adecuadas para que se imponga la disciplina escolar de manera
compatible con la dignidad del niño y todos los demás derechos enunciados en la Convención
sobre los Derechos del Niño.
• Proteger a los niños de todas las formas de violencia física, lesiones o malos tratos, descuido
o negligencia, abusos o explotación, incluidos los abusos sexuales.
Fuentes: Artículos 2, 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 28 y 29 de la Convención sobre los Derechos del
Niño; artículos 1 y 2 de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos; artículos 18, 19 y 27 del Pacto
Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos.
Los derechos humanos son inalienables, es decir, que son innatos a todos los seres
humanos y, por consiguiente, tienen que ser respetados en todos los entornos de apren-
dizaje. Debe entenderse que del derecho a la educación forman parte el respeto a la
identidad de los niños, su derecho a expresar sus opiniones acerca de todas las cuestio-
nes que les afectan y su integridad física y personal.
El respeto de la identidad
La Convención de la UNESCO relativa a la lucha contra las discriminaciones en la esfera

de la enseñanza (1960) protege los derechos educativos de las minorías nacionales. En
función de la política educativa de cada Estado, sienta el derecho a utilizar el idioma
propio o a recibir la enseñanza en él, siempre y cuando ello no dé lugar a que los
miembros de las minorías queden excluidos de la comprensión del idioma y la cultura
del conjunto de la comunidad y la enseñanza no se imparta con una calidad inferior
a la general. La Convención sobre la Protección y Promoción de la Diversidad de las
Expresiones Culturales (2005) instaura obligaciones en lo tocante a respetar la diversi-
dad cultural, entre otros medios por conducto de los programas de educación.
Además, el artículo 30 de la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño subraya el dere-
cho de los niños a tener su propia vida cultural, profesar y practicar su propia religión y
emplear su propio idioma. La legislación internacional de derechos humanos también
obliga a los Estados a respetar la libertad de los progenitores a decidir el tipo de educa-
ción que desean para sus hijos. Los gobiernos tienen derecho a determinar qué religión
se debe enseñar en las escuelas, en caso de que se enseñe alguna, y el idioma vehicular
de la instrucción escolar. Por último, la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño, al reco-
nocer el derecho de los niños a expresar sus opiniones acerca de todas las cuestiones
que les afectan y a que se tomen debidamente en cuenta esas opiniones, introduce
una nueva dimensión en la cuestión de la elección y la libertad en la prestación de la
enseñanza. Así pues, es en el terreno de estos derechos culturales donde se plantean a
menudo con más agudeza las tensiones analizadas en el capítulo 1 entre los niños, los
progenitores y los gobiernos en lo relativo a la educación.
No existe una solución sencilla a esas tensiones, ni un solo enfoque correcto. Ahora, sea
cual fuere el enfoque que se adopte, los gobiernos tienen obligaciones en lo referente a
asegurar que los niños no sean objeto de discriminación, que se respeten su cultura y
su religión y que se haga todo lo necesario para impedir que hablar un idioma minorita-
rio entrañe exclusión social y desventajas en la educación. Al determinar el sistema más
apropiado para implantar el respeto de la identidad, el enfoque basado en los derechos
humanos exige que se consulte a los niños, las familias y las comunidades y que todos
ellos participen. Y, de no cumplirse las correspondientes obligaciones, deben existir
mecanismos para cuestionar a los establecimientos escolares, a las autoridades del
sistema educativo y al gobierno.
El respeto de los derechos de participación
El artículo 12 de la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño establece que los niños
tienen derecho a expresar sus opiniones sobre las cuestiones que les afectan y a que se
les preste la debida atención, en función de su edad y madurez. Ratifican este principio
de participación otros derechos a la libertad de expresión, religión y reunión, los cuales
se aplican a todos los aspectos de su educación y tienen profundas consecuencias en
la situación de los niños en todo el sistema educativo. Los derechos de participación no
se aplican únicamente a las relaciones pedagógicas en el aula, sino también en toda la
escuela y en la elaboración y aplicación de las leyes y políticas pertinentes. El Comité
de los Derechos del Niño ha recomendado en numerosas ocasiones que los gobiernos
tomen medidas para alentar una mayor participación de los niños en las escuelas 38.
CAPÍTULO
Los niños pueden desempeñar además un importante papel en la defensa de la rea-

lización de sus derechos. Los gobiernos tienen que promulgar medidas legislativas e
instaurar políticas que implanten y respalden esos derechos en todos los planos del
sistema educativo (véase el Apéndice VI, página 131).
El respeto de la integridad
La Convención exige no sólo que se proteja a los niños de todas las formas de violencia,
sino también que se imponga la disciplina escolar de forma compatible con la dignidad
del niño. Ahora bien, en países de todo el mundo sigue siendo un fenómeno extendido
en las escuelas la aplicación frecuente de sanciones violentas y graves, comprendidos
malos tratos psicológicos y humillaciones39. El Comité de los Derechos del Niño ha afir-
mado sistemáticamente que esos castigos constituyen una violación de los derechos
del niño y una denegación de su integridad. También perpetran gran violencia niños
contra otros niños y niños contra docentes y es igualmente importante enfrentarse a
semejante comportamiento.
Los castigos físicos y otras formas de tratos humillantes y abusivos no sólo violan el
derecho del niño a la protección frente a la violencia, sino que son muy contraproducen-
tes para el aprendizaje. Los niños mencionan la violencia como un factor importante del
abandono de los estudios 40. Además, menoscaba la autoestima y difunde el mensaje
de que la violencia es aceptable. Muchos factores contribuyen a que se siga empleando
la violencia contra los niños en las escuelas, entre ellos:
• La aceptación social y jurídica de la violencia contra los niños.

• La insuficiente formación de los docentes, que hace que no logren imponerse en
el aula, con la consiguiente quiebra de la disciplina.
• El desconocimiento de los beneficios que acarrea una disciplina positiva y de
cómo fomentarla.
• La incomprensión de las perniciosas consecuencias de los castigos físicos.
• La incomprensión de las distintas maneras en que los niños aprenden y el
hecho de que se desarrollan a distinto ritmo y tienen diferentes capacidades de
comprensión.
Hay que actuar para suprimir todos esos obstáculos e instaurar entornos educativos que
respeten los derechos humanos y en los que estén prohibidas todas las formas de casti-
gos físicos y humillantes y se promueva la solución no violenta de los conflictos.
CAPÍTULO
4 El papel de otros titulares de obligaciones 87
EL PAPEL DE OTROS
TITULARES DE
OBLIGACIONES
L
os Estados no pueden cumplir con sus obligaciones respecto
de la educación fundada en los derechos humanos sin la
participación y el apoyo directos de muchos otros interlo-
cutores, entre ellos los progenitores, los miembros de la familia
extensa, los sindicatos, los docentes, las comunidades religiosas,
las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y los políticos locales.
Los derechos humanos no son simplemente derechos que se
ponen en práctica mediante la promulgación de legislación y la
aplicación de políticas: son normas y principios que con efectos
directos en las relaciones diarias entre los individuos en el seno
de sus comunidades. Para la creación de una educación sosteni-
ble y respetuosa de los derechos humanos que beneficie a todos
los niños es necesario que los progenitores, las familias y todos
los miembros de la comunidad comprendan y hagan suyo el
concepto de educación. La educación no es una actividad aislada:
las acciones, las actitudes y los comportamientos de todos los
miembros de las comunidades inciden sobre la realización o la
negación de los derechos en materia de educación.
También se ha de reconocer que algunos de los interlocutores

que participan en las vidas de los niños pueden poner trabas al
derecho a la educación. Una dimensión necesaria del enfoque
basado en los derechos humanos consiste en trabajar con esos
interlocutores para eliminar los obstáculos que impiden el acceso
a la educación. Es importante aprovechar los conocimientos,
capacidades y energías de todos los que participan en el proceso.
Las oportunidades para que los niños asistan a la escuela depen-
derán del reconocimiento por los progenitores de su derecho a la
educación, de cuán buena acogida dé el establecimiento escolar a
su asistencia y de que los niños no necesiten trabajar. El compro-
miso de los niños con la educación dependerá de la consideración
© UNICEF/ HQ06-2426/Susan Markisz
que se dé a ésta en su comunidad, de la pertinencia y la calidad

de la educación que reciban y del respeto con que se les trate en
el establecimiento escolar. Los logros de los niños en cuanto a la
educación se verán afectados por el nivel de apoyo que reciban
en su hogar, la calidad de los docentes, los métodos de ense-
ñanza utilizados, la medida en que participen como protagonistas
en el proceso educativo, la disponibilidad de los necesarios recur-
sos y ayudas a la educación y una buena disposición a la hora de
crear la flexibilidad necesaria para facilitar su asistencia habitual. Todos estos factores
pueden beneficiarse del apoyo de la acción gubernamental. No obstante, para su plena
ejecución es necesaria la movilización de todos los miembros de la comunidad.
Si bien existen distintos grados de obligación a la hora de dar cumplimiento al derecho

a la educación, desde el del Estado hasta el de los progenitores individuales, es impres-
cindible establecer unas líneas de responsabilidad que sean claras y apropiadas. Por
ejemplo, los progenitores no pueden cumplir con sus obligaciones de asegurar que su
hijo esté preparado para asistir a la escuela y que lo haga de forma habitual a no ser que
el gobierno haya proporcionado los establecimientos escolares y el entorno económico
que sustentan dicha asistencia. También se ha de reconocer que a todo adulto le corres-
ponden derechos, y no sólo responsabilidades. Los progenitores, por ejemplo, son
responsables de velar por el acceso de sus niños a la educación, pero también tienen
derecho a la educación en sí. Los docentes tienen derecho a que se les respete, y tanto
a una remuneración como a formación y apoyo adecuados; no pueden cumplir sus obli-
gaciones para con los niños a no ser que se realicen estos derechos. Como se expone en
el Capítulo 1, existe un vínculo estrecho entre los derechos y las responsabilidades. El
respeto por los derechos humanos no está supeditado al ejercicio de las responsabilida-
des, pero los derechos sólo se pueden realizar cuando esas responsabilidades se toman
en serio.
En este capítulo se examina el papel de los progenitores y demás cuidadores, las

comunidades, los docentes, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y la comunidad
internacional.
LOS PROGENITORES Y DEMÁS CUIDADORES

A los progenitores y demás cuidadores les corresponde una responsabilidad clave a la
hora de apoyar y facilitar el acceso de los niños a la educación. En muchas sociedades,
en particular aquellas en las que los huérfanos son numerosos, son los miembros de la
familia extensa quienes cuidan de los niños. En estas circunstancias, les corresponden
obligaciones respecto de los derechos de esos niños. Los progenitores y demás cuida-
dores se ocupan de las fases iniciales de aprendizaje en la vida del niño. También son
asociados esenciales en la educación permanente de sus niños; sin el compromiso de
los progenitores, los niños ven considerablemente disminuidas sus oportunidades de
acceder a la educación y mantener el correspondiente compromiso.
Las responsabilidades de los progenitores
Entre las contribuciones de los progenitores cabe mencionar:

CAPÍTULO
• Proporcionar un entorno durante los primeros años de los niños que asegure su
preparación para empezar a asistir a la escuela.
• Apoyar y reconocer el derecho a la educación y el valor de la educación para
todos sus niños.
• Asegurar que los niños no se vean sobrecargados de trabajo doméstico y de otro
tipo en detrimento de su escolarización. Los progenitores han de crear un espacio
y un tiempo en la vida de los niños que les permita asistir a la escuela y hacer sus
tareas escolares.
• Velar por que los niños estén preparados para la escuela, y en condiciones de
llegar preparados y puntuales al curso.
• Participar en las actividades del establecimiento escolar y dar apoyo a su trabajo,
mediante la participación en actividades de recaudación de fondos, reuniones con
los docentes, comités, consultas, juntas rectoras, etc.
• Manifestar su estímulo y apoyo a los esfuerzos de sus niños y, cuando sea
posible, ayudarles en las tareas escolares.
• Abogar por el derecho de los niños a la educación, exigiendo responsabilidades
de los establecimientos escolares y las autoridades educativas en cuanto al
cumplimiento de sus obligaciones para con los niños, supervisando los progresos
e impugnando las violaciones de los derechos.
• Velar, en la medida de lo posible, por que sus niños gocen de buena salud y estén
bien alimentados para que puedan aprender.
• Velar por que las tradiciones y costumbres locales, como el matrimonio infantil,
no impidan a sus hijos asistir a la escuela.
Un ejemplo de la defensa por los progenitores del derecho a la educación procede de

Jordania, donde tras una reunión de las madres de una comunidad, preocupadas por la
ausencia de educación secundaria para sus hijas, se elaboró una petición y se celebró
una reunión con el director del ministerio de educación. El resultado fue el estableci-
miento de tres clases de nivel secundario para niñas, plenamente equipadas, en un
plazo de seis meses111.
Educar a los progenitores
Cuando los progenitores, y especialmente las madres, no han asistido a la escuela, la

probabilidad de que sus niños lleguen a hacer efectivo su derecho a la educación se ve
considerablemente reducida112. De ahí que una dimensión vital del enfoque de la educa-
ción basado en los derechos humanos consista en proporcionar educación a los adultos
por medio de servicios tales como los centros de aprendizaje comunitarios, para fomen-
tar la capacidad de los progenitores113. Las autoridades locales, junto con los gobiernos
nacionales, son los principales responsables a la hora de crear estas oportunidades,
destinadas a hacer efectivos los derechos de aquellos progenitores a quienes se negó
el acceso a la educación en sus propias infancias. Sin esta inversión, existe el riesgo de
que el derecho a la educación se deniegue generación tras generación.
Los programas de educación para progenitores también han de reconocer la variedad

de apoyo e información que éstos requieren en las distintas etapas de las vidas de sus
hijos. A menudo se da por sentado que los progenitores sólo requieren apoyo para
sus hijos en edad preescolar. En la práctica, la crianza de los hijos impone diversas
demandas sobre los progenitores, quienes se pueden beneficiar de asesoramiento e
información respecto de la evolución de las capacidades de sus hijos a lo largo de la
infancia de éstos. Si los progenitores desarrollan sus capacidades en lectura y escritura,
pueden comunicar mejor con sus hijos, ayudarles en sus tareas escolares y comprender
también mejor lo que hacen en la escuela. Para los progenitores de hijos con graves
discapacidades auditivas, resulta esencial aprender el lenguaje de señas para poder
comunicarse con ellos. Por medio de la educación, los progenitores adquirirán una
mayor capacidad de apoyo a la educación de sus hijos desde el momento de su naci-
miento, así como una mayor comprensión de las necesidades de sus hijos y una mayor
confianza a la hora de colaborar con los establecimientos escolares para contribuir a
mejorar la calidad de la educación que éstos proporcionan. El fomento de prácticas de
igualdad entre los géneros es parte esencial de todos los programas de educación para
los progenitores.
Los progenitores en tanto que asociados
Muchos progenitores carecen de las capacidades, los conocimientos y los recursos que
les permitirían interactuar eficazmente con los docentes y las autoridades escolares; por
otra parte, en los establecimientos escolares a menudo se da una ausencia de compro-
miso respecto de un acercamiento a los progenitores. Sin embargo, la inversión en los
progenitores puede ser tan importante para la educación de un niño como el aprendi-
zaje directo en la escuela. Es necesario que los establecimientos escolares organicen
reuniones periódicas con los padres de alumnos para compartir con ellos los objetivos
del establecimiento y el programa escolar que se está impartiendo, y para ponerles al
día respecto del progreso de su hijo o su hija, con el fin de permitirles una mejor com-
prensión de su educación. Este tipo de contacto atrae a los progenitores en tanto que
asociados en el proceso educativo. Los establecimientos escolares también pueden
alentar a los progenitores a prestar asistencia en el aula y ayuda en el entorno escolar
más amplio, y también a hacerse miembros de las juntas escolares. Esta participación
no sólo permite la aportación de energía y capacidades prácticas, sino que también
aumenta su sentido de apropiación del establecimiento escolar, y con ello lleva a un
compromiso con la educación efectiva de los niños.
Los grupos locales tales como las asociaciones de padres de alumnos o los clubes de
madres son de vital importancia a la hora de apoyar la educación de los niños. Mediante
la organización cooperativa, los progenitores pueden abogar eficazmente a favor de
mejoras en los niveles y en las dotaciones. Con su trabajo pueden apoyar a la escuela,
supervisar los progresos de los niños y pedir al establecimiento escolar que rinda
cuentas respecto de los logros obtenidos. Estos clubes y asociaciones también pueden
CAPÍTULO
ejercer un papel importante en la creación de capacidades, ya que proporcionan opor-

tunidades para desarrollar capacidades de organización de comités y recaudación de
fondos, y también para hablar en público y constituir redes.
LAS COMUNIDADES
Las vidas de los niños y las niñas se desarrollan en el seno de las familias, pero tam-
bién dentro de unas comunidades cuyos valores, cultura y nivel de compromiso tienen
efectos considerables en sus vidas diarias. Las comunidades locales ejercen una función
clave a la hora de fomentar unos entornos que propicien la realización del derecho a la
educación para todos los niños y niñas.
El modelo de escuela comunitaria
Las escuelas comunitarias se constituyeron como medio para proporcionar una

educación de calidad a los niños y niñas que viven en pequeñas aldeas rurales
en Egipto, donde anteriormente no existían escuelas primarias; las niñas se veían
especialmente afectadas por la carencia de medios de educación en las zonas rura-
les. Estas escuelas, que tomaron como modelo la experiencia del BRAC (Comité de
Bangladesh para el Progreso Rural), están situadas en las propias comunidades,
y eliminan los costes ocultos como uniformes y carteras escolares. Característica
clave de estas escuelas es que son de propiedad local; las comunidades donan
espacio, se aseguran de que los niños y niñas asistan a clase y administran las
escuelas mediante un comité local de educación que se establece en cada aldea.
A nivel local se contrata a mujeres jóvenes con títulos intermedios; éstas reciben
una formación de facilitadoras mediante técnicas interactivas que las capacita para
proporcionar una educación de calidad. Por otra parte, el contenido de la educación
se adecua a las necesidades y los intereses locales, entre ellos la salud, el medio
ambiente, la agricultura y la historia local. Los egresados de las escuelas comu-
nitarias pueden optar por presentarse a los exámenes de las escuelas oficiales al
terminar el tercer y el sexto curso.
El proyecto está actuando como un catalizador del desarrollo, propiciando cambios

en las funciones de género y en las expectativas tanto de las alumnas como de las
facilitadoras. Las lecciones que pueden extraerse de los componentes de calidad del
modelo de escuela comunitaria se están trasladando al sistema educativo general;
además, se está replicando el modelo mediante el establecimiento de un número
adicional de escuelas más acogedoras para las niñas.
Fuente: Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia: “Examples from the Field: UNICEF and Girls”
Education in Rural Areas” (Ejemplos en el terreno: UNICEF y la educación de las niñas en zonas rurales),
documento preparado por UNICEF para la mesa redonda ministerial del Consejo Económico y Social sobre
Educación primaria y educación de las niñas en zonas rurales, 30 de abril de 2003, pág. 2.
Promover la sensibilización localmente
Las autoridades locales, y entre ellas los dirigentes tradicionales, son responsables
junto con los asociados de la comunidad a la hora de promover la sensibilización res-
pecto del valor de la educación dentro de las comunidades locales, y de hacerse con su
apoyo para las escuelas locales y el derecho de todos los niños y niñas a la educación.
Se ha de trabajar con los progenitores y la familia más extensa, así como con los gru-
pos religiosos y otros grupos comunitarios, para ayudarles a reconocer los beneficios
de la educación. Los progenitores pueden necesitar ayuda para reducir la carga de
trabajo doméstico con el fin de liberar a los niños para asistir a la escuela, por ejemplo
mediante un mejor acceso al agua, o mediante el suministro de cuidados de guardería
para los niños de menor edad con objeto de que las niñas queden liberadas de sus res-
ponsabilidades de cuidados infantiles. En cuanto a la elaboración y la dirección de tales
programas, la constitución de asociaciones con organizaciones de personas marginadas
y vulnerables, los niños entre ellas, supone una estrategia clave para cuestionar los pre-
juicios y los estereotipos.
Analizar los obstáculos locales
En cualquier localidad, conviene que las autoridades locales –y cuando proceda, los
dirigentes tradicionales– inicien un análisis, en asociación con los miembros de la
comunidad, para determinar cuáles son los obstáculos para la educación, así como las
comunidades en las que están presentes estos obstáculos y los niños a quienes afectan.
Tras este análisis se podrán tomar medidas para enfrentarse los obstáculos específicos
que puedan surgir. Estas medidas podrían comprender las siguientes:
• Promover la sensibilización respecto del derecho a la educación.

• Promover el valor de la educación para las oportunidades futuras tanto de los
niños como de las niñas.
• Velar por la sensibilización respecto de la naturaleza de la discapacidad y la
aptitud de los niños con discapacidades para beneficiarse de la educación.
• Recalcar la importancia del juego como parte del aprendizaje y desarrollo de
los niños.
• Proporcionar información respecto de la disponibilidad de programas de comida
por educación, estipendios o transferencias en efectivo.
• Tener en cuenta las preocupaciones de los progenitores, tales como la violencia
en el trayecto a la escuela.
• Adaptar los horarios escolares para ajustarlos a los compromisos de trabajo
doméstico.
• Subrayar el papel que pueden ejercer los progenitores a la hora de apoyar y
reforzar el aprendizaje de sus hijos, incluso la importancia de la participación
activa en la vida del establecimiento escolar y las posibles contribuciones que
pueden aportar los progenitores y las comunidades.
• Escuchar a los niños y hacer que se comprometan como participantes activos
en su propio aprendizaje.
CAPÍTULO
• Fomentar el respeto hacia los niños como personas que aprenden y poner fin a
todas las formas de violencia en las escuelas.
Proporcionar información fidedigna sobre la población de edad

preescolar y escolar
La información en el plano local sobre la población de edad preescolar y escolar es

necesaria para que la disponibilidad de plazas escolares, docentes formados y recursos
educativos corresponda al tamaño de dicha población. Se puede emprender el proceso
de localización de los niños en asociación con organizaciones no gubernamentales
locales, dirigentes tradicionales, miembros de la comunidad, organizaciones religiosas
o grupos de progenitores. Han de hacerse esfuerzos para incluir a los niños y niñas
menos visibles, como son los niños con discapacidades y los hijos de trabajadores
migratorios y domésticos. Como ya se observó en el capítulo anterior, la inscripción de
los nacimientos es un factor importante para la elaboración de registros precisos de las
poblaciones infantiles.
Apoyar a los establecimientos escolares
Los miembros de las comunidades locales pueden abogar de forma crítica a favor de
la educación y procurar recursos con el fin de mejorar los servicios escolares. Pueden
aportar un apoyo económico, organizar actividades para recaudar fondos, unirse a los
órganos rectores escolares, dar su apoyo a actividades relacionadas con los programas
basadas en la comunidad, contribuir a “grupos de trabajo” para mantener el entorno
escolar, realizar campañas en pro de las mejoras en la financiación, ayudar a adaptar
los edificios escolares para hacerlos más accesibles para los niños con discapacidades y
fomentar la eliminación del trabajo infantil en sus comunidades. La participación activa
de la comunidad local dota de mayor categoría a la escuela y sustenta la percepción de
la educación como un proceso importante que se ha de estimar y proteger en benefi-
cio de todos los niños. Sin embargo, se ha de reconocer que las comunidades no son
homogéneas. Los esfuerzos para promover la participación de la comunidad deberían
incluir a los hogares pobres y marginados, y puede ser necesario realizar esfuerzos
especiales para lograr ese objetivo.
LOS DOCENTES
Si bien la infraestructura educativa general es de vital importancia, son los docentes
quienes más aportan a la experiencia diaria de los niños en la escuela. Una educación
de calidad, que atrae la participación de los niños, depende del compromiso, entu-
siasmo, creatividad y capacidad de los docentes. A ellos les corresponde la tarea de
convertir las políticas nacionales en actividades concretas en cada establecimiento esco-
lar, y de asegurarse de que sus educandos hagan suya una cultura que incluya y respete
La escuela bajo el árbol de mango
La Sementinha, o la escuela bajo el árbol de mango, fue establecida en una ciudad

de Brasil, inicialmente para niños de 4 a 6 años, y como respuesta al hecho de que
muchos niños de corta edad no asistieran a la escuela. La metodología se basa en
las ideas del corro y el juego. Al inicio de cada día los niños, sentados en corro,
responden a la pregunta: “¿Qué vamos a estudiar hoy?” La participación es un
principio fundamental, y todos los niños, sea cual fuere su edad, tienen derecho a
aportar su contribución. Al principio no eran capaces de expresarse, pero poco a
poco, animados por los docentes, su confianza fue aumentando y empezaron a dar
su opinión. Todas las cuestiones del grupo se resuelven en un corro, que constituye
el espacio donde se habla, se escucha, se discute, se reflexiona y se alcanza el con-
senso. De este modo, los niños no se sienten marginados si se rechazan sus ideas.
Los niños también desempeñan un papel a la hora de evaluar las actividades. Esto
se lleva a cabo mediante el debate verbal, y también mediante dibujos, canciones,
la creación de cuentos y la redacción de poemas. Los docentes toman en serio las
reacciones de los niños, que se aplican a las actividades subsiguientes. También los
docentes se reúnen en un corro antes de empezar la jornada escolar para comentar
sus planes, y nuevamente al final de la jornada para examinar las actividades que
han tenido lugar.
La escuela está inextricablemente vinculada a la comunidad local. El proyecto no

depende de un edificio para suministrar una educación de calidad; las actividades
docentes se pueden llevar a cabo en el barrio, en las calles, en una iglesia o en un
domicilio particular. Los docentes y los niños se desplazan continuamente por la
comunidad, de manera que los progenitores y otros pueden ver cómo aprenden los
niños. En un principio muchos progenitores manifestaron objeciones a la metodo-
logía de la escuela. Opinaban que la educación sólo se podía impartir en un edificio,
con papel y lápices. El proyecto respondió a esta objeción haciendo que los proge-
nitores participaran en los corros para explorar el funcionamiento de la escuela. Los
progenitores empezaron a observar diferencias en sus hijos, cuyo desarrollo y esti-
mulación llegaron a superar los de los niños de otras escuelas. Los niños también
hacen uso de los métodos de la “hora del corro” para intentar resolver los conflic-
tos en sus propias familias.
Este modelo constituye un buen punto de partida en la primera infancia, y estimula

la participación de los progenitores en la educación de sus hijos. Se ha adaptado su
funcionamiento tanto a entornos rurales como a poblaciones pequeñas y a entor-
nos urbanos, y se ha replicado en 13 poblaciones, con la participación de 3.300
niños y 165 docentes.
Fuente: Guerra, Rosangela, “La escuela debajo del árbol de mango: Niños fuertes que brotan de
semillitas’, entrevista con Tiáo Rocha en Espacio para la infancia, nº 22, Bernard van Leer Foundation,
noviembre de 2004, págs. 21–27.
CAPÍTULO
a cada niño y niña. Para que esto suceda, como ya se ha dicho, también han de recono-
cerse y respetarse plenamente los derechos de los docentes114.
Los directores de los establecimientos escolares
Si bien es verdad que corresponde a los gobiernos fijar las condiciones de trabajo de los
docentes y promover una cultura de respeto por su trabajo, es mucho lo que se puede
hacer en el plano local para apoyar los derechos de los docentes. Los directores de esta-
blecimientos escolares tienen responsabilidades a la hora de promover los derechos de
los docentes, proporcionar un apoyo adecuado, dar respuesta a sus preocupaciones,
hacer participar a los docentes en la toma de decisiones en el establecimiento escolar y
fomentar el respeto por su trabajo en la comunidad local. También han de ayudar a los
docentes a comprender sus funciones y responsabilidades, y supervisar su conducta.
Es importante que los docentes se sientan respetados y estimados, ya que ello reforzará
sus capacidades y su buena disposición a la hora de respetar los derechos de los niños.
Deberes de los docentes
Introducir medidas prácticas para la integración
Las escuelas pueden desempeñar una función esencial para aplicar las políticas de inte-
gración en la vida diaria de la educación. Todos los niños necesitan sentirse acogidos y
seguros que recibirán el mismo trato que los demás en la escuela. Las escuelas han de
fomentar un ambiente de respeto para todos los niños. Han de favorecer una cultura
que vele por que no se tolere preferencia alguna que favorezca o discrimine contra
cualquier persona o grupo de personas que estén aprendiendo, ya sea en cuanto a pro-
cedimientos de admisión, trato en el aula, oportunidades para el aprendizaje, acceso a
los exámenes, oportunidades para la participación en actividades específicas, como la
música o el teatro, o puntuación de los trabajos. Nunca se han de aplicar estereotipos
o insultar a los niños por ser quienes, o lo que son. Los docentes han de adoptar medi-
das activas para hacer que las niñas participen sobre las mismas bases que los niños.
Los establecimientos escolares han de elaborar políticas que establezcan los principios
de no discriminación y velar por que todos los docentes, progenitores y niños tengan
conocimiento de la política y sepan cómo presentar una queja en el caso de que dicha
política se incumpla. Tanto los niños como los progenitores han de participar en el desa-
rrollo de la política, ya que de esta manera se reforzarán su apropiación y comprensión
de la misma. El proceso de elaboración de la política también constituye una oportuni-
dad para abordar los temas, aprender por qué son importantes y desarrollar destrezas a
la hora de negociar, escuchar y comprender distintos puntos de vista y experiencias.
Promover un entorno respetuoso
Los establecimientos escolares han de elaborar políticas para fomentar un entorno de

respeto en la escuela en su totalidad. Estas políticas se han de elaborar mediante la
colaboración con todas las partes interesadas, comprendidos los niños. Por ejemplo, se
pueden proporcionar políticas y orientación respecto de lo siguiente: cómo promover un
planteamiento no violento para la solución de conflictos, tanto entre docentes y niños
como entre los propios niños; cómo fomentar la participación activa de los niños en los
procesos escolares de toma de decisiones; y cómo elaborar códigos de comportamiento
escolar que rijan las relaciones entre todos los miembros de la comunidad escolar y
contribuyan a los procesos educativos. Estas directrices pueden ser adaptadas y desa-
rrolladas por los establecimientos escolares individuales, con la participación de los
niños, los progenitores y los docentes; todos ellos han de alcanzar un sentido de apro-
piación de las políticas subsiguientes.
Dar cabida a necesidades diferentes
La integración requiere que se tomen iniciativas para dar cabida a las distintas necesida-
des de los niños. Por ejemplo, puede ser necesario obtener que algunas clases tengan
lugar en las plantas bajas, para dar cabida a quienes utilizan sillas de ruedas. Los esta-
blecimientos escolares pueden elaborar modelos piloto de educación que permitan una
participación más flexible en el aula, llevar las clases allí donde se encuentren los niños
u organizar horarios de enseñanza distintos. Las horas de inicio de las clases se podrían
escalonar, llegando distintos grupos de niños a distintas horas, con el fin de permitir
que los niños aprendan en grupos flexibles que tomen en cuenta las demandas externas
sobre su tiempo como pueden ser el trabajo agrícola y el doméstico; no obstante, es de
vital importancia no reducir el tiempo de aprendizaje disponible para ellos, a menudo
de por sí limitado. En algunos establecimientos escolares de Bangladesh el horario es
flexible; la escuela funciona durante un número limitado de horas, seis días por semana;
el horario es escogido por los progenitores y el calendario escolar puede adaptarse
a las necesidades locales, como la cosecha115. Según sus edades, los niños necesitan
interrumpir su trabajo periódicamente para poder descansar y aprender eficazmente,
especialmente aquellos niños que llegan a la escuela tras haber realizado trabajos remu-
nerados o tareas domésticas. Los niños pueden trabajar en módulos o en grupos donde
aprenden juntos según las horas en las que pueden participar, y también en el marco de
iniciativas de enseñanza personalizada que a menudo se proporcionan en programas
complementarios o fuera de los horarios escolares.
Estimular la participación local
Los establecimientos escolares acogedores para los niños han de ser capaces de tener
en cuenta el contexto local. Ateniéndose a un marco de normas y principios esenciales,
las escuelas individuales han de poder adaptarse a las necesidades de la comunidad
CAPÍTULO
local y proporcionar un programa de estudios pertinente que tome en consideración las

preocupaciones y prioridades locales. Por ejemplo, en algunos establecimientos escola-
res se ha hecho de la participación de los niños en la gestión del entorno escolar y de la
comunidad local un elemento integral del concepto básico de la escuela como centro de
aprendizaje democrático basado en la comunidad116.
Hacer que los niños participen como asociados
Los establecimientos escolares han de promover entornos donde haga que los niños
participen activamente en todos los niveles117: actuando como educadores de sus
compañeros y mentores de los niños de menor edad; estableciendo y administrando
consejos escolares que sirvan como foro donde abordar los asuntos que preocupan
a los niños; ayudando a elaborar la política escolar, incluidos los códigos de compor-
tamiento y la disciplina; asesorando sobre asuntos tales como el diseño de las zonas
de juego, y la situación y diseño de las letrinas; contribuyendo a los programas de
estudios; proporcionando información y evaluaciones respecto éstos y los métodos de
enseñanza; mediando para ayudar a resolver conflictos, y participando en los órganos
rectores escolares. Un planteamiento para la creación de un entorno participativo con-
siste en utilizar el “tiempo en el corro’, un proceso según el cual los niños se reúnen a
diario en un corro para examinar temas de interés para ellos, identificar problemas y
explorar soluciones (véase “La escuela bajo el árbol de mango’, página [94] ) Los niños
también pueden participar en el establecimiento de indicadores de seguimiento para
evaluar el nivel de respeto por la escuela de los derechos de todos sus miembros, y
tomar parte en un proceso regular de evaluación del cumplimiento con respecto a esos
indicadores. Pueden entonces compartir la responsabilidad de elaborar estrategias para
mejorar la práctica. En todas estas estrategias se han de realizar esfuerzos para velar por
la igualdad de oportunidades de participación para todos los niños.
Lograr un equilibrio entre los derechos y las obligaciones
Enseñar a los niños acerca de sus derechos supone entender las obligaciones recíprocas
que éstos conllevan. Si bien el niño o la niña tienen derecho a que se les escuche y a
que se dé la debida consideración a sus puntos de vista, tienen también la correspon-
diente obligación de escuchar los puntos de vista de los demás. Este aprendizaje sólo
puede tener lugar por medio de la experiencia del trato acordado a los niños y las niñas
en la escuela, y de la cultura de respeto mutuo que esta experiencia fomenta. Un ejem-
plo: hay que dar acomodo a los niños que viven lejos del establecimiento escolar, o que
han de cumplir con compromisos de trabajo doméstico o de otro tipo antes de asistir a
la escuela. En lugar de castigar a los niños que habitualmente llegan tarde a la escuela
aduciendo que el castigo les estimulará a ser puntuales, convendría reunirse con los
niños para examinar posibles modificaciones de los horarios escolares, considerar la
posibilidad de cambiar las horas de inicio de las clases u organizar horarios flexibles con
distintas horas de inicio de las clases.
LAS ORGANIZACIONES DE LA SOCIEDAD CIVIL

En la mayoría de los países del mundo entero, las organizaciones internacionales, nacio-
nales y locales de la sociedad civil desempeñan un papel central en la realización de los
derechos, ya sea suministrando servicios o abogando por que los titulares de las obliga-
ciones cumplan con ellas. A menudo son fuente de considerable conocimiento, no sólo
respecto de las lagunas en el suministro dentro de las comunidades locales sino tam-
bién respecto de las estrategias necesarias para hacer frente a dichas lagunas. De ahí
que la creación de asociaciones con estas organizaciones revista considerable importan-
cia. También el sector privado ejerce un papel de importancia creciente en el suministro
de servicios básicos, la educación entre ellos, y ha de cumplir con las obligaciones que
le corresponden. Por tanto, en muchos países puede constituir un asociado importante.
Colaborar en la educación
Las autoridades locales o de distrito, incluidos los dirigentes tradicionales, han de com-
partir puntos de vista y conocimientos expertos con los proveedores de educación no
gubernamentales respecto de las necesidades de los niños fuera de la escuela y del
mejor modo de encargarse de su educación, y también explorar estrategias para que
las transiciones entre los sectores no gubernamental y gubernamental sean menos
conflictivas. Todo esto podría incluir diversos planteamientos piloto para promover
oportunidades educativas destinadas a los niños marginados. Las consultas con los
niños que asisten a escuelas no gubernamentales son una ayuda inestimable, ya que
constituyen una importante fuente de información en cuanto al motivo por el que dichas
escuelas funcionan para ellos, así como en cuanto a los cambios que son necesarios en
las escuelas oficiales para adaptarse a las realidades de sus vidas. Los factores positivos
para los niños que asisten a establecimientos escolares no oficiales están relacionados
con los aspectos más informales y creativos del programa de estudios y con la calidad
de sus relaciones con los docentes. Los aspectos negativos, por otra parte, son la ausen-
cia de oportunidades para obtener una acreditación y el posible sentido de exclusión
social relacionado con la asistencia a unos establecimientos escolares que podrían
verse afectados por la lacra de su falta de categoría y de la marginación118. Para que se
haga realidad la igualdad de derecho a la educación de estos niños han de emprenderse
esfuerzos para superar estos problemas, y se han de desarrollar los puntos fuertes rela-
cionados tanto con los establecimientos escolares oficiales como con los extraoficiales.
También se pueden iniciar en el plano local actividades piloto relacionadas con modelos
de integración, en asociación con organizaciones de personas con discapacidades, con
los progenitores y con organizaciones no gubernamentales y comunitarias locales.
Movilizar y crear capacidades
A menudo, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil han estado a la cabeza de la moviliza-

ción de la sociedad a la hora de reivindicar derechos. Estas organizaciones se relacionan
CAPÍTULO
con los más pobres, los más marginados y los más vulnerables de una comunidad
para colaborar en el desarrollo de sus capacidades y contribuir a la definición de espa-
cios y puntos de penetración que permitan a estos grupos establecer relaciones con
los titulares de obligaciones con el fin de realizar sus derechos. En cierto modo, estas
organizaciones ejercen un papel relacionado con la oferta y la demanda. Del lado de la
demanda, este papel se ha ejercido a través de acciones de defensa y presión y de accio-
nes encaminadas a velar por la rendición de informes y la claridad en las actuaciones de
los titulares de obligaciones, por ejemplo mediante el seguimiento de las políticas y los
programas gubernamentales para verificar que se han puesto en práctica eficazmente.
También pueden ayudar a garantizar la continuación de aquellos programas que han
obtenido buenos resultados cuando se producen cambios en el gobierno o en la admi-
nistración. Del lado de la oferta, se han emprendido las siguientes iniciativas de creación
de capacidades:
• Comunidades, progenitores y dirigentes tradicionales – por medio

de formación, concienciación y sensibilización destinadas a capacitar a las
comunidades para participar, por ejemplo, en el control social y los ejercicios de
seguimiento de los servicios gubernamentales.
• Gobiernos – mediante la formación y sensibilización de los funcionarios
públicos.
Cabe reconocer los logros de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil, que han pro-
porcionado modelos sustitutitos de relaciones sociales que a menudo son de índole
habilitadora y participativa y que hacen que los más vulnerables participen en la obten-
ción de resultados, y contribuido así a democratizar los procesos de cambio social
necesarios para la reivindicación de los derechos.
LA COMUNIDAD INTERNACIONAL
La comunidad internacional puede ser un importante partícipe en la realización del dere-
cho a la educación, en la medida en que brinda su apoyo a la creación de capacidades
tanto de los gobiernos como de los individuos. El Marco de Acción de Dakar introduce
expresamente el papel de la comunidad internacional, por ejemplo en la asignación de
una mayor proporción de los recursos para apoyar la educación primaria y otras formas
básicas de educación y lograr que las estrategias de educación sirvan de complemento a
otras estrategias destinadas a la eliminación de la pobreza, como el Marco de Asistencia
de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (MANUD) y los documentos estratégicos
para la atenuación de la pobreza. La reciente Declaración de París sobre la Eficacia de
la Ayuda al Desarrollo también insta a los asociados para el desarrollo a que adopten
este tipo de enfoques basados en los derechos, por ejemplo en lo correspondiente a
la creación de capacidades y la rendición de cuentas119. Este papel también se ha visto
afirmado en el Informe sobre la integración de los derechos humanos en el desarrollo,
de la Dirección de la Cooperación para el Desarrollo de la Organización de Cooperación
y Desarrollo Económicos, que hace un llamamiento a los asociados para el desarrollo a

efectos de que:
• Profundicen su institucionalización de las consideraciones relativas a los derechos

humanos, examinando sus sistemas, procedimientos e incentivos al personal
y asignando los recursos adecuados para una mejor puesta en práctica de sus
políticas.
• Apoyen el fortalecimiento de la apropiación nacional de los derechos humanos en
el contexto de las asociaciones para el desarrollo, especialmente en relación con
las estrategias de atenuación de la pobreza.
• Den impulso a la integración de los derechos humanos en las formas de pensar
y las prácticas correspondientes a los nuevos procesos de eficacia de la ayuda
al desarrollo y los instrumentos y modalidades de prestación de ayudas al
desarrollo120.
Estrategias para promover la educación basada en los derechos

humanos
Los asociados para el desarrollo pueden utilizar toda una gama de estrategias al ela-
borar programas para la educación basada en los derechos humanos, entre ellas las
siguientes:
• Proporcionar conocimientos expertos técnicos y crear capacidades para

ayudar a los Estados a cumplir con sus compromisos internacionales en materia
de derechos humanos.
• Facilitar la capacidad de las partes interesadas para reivindicar sus
derechos, lo que supondrá el suministro de formación y apoyo en materia
de derechos humanos para robustecer su capacidad en materia de defensa y
reivindicación de sus derechos, y la creación de oportunidades para que lo hagan.
• Exigir responsabilidades de los Estados: los asociados comprometidos
con los derechos humanos de los niños tienen la obligación de exigir
responsabilidades a los Estados respecto de los compromisos que éstos han
adoptado al ratificar tratados internacionales sobre los derechos humanos.
• Establecer asociaciones estratégicas para lograr una mayor eficacia: los
organismos especializados han de colaborar de manera eficaz para velar por la
máxima eficiencia y eficacia posibles en la programación y la cooperación para el
desarrollo, en el plano tanto mundial como nacional. El proceso de reforma de las
Naciones Unidas, así como la Declaración de Roma sobre la Armonización, a cuya
cabeza está la Dirección de la Cooperación para el Desarrollo de la Organización
de Cooperación y Desarrollo Económicos, procuran lograr este objetivo. El sector
no gubernamental también ha de colaborar con los asociados para lograr la
máxima eficacia.
CAPÍTULO
• Crear un cambio sistémico: a la larga, resulta evidente que la mejor forma

de ocuparse de los más desfavorecidos pasa por un sistema educativo que no
discrimine y que sea plenamente integrador. Por tanto, por regla general es
necesario invertir en programas que conlleven la posibilidad de lograr cambios
sistémicos a gran escala. Mientras no se hayan introducido tales reformas,
sigue siendo esencial dar apoyo a los grupos más vulnerables, incluso mediante
programas compensatorios y de discriminación positiva. Las intervenciones
seleccionadas sólo dejarán de ser necesarias cuando las comunidades
establezcan a nivel nacional unas normas que cumplan y cuya aplicación
supervisen121.
• Apoyar la recopilación y el análisis de datos desde una perspectiva nacional,
regional e internacional, para facilitar una elaboración documentada de las
políticas. Esto también ayudará a definir prácticas o programas prometedores,
analizar las condiciones en las que aquellos países que se enfrentan a retos
parecidos podrían adoptar estas mejores prácticas, y permitir comparaciones
entre países de los progresos logrados.
Cuestiones que deben abordarse al promover la educación

basada en los derechos humanos
Es necesario abordar algunas cuestiones adicionales que, en lo relativo a la forma de

proveer fondos, plantea un enfoque basado en los derechos humanos. Entre éstas
se encuentran las escalas temporales, los resultados e indicadores y los enfoques de
alcance sectorial.
Los plazos
La aplicación de enfoques basados en los derechos humanos, que suponen un cam-

bio en la cultura de los sistemas de educación que la lleve hacia un mayor respeto por
los niños en tanto que participantes activos en el proceso educativo, es algo que lleva
tiempo. No siempre es posible alcanzar estos objetivos en dos o tres años solamente.
Los donantes han de sensibilizarse ante la complejidad de los cambios necesarios, si
bien sin duda se mantiene la obligación para los gobiernos y los organismos especia-
lizados internacionales de rendir cuentas a los donantes respecto de los fondos que de
éstos reciben.
Resultados e indicadores
Los donantes han de reconocer la importancia de unos indicadores que vayan más allá
del acopio de datos tradicionales respecto de la matriculación, la asistencia y los resul-
tados obtenidos; por ejemplo, el acopio de datos correspondientes a la no violencia, la
integración y la participación.
Enfoques de alcance sectorial
La educación fundada en los derechos humanos es compatible con los principios de

los enfoques de alcance sectorial (véanse las páginas 43 y 44), que proporcionan unas
estrategias completas y coherentes que abarcan todos los aspectos de la educación. Los
proyectos individuales financiados por donantes individuales pueden producir la frag-
mentación de este tipo de enfoque e introducir incoherencias en cuanto a los objetivos,
las metas, la supervisión y la presentación de informes. La Declaración de París subraya
la necesidad de que los donantes reformen las políticas con el fin de fomentar “un com-
portamiento de colaboración y la alineación progresiva con las prioridades, sistemas y
procedimientos de los países socios122”. Hay que lograr que tales prioridades, sistemas
y procedimientos tengan un alcance lo suficientemente amplio como para abarcar la
gama completa de políticas necesarias para garantizar el derecho a la educación.
Como se ha demostrado en este capítulo, el papel de otros titulares de obligaciones en

la realización de los derechos de los niños a la educación, y de los derechos humanos
dentro de la educación, pone de manifiesto el vínculo intrínseco que une a los enfoques
basados en los derechos humanos con un desarrollo socioeconómico justo y equitativo.
En conclusión, los derechos a la educación no se pueden realizar si no se hacen efec-

tivos otros derechos, son la participación activa de todos los interlocutores sociales
mediante la aceptación de sus responsabilidades, y sin una visión de cambio social.
Este marco para la realización de los derechos de los niños a la educación, y de los dere-
chos humanos dentro de la educación, supone un paso adelante en la orientación de la
acción orientadora para alcanzar esa meta. Se prevé su utilización por los gobiernos, al
igual que por los organismos especializados de las Naciones Unidas, las organizaciones
no gubernamentales y los donantes, en la labor que están llevando a cabo para alcanzar
el objetivo de la educación para todos.
Public Disclosure Authorized
THE COST OF NOT EDUCATING GIRLS

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES:
THE HIGH COST OF NOT
EDUCATING GIRLS
QUENTIN WODON, CLAUDIO MONTENEGRO, HOA NGUYEN,
AND ADENIKE ONAGORUWA
JULY 2018
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: THE HIGH

COST OF NOT EDUCATING GIRLS
QUENTIN WODON, CLAUDIO MONTENEGRO, HOA NGUYEN, AND ADENIKE ONAGORUWA
BACKGROUND TO THE SERIES

This study is part of a series of notes at the World Bank Through lower expected earnings in adulthood and higher
on the potential cost of not educating girls globally. fertility over their lifetime, a lack of education for girls
Despite substantial progress over the last two decades, leads to higher rates of poverty for households. This is due
girls still have on average lower levels of educational to both losses in incomes and higher basic needs from
attainment than boys in many countries, especially larger household sizes. Data on subjective perceptions also
at the secondary and tertiary levels. As documented suggest that higher educational attainment is associated with
by the World Development Report 2018, when it perceptions of higher well-being among women.
comes to actual learning, while girls tend to outperform
boys in reading, they score lower in math and science Low educational attainment for girls may also weaken
tests in many countries. Together with occupational solidarity in communities and reduce women’s participation
segregation and social norms that discourage women in society. Lack of education is associated with a lower
to take full advantage of labor market opportunities, proclivity to altruistic behaviors, and it curtails women’s voice
this leads to large gaps in earnings between men and and agency in the household, at work and in institutions.
women. In addition, low educational attainment for Fundamentally, a lack of education disempowers women and
girls has potential negative impacts on a wide range girls in ways that deprive them of their basic rights.
of other development outcomes not only for the
girls themselves, but also for their children, families, At the level of countries, a lack of education for girls can lead
communities, and societies. The objective of the series to substantial losses in national wealth. Human capital wealth
of notes is to document these potential impacts and is the largest component of the changing wealth of nations,
their economic costs. ahead of natural capital (such as oil, minerals, and land) and
produced capital (such as factories or infrastructure). By
Low educational attainment affects girls’ life trajectories reducing earnings, low educational attainment for girls leads
in many ways. Girls dropping out of school early are to losses in human capital wealth and thereby in the assets
more likely to marry or have children early, before they base that enables countries to generate future income. Low
may be physically and emotionally ready to become educational attainment for girls is also associated with higher
wives and mothers. This may affect their own health. population growth given its potential impact on fertility
It may also affect that of their children. For example, rates. This may prevent some countries from ushering the
children of mothers younger than 18 face higher risks transition that could generate the demographic dividend.
of dying by age five and being malnourished. They Finally, low educational attainment for girls may lead to
may also do poorly in school. Other risks for girls and less inclusive policy-making and a lower emphasis on public
women associated with a lack of education include investments in the social sectors. Overall, the message is
intimate partner violence and a lack of decision-making clear: educating girls is not only the right thing to do. It also
ability in the household. makes economic and strategic sense for countries to fulfill
their development potential.
1 | THE COST OF NOT EDUCATING GIRLS MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: THE HIGH COST OF NOT EDUCATING GIRLS | JULY 2018
KEY RESULTS early childbearing; (3) fertility and population growth; (4)
health, nutrition, and well-being; (5) agency and decision-
Globally, nine in ten girls complete their primary education, making; and (6) social capital and institutions. Within those
but only three in four complete their lower secondary domains, more than 50 different outcomes are considered.
education. In low income countries, despite progress over the For most outcomes, estimates of correlations are obtained
last two decades, less than two thirds of girls complete their using household survey data for more than 100 countries,
primary education today, and only one in three completes both developed and developing. For some outcomes that
lower secondary school. In addition, as documented by may be more relevant for developing countries, results are
the World Development Report 2018, girls just like boys based on analysis for a core set of 18 developing countries
suffer the consequences of a global learning crisis by which (see Appendix 1).
too many children in the developing world do not acquire
the foundational skills that a functional education system The goal is that these associations can illustrate the wide-
ought to ensure. Girls tend to outperform boys in reading, ranging potential impacts and cost of not educating girls,
but they score lower in mathematics and science tests in and in this way foster greater policy mobilization towards
many countries. While there is no systematic data on socio- ensuring that all girls complete secondary school and acquire
emotional skills across countries, education systems that fail the foundational skills needed to thrive in the labor market
to deliver these basic skills are also likely to underperform in and live more fulfilling lives. While the study pulls together
nurturing important socio-emotional skills. in one place results on potential impacts and costs in many
domains, as noted in Box 1, the analysis only provides orders
More needs to be done to improve educational opportunities of magnitude of potential impacts and costs, nor precise
for girls, as well as learning while in school. To make the case nor definitive values. In order to materialize the potential
for such investments, given data constraints, the focus of this economic benefits from expanding girls’ education, countries
study is on the potential impacts and cost of low educational need to make the necessary investments in the inputs
attainment for girls as opposed to lack of learning. required to improve both access and learning, and adopt the
Specifically, the study documents associations of low policy reforms that can propel the economy to grow and
educational attainment for girls with six domains of interest: generate jobs for a more educated workforce.
(1) earnings and standards of living; (2) child marriage and
JULY 2018 | THE COST OF NOT EDUCATING GIRLS MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: THE HIGH COST OF NOT EDUCATING GIRLS | 2
BOX 1: CONTRIBUTION AND LIMITS OF THE
STUDY
This note summarizes findings from a research program at the World Bank to document the potential negative
impacts of low educational attainment for girls, and some of the related economic costs. The fact that investing in girls
is essential for development is not news. The contribution of this study is to illustrate the potential negative effects
of not investing in girls in a slightly more comprehensive way, with more recent survey data, and for a larger set of
countries than done so far. By pulling together evidence on the associations between educational attainment for girls
and multiple socio-economic domains in many countries, the analysis can help foster greater mobilization towards girls’
education.
As with any empirical work of this nature, estimates of potential impacts and costs are subject to two important
caveats. First, estimates from available observational data do not permit establishing causal relationships. Thus, when
referring to potential ‘impacts’, the analysis should be taken as only suggestive of what might be achieved with higher
educational attainment for girls and women and related policy changes. What is measured are associations between
educational attainment and other development outcomes. For several of the outcomes considered, whether these
associations reflect casual relationships can be corroborated by evidence from existing empirical studies that are able
to more credibly establish causality. But for other outcomes, fewer such studies are available. Second, simulations of
the benefits of increasing girls’ education obtained from the estimates of potential impacts do not account for broader
effects in the economy arising from an expansion in the number of better educated girls or women. The economics
literature suggests that these effects can be sizable, particularly lowering the overall returns to schooling in the labor
market. Thus, estimates only provide orders of magnitude of potential impacts and costs, not precise values of ultimate
potential impacts taking into account general equilibrium effects.
KEY FINDINGS ACROSS DOMAINS worth mentioning that girls and women in contexts
of fragility and violence are especially vulnerable to
• Education matters for all children, but especially for the consequences of low educational attainment.
girls in some areas: Many of the potential impacts of
education on development outcomes apply to both • While primary schooling is necessary, it is not
boys and girls. When a child does not finish secondary sufficient: For many indicators, having a primary
school, or does not learn what is needed to function education does not make a large difference versus
productively as an adult, potential costs are high for having no education at all. The gains associated with
boys and girls alike in terms of lost earnings. But not educational attainment tend to be substantial only
educating girls is especially costly in part because of with a secondary education. This is likely in part a
the relationships between educational attainment, reflection of the failure of schools to deliver learning
child marriage, and early childbearing, and the risks of basic skills in the early grades, thus hindering the
that they entail for young mothers and their children. progression of girls to higher educational attainment.
In addition, occupational segregation by gender But the implication is that while primary schooling
between paid and unpaid (housework and care) work, lays the foundation for future learning, it is essential
and between types of employment and sectors, to enable girls to pursue their education through the
also lead to especially high potential costs for girls. secondary level and to ensure that learning occurs in
Although this is not discussed in this study, it is also order to reap the benefits from more education.
KEY FINDINGS BY DOMAIN • Health, nutrition and well-being: Universal secondary
education could increase women’s knowledge of HIV/
• Earnings and standards of living: Women with primary AIDS and their ability to make decision about their
education (partial or completed) earn only 14 to 19 own healthcare by one fifth nationally. Women’s
percent more than those with no education at all. By psychological well-being could also improve and the risk
contrast, women with secondary education may expect of intimate partner violence could decrease. In countries
to make almost twice as much, and women with tertiary where potential impacts are statistically significant,
education almost three times as much as those with no universal secondary education for mothers could reduce
education. Secondary and tertiary education are also stunting rates for their children by more than a third.
associated with higher labor force participation, and Reductions in under-five mortality of about one fifth
especially full-time work. Finally, women with secondary versus baseline rates could also be achieved in those
and tertiary education report higher standards of living countries. With the important exception of under-five
compared to those with primary education or lower. For mortality, the gains from universal primary education in
example, women with a secondary education are less the area of child health appear once again to be limited.
likely to state that they do not have enough money to
buy food versus women with primary education or less. • Agency and decision-making: Achieving universal
secondary education could increase by one tenth
• Child marriage and early childbearing: Each additional women’s reported ability to make decisions within the
year of secondary education is associated with lower household, from baseline values. Women with secondary
risks of marrying as a child and having a child before education report lower satisfaction rates with basic
age 18 by six percentage points on average. If universal services than women with no education, which may
secondary education were achieved, child marriage reflect a more realistic assessment of their quality.
could be virtually eliminated, and the prevalence of Finally, having a secondary education is associated with
early childbearing could be reduced by up to three higher birth registration in some countries, although
fourths since early childbearing goes hand in hand with results are not robust across countries. As with the
child marriage. This also means that when assessing other indicators, while some benefits could result from
benefits from educating girls at the secondary level, universal primary education, they would be smaller.
we should include benefits from reducing child
marriage and early childbearing. By contrast, primary • Social capital and institutions: Achieving universal
education is not associated with lower risks of child secondary education could enable more women to
marriage and early childbearing in most countries. display altruistic behaviors such as volunteering, donating
to charity, and helping strangers, with a change of
• Fertility and population growth: Universal secondary up to one tenth from baseline values. A secondary
education could reduce total fertility by a third in education is also associated with a higher likelihood for
18 developing countries considered for the analysis. women of reporting being able to rely on friends when
About two thirds of this potential impact could come in need and it could affect how women perceive their
from education itself, and one third from ending countries’ institutions, although in this specific area
child marriage. Universal secondary education could more work would be needed to confirm the robustness
also lead to an increase in modern contraceptive of those relationships. For this set of indicators, the
use of a fourth from the base. If girls were better potential gains from primary versus no education
educated, and if child marriage were to be drastically at all cannot be measured given data limitations.
reduced thanks to universal secondary education,
population growth could be reduced substantially,
especially in countries that have not yet achieved the
demographic transition. This could generate a large
demographic dividend. Again, the potential impact of
primary education in all these areas is much smaller.
POTENTIAL ECONOMIC COSTS ASSOCIATED person, especially in low income countries that have
WITH SELECTED DOMAINS high population growth. The gains in human capital per
capita that could result from lower population growth
• Lost human capital wealth due to lower earnings with universal secondary education could be initially
for women: Lower earnings for women in adulthood smaller than those estimated for women’s earnings, at
due to low educational attainment lead to losses in more than US$ 3 trillion in the first year after achieving
human capital wealth defined as the present value universal secondary education. These gains could
of the future earnings of the labor force. The loss in however cumulate over time, rivalling within a decade
human capital wealth incurred today because many the losses from women’s lower earnings due to low levels
adult women did not benefit in their youth from of educational attainment.
universal secondary education (defined as 12 years
of schooling) is estimated to range between US$ 15
trillion to US$ 30 trillion globally. The higher estimate SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS
is based on current benefits from higher educational
attainment. The lower estimate considers a scenario The Summary Table below provides the main estimated
in which the educational expansion could reduce by as potential impacts by domain, together with an indication
much as one half the benefits from higher educational of country coverage for the estimations by distinguishing
attainment. This could happen if the economy fails estimates based on global data from those based on a core
to grow at a rate that can generate sufficient jobs to set of 18 developing countries (DCs). Potential impacts are
absorb the more educated women entering the labor summarized by showing gains from a secondary education
market, and/or if the educational expansion were to in comparison to no education at all. In most cases, potential
negatively affect education quality due to the lack of impacts are estimated for the completion of secondary
adequate investments in inputs required to ensure school, but in some cases the potential impacts are for
learning. It should be noted that increases in labor force both partial and completed secondary school combined. In
participation of women out of the labor force are not virtually all cases, estimates of the potential impacts of low
included in these estimates – only earnings gains for educational attainment for girls – or equivalently of gains
women already working are considered in the analysis. associated with higher educational attainment as captured
In proportion of baseline human capital wealth values, by secondary education, are large. As documented in
the losses from low educational attainmet are larger in more detailed in the study, most gains are associated with
countries with low educational attainment for girls. secondary as opposed to primary education. It should again
be emphasized that what is measured is associations, not
• Lost human capital wealth due to lower earnings necessarily causal impacts. In addition, for some indicators,
for stunted children: Stunting in early childhood especially in the case of agency and decision-making,
leads to losses in earnings in adult life. Stunting rates and social capital and institutions, the data often pertain
could be reduced with universal secondary education to reported behaviors and perceptions, thereby making
for mothers, which could generate gains in human interpretation more tentative.
capital wealth. The magnitude of those gains is likely
to be smaller than the direct effect on women’s Finally, the Table also summarizes the two potential impacts
earnings, but it is still likely to be substantial. for which a monetary cost is provided. The potential costs run
in the tens of trillions of dollars. The estimates are only orders
• Welfare effects from population growth: Low of magnitude since they depend on models and assumptions,
educational attainment for girls is associated with but they demonstrate that the potential cost of not
higher rates of fertility and population growth. This educating girls is very high for the girls and societies overall.
in turn reduces levels of human capital wealth per
Summary Table: Selected Potential Benefits from Ensuring a Secondary Education for Girls
Domain Coverage Estimated Potential Impacts
Global Doubling of expected earnings in adulthood
Earnings and standards of living Global Increase in labor force participation by one tenth
Global Gain in perceptions of standards of living of up to one tenth
DCs Virtual elimination of child marriage
Child marriage and early childbearing
DCs Reduction in early childbearing by up to three fourths
DCs Reduction in total fertility by one third
Fertility and population growth DCs Increase in contraceptive use by one fourth
Global Reduction in global population growth by 0.3 point
DCs Increase in women’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS by one fifth

DCs Increase in women’s decision-making ability for health by one fifth
Health, nutrition and well-being Global Increase in women’s psychological well-being
DCs Reduction in under-five mortality rate by up a fifth
DCs Reduction in under-five stunting rate by more than a third
DCs Women more likely to exercise decision-making in the household
Agency and decision-making Global Women possibly more likely to better assess quality of basic services
DCs Increase in likelihood of birth registration by one fifth

Global Women more likely to report altruistic behaviors
Social capital and institutions Global Women more likely to report ability to rely on friends when in need
Global Women possibly more likely to better assess institutions and leaders
Global Loss in human capital wealth from US$ 15 trillion to US$ 30 trillion
Potential economic costs Global Benefit from reduced population growth of more than US$ 3 trillion in first year after
universal secondary completion, cumulative over time
Source: Authors.
Note: DCs = Developing countries.
To conclude, low educational attainment for girls can have ensure that all girls can go to school and acquire foundational
pervasive potential impacts ranging from lower earnings cognitive and socio-emotional skills while in school. While the
and standards of living to lower psychological well-being public and private cost of providing universal quality primary
and agency for girls and women. Possibly in part because and secondary education for all girls could be far from
educational investments at the secondary level provide an negligible, the potential returns to this investment could be
option value to continue investing to acquire further skills much larger. Increasing investments in girls’ education makes
later in life, the benefits from education are much larger at economic sense. It is also the right thing to do.
the secondary than at the primary level. Countries need to
INTRODUCTION The lack of educational attainment and learning for girls
has multiple negative potential effects throughout their
Globally, according to data for 2016 from the World Bank’s lifetime not only for themselves, but also for their children
World Development Indicators, nine in ten girls (89.3 and households, their communities, and societies or
percent) complete their primary education, but only three countries. This note summarizes findings from a research
in four (77.1 percent) complete their lower secondary program at the World Bank to document the potential
education. In low income countries, the situation is much negative impacts of low educational attainment for girls,
worse. Less than two thirds of girls (65.0 percent) complete and some of the economic costs associated with those
their primary education, and only one in three (34.4 potential impacts. The fact that investing in girls is smart
percent) completes lower secondary school. The fourth economics is not news. The point was made in the World
Sustainable Development Goal is to ensure inclusive and Development Report on gender (World Bank, 2012) and
equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning in many other studies before that (see for example World
opportunities for all. The first target under this goal is Bank, 2001). The contribution of this study is to document
to ensure that by 2030 all girls and boys complete free, the potential negative effects of not investing in girls in
equitable and quality primary and secondary education perhaps a slightly more comprehensive way and with more
leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes. At recent survey data than has been done so far. The hope is
current rates of progress, many countries are unlikely to that by illustrating the wide-ranging potential impacts and
achieve this target. More needs to be done to improve costs of not educating girls, the analysis will foster even
educational attainment and learning for all children, boys greater policy mobilization towards improving education
and girls alike. At the same time, a special focus needs to opportunities for girls.
be placed on girls who remain at a disadvantage versus
boys in many countries, especially at the secondary level.
The framework that guides the analysis is provided in Figure 1. the six domains of potential impacts are related to each other
It builds on three recent studies at the World Bank. The first in various ways as noted in Box 2, for simplicity key findings
study focused on the economic impacts of child marriage are presented in this study sequentially for each domain
and was implemented jointly with the International Center considered individually.
for Research on Women (Wodon et al., 2017). The other two
studies provided an analysis of the changing wealth of nations More than 50 different indicators or outcomes of interest
(Lange et al., 2018) and an estimation of the global cost of are used for assessing the potential impacts of not educating
gender inequality in earnings (Wodon and de la Brière, 2018). girls. Some indicators are objective measures. Examples
Building on past work, six domains of potential impacts of include total fertility rates, women’s earnings, rates of
girls’ education are considered: (1) earnings and standards of under-five mortality and stunting, and altruistic behaviors.
living; (2) child marriage and early childbearing; (3) fertility Other indicators are perceptions-based, as is the case with
and population growth; (4) health, nutrition, and well-being; perceptions of standards of living, psychological well-being,
(5) agency and decision-making; and (6) social capital and institutions, and national leaders. While not all indicators may
institutions. The potential impacts of not educating girls in be equally important for development, poverty reduction,
these domains are estimated using regression analysis and a and shared prosperity, conducting analysis for a large set of
wide range of datasets (see Appendix 1 for a description of indicators helps to convey the fact that the consequences of
the main datasets and an outline of the methodology). While not educating girls are truly pervasive and wide-ranging.
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
Economic
Benefits
Six Domains of Potential Impacts Development
Outcomes
Higher
EDUCATION FOR GIRLS
Earnings
Earnings and Standards of Living
World Bank
twin goals:
Child Marriage and Early
Childbearing Ending extreme
Gains in poverty and
Complex Direct Welfare boosting shared
Fertility and Population Growth
and Indirect prosperity
(growth for
Health, Nutrition, and Well-being
Potential Impacts the bottom 40
percent)
Budget
Agency and Decision-making Savings
Social Capital and Institutions
Other
Source: Authors Benefits
BOX 2: INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN DOMAINS
AND BENEFITS FROM QUALITATIVE DATA
For simplicity, findings on the potential impacts of low educational attainment for girls are presented in this study
for each domain of potential impact separately. Yet in practice, the various domains are interdependent. To illustrate
how this is the case, consider a simple life cycle approach, whereby stages in the life of girls are considered. Social
norms may contribute to disadvantage for girls early on, but they emerge in full force in adolescence when in many
contexts, girls may have to get married as children if they drop out of school. This contributes to early childbearing
and higher total fertility over their lifetime. In turn, having many children may affect women’s ability to participate
in the labor market in adulthood, and low educational attainment reduces their earnings when working. This may
affect decision-making ability within the household, voice, and social capital throughout women’s life. Finally, early
childbearing, high fertility rate, and income losses also have intergenerational effects, contributing among others to
higher risks of child mortality and malnutrition for children of poorly educated mothers.
The challenges and obstacles faced by girls and women with low educational attainment are multifaceted. They
reinforce each other, leading to a diminished ability to break away from patterns of disadvantages. In this study, the
focus is on quantitative analysis to estimate the potential impacts and cost of not educating girls. In some cases,
interdependence between domains is explicitly considered. This is the case when considering the potential combined
impacts of both low educational attainment and child marriage on other outcomes. But there are limits to the
extent to which the interdependence between domains can be considered without making the quantitative analysis
overly complex.
Qualitative data and narratives are another way to illustrate interdependence between domains. For this reason,
selected quotes from qualitative data collected as part of the work program of which this study is part, as well as
quotes from a few other existing studies, are provided. The number of such quotes is however kept quite small in part
for space reasons (to keep the study relatively short), but also because this is not the main focus and contribution
of the study. While those few quotes do not do justice to the richness of qualitative work being done on the
consequences of low educational attainment, it is hoped that they illustrate concretely the hardship faced by girls
and women when they drop out of school.
The term ‘cost’ in ‘the cost of not educating girls’ is to be available observational data do not permit establishing causal
understood in a broad sense. For example, as shown in this relationships. Thus, when referring to potential ‘impacts’, the
study, women with low levels of educational attainment are analysis should be taken as only suggestive of what could
more likely on average to suffer from feelings of pain, worry, be achieved with higher educational attainment for girls
sadness, stress, and anger after controlling for many other and women and related policy changes. For several of the
factors that could be correlated with these perceptions. This outcomes considered, the magnitude of the potential effects
is a true cost associated with low educational attainment could be corroborated by evidence from existing empirical
even if no monetary value for this cost is provided. These studies that are able to more credibly established causal
non-monetary costs should not be underestimated when relationships. But for other outcomes, fewer such studies are
considering programs and policies in various areas. But in available. Second, simulations obtained from the estimates
addition, we also compute monetary or economic costs for of potential impacts do not account for broader effects in
some potential impacts of not educating girls. This is done the economy arising from an expansion in the number of
only for potential impacts on earnings and population growth better educated girls or women. The latter could happen
because of the data and assumptions needed to compute such if the economy fails to grow at a rate that can generate
costs with some level of accuracy. sufficient jobs to absorb the more educated women entering
the labor market, and/or if the educational expansion were
Conceptually, at least four main types of benefits or costs to negatively affect education quality due to the lack of
could be considered: (i) higher earnings; (ii) higher welfare adequate investments in inputs required to ensure learning.
due to lower population growth; (iii) budget savings (or costs); Thus, estimates only provide orders of magnitude of potential
and (iv) other benefits, including in terms of individual feelings impacts and costs, not precise or definitive values of ultimate
and perceptions, as just mentioned. In this study, monetary effects.
costs are estimated for the two first categories only – higher
earnings for women in adulthood, and higher welfare due One last caveat to the analysis must be mentioned. This study
to lower population growth. On budget savings and costs, focuses on the potential impacts of low educational attainment
additional work would be required to estimate net potential as opposed to lack of learning on a range of development
effects, but the study notes that while providing better outcomes for girls and women. This focus is driven by data
education opportunities for girls (and boys) would have a cost, limitations. Apart from improving educational attainment,
it may also lead in certain areas to budget savings, among there is an urgent need to improve learning in school, as noted
others for the provision of basic services thanks to lower by the World Development Report 2018. Ideally, the analysis
population growth. In Figure 1, the framework is presented in should cover not only educational attainment, but also how
terms of the benefits from girls’ education. In this note, we much girls learn in schools, and whether they acquire the skills
will in most cases use the language of costs associated with low – cognitive and non-cognitive – that they will need throughout
educational attainment, but the approach is essentially the their life. Unfortunately, data sources for conducting such
same. work remain limited, and available only for a handful of
countries. Because the focus of this study is global in nature,
Finally, educating girls has implications not only for individuals the analysis focuses on the potential negative impact of a lack
and households, but also for nations and the world. By of educational attainment, leaving the issue of insufficient
raising standards of living through higher earnings and lower learning and skills for future work, even though lack of learning
population growth, educating girls would lead to reductions in school is one of the reasons why girls drop out of school (see
in poverty. Furthermore, since girls and women from lower Box 3).
socio-economic backgrounds are the most affected by low
levels of educational attainment, educating girls would also In what follows, the analysis of the potential impacts of girls’
contribute to boosting shared prosperity, defined as achieving educational attainment on development outcomes is first
higher rates of income growth for the bottom 40 percent of presented according to the six domains highlighted in Figure
the population in terms of socio-economic conditions. 1. Thereafter, estimates of a few monetary costs are provided
for some of these potential impacts. The study provides global
The estimation of the potential impacts of low educational results from the analysis for multiple domains. More details on
attainment for girls is based on regression analysis and is regional findings and methodological approaches by domain or
subject to two important caveats. First, estimates from sub-domain will be made available separately.
BOX 3: WHY DO GIRLS DROP OUT OF SCHOOL?
This study is about the potential impacts of low educational attainment for girls, not the reasons why girls drop out of
school prematurely. It is useful to note however that these reasons are multiple. When parents are asked in surveys
why their daughters dropped out of school, issues related to the cost of schooling (which comprises both out-of-
pocket and opportunity costs), early marriages and pregnancies, a lack of learning while in school, and a lack of interest
in remaining in school often come up. In some countries, some factors play a larger role, while in other countries,
other factors may be more prominent. But in many countries, even if this may not appear explicitly in survey
responses by parents on reasons for girls dropping out, social norms and gender roles also affect the ability of girls
to remain in school. This emerges clearly from qualitative work. In the case of Niger for example, ethnographic work
suggest that six main obstacles lead most girls to not pursue their education beyond the primary level.
1. Poor learning outcomes and cost. Rural government schools are so poor in quality and resources that many children
graduate from primary school without learning to read. The schools do not charge tuition, but parents complain that
the cost of uniforms, guard fees, transport, lunches and the opportunity costs of losing their daughters’ labor are
hardly worth the poor learning outcomes they see.
2. Failure at examinations. Students can only take the primary school completion exam twice. If they fail, they are
ineligible to continue in public education. When girls fail examinations, parents say that they have little choice but to
begin looking for a suitable suitor which their daughter could marry.
3. Lack of nearby secondary schools. Few rural communities have their own secondary school and there are few
boarding schools serving communities. Parents must send their children to nearby towns and cover the costs of
transportation and room and board. Students stay with relatives or contacts and parents are reluctant to leave their
daughters without what they consider proper oversight.
4. Forced withdrawal of married adolescents. Once a girl is married, she is likely to be expelled from school. Husbands
show little interest in supporting their adolescent wive’s education especially if they must enroll in a private school.
This is an expense that they cannot afford. Conversely, the fear of not being allowed to withdraw their daughters from
school for marriage is a complaint of some parents.
5. Never enrolling in school or enrolling too late. Some families never enroll girls in school, perhaps in part because
parents had no educational opportunities themselves. In some cases, teachers may refuse to enroll children that are
considered too old to start primary school.
6. Influence of relatives and demands on first daughters. Extended family members may influence parents on the
value of educating girls, not always with positive outcomes. Schooling decisions may also depend on household
composition and the activities of other children. Being the first daughter lessens a girl’s chances of going to school as
they are expected to help their mother at home during the day.
While finding solutions to keep girls in school and enabling them to learn while in school is necessarily context-specific,
the literature suggests that various types of interventions and policies can work. These interventions are only discussed
briefly in the conclusion to the study, but not in-depth here as this topic is the focus of separate work being conducted
by the Education Global Practice at the World Bank.
Source: Adapted from Perlman et al. (2018a, 2018b).
DOMAIN 1: EARNINGS models with and without additional controls apart from
educational attainment and experience. The additional
AND STANDARDS OF controls considered for this study are location (urban versus
rural) and sector of activity (agriculture, industry, services,
LIVING and others). These additional controls are limited due to
the need to keep comparability across datasets between
EARNINGS countries. While estimates obtained with these additional
controls are not necessarily superior to those without
The benefits from work in a person’s life go well beyond them, the availability of both types of estimates provides a
earnings, but earnings are crucial for standards of living and useful robustness tests for the magnitude of the gains from
for measuring the potential cost of not educating girls. There education.
is a large literature on the potential impact of educational
attainment on earnings that applies to boys and girls alike Table 1 provides the main results when only women are
(see Psacharopoulos and Patrinos, 2018, for a recent review). included in the sample. Results with both women and men
The benefits from educational attainment are typically included in the regression analysis were also obtained, but
measured through regression analysis whereby the potential for this study the gains for the women sample are the most
effect on earnings of educational attainment and experience relevant. Average gains from educational attainment are
is estimated. In some models, the focus is the correlation computed treating all countries equally. In other words, a
between years of schooling and earnings, and the implicit small country has the same weight as a large one, and poor
gain associated with each additional year of schooling. Other and rich countries are also treated equally. The model with
models look at the potential impact on earnings of different the years of education suggests that each year of additional
levels of schooling, such as having a primary, secondary, or education is associated with an expected increase in earnings
tertiary education. Apart from educational attainment, whether of 11.7 percent when no additional controls are included, and
measured through years of schooling or in levels, the models 11.1 percent with controls for location and sector of activity.
may also control for other variables that may affect earnings. The estimates are similar to those obtained previously with
the same data (Patrinos and Montenegro, 2014), albeit a bit
For this study, we provide estimates of the potential impact higher than typically observed in the literature. Although
of educational attainment on earnings using a large database this is not shown in the Table, in general across countries the
of household and labor surveys available at the World Bank potential impacts of education are slightly higher for women
(see Appendix 1 on data sources). Models with years of only than for women and men together. This may be in part
education as well as educational attainment in levels are because the point of comparison – women with no education
considered. When educational attainment is measured in at all – have low earnings, so gains in percentage terms are
levels, all individuals with some primary education or primary computed from a low base.
education completed but no education at a higher level
are combined in a single category for primary education. The earnings gain per additional year of education for women
The same is done for secondary and tertiary education. In is large, but the estimation with the years of education
other words, we do not distinguish whether individuals have implicitly assumes that all years of education have the
completed or not a specific cycle of study. This is done due to same market value. As shown in Table 1, the estimates with
data limitations and comparability issues between countries, educational attainment in levels suggest that this is not
and the fact that the analysis is conducted for up to 126 the case. For women with primary education (partial or
different countries depending on the model used. When completed), the average expected gain in earnings versus no
doing work for a single country or a few countries, it is easier education is only 19.3 percent when no additional controls
and good practice to disaggregate levels of education further are included, and 14.4 percent with additional controls. By
(this is what we do in the analysis of Demographic and Health contrast, as shown in Figure 2, for women with secondary
Surveys for this study, as will be shown below). education, the average gain is much larger at 96.6 percent
with no additional controls and 78.4 percent with additional
To test for robustness, we estimate models for men and controls. Finally, for women with tertiary education, the
women together, and only for women. We also estimate average gain is at 323.4 percent without additional controls
and 270.2 percent with additional controls. Clearly, women
with primary education earn only marginally more than supply side, workers with primary education may not have
those with no education, while women with secondary the skills that they should have, such as basic literacy and
education could expect to make almost twice as much numeracy given the failure of education systems in the
as those with no education, and women with tertiary developing world to ensure these foundational skills. As
education almost four times as much. noted in the most recent World Development Report
(World Bank, 2018), education systems especially in
Why are the gains from primary education so small? developing countries are witnessing a learning crisis
Both demand and supply factors may be at work. On whereby enrollment and attendance in school do not
the demand side, employers may require workers to have ensure that sufficient learning is taking place.
skills that a primary education does not provide. On the
Table 1: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Earnings for Women

Years of Education Education Levels
Women only sample
(up to 126 Countries) (up to 96 Countries)
Years of Primary Secondary Tertiary
Education (vs. No Education) (vs. No Education) (vs. No Education)
No additional controls 0.117 0.193 0.966 3.234
With location and sectoral controls 0.111 0.144 0.784 2.702
Source: Authors. Regression analysis based on data from the World Bank’s I2D2 database.
Note: : Reported estimates based on the average value of regression coefficients across counties. The exponential transformation (given that the
dependent variable is the logarithm of earnings) is taken for the average coefficient.
The model with location and sectoral controls is estimated for a slightly smaller number of countries.
Figure 2: Potential Gains in Earnings by Education Level (versus No Education)
350%
300%
250%
200%
150%
100%
50%
0%
Primary Secondary Tertiary
No additional controls With location and sectoral controls
Source: Authors. The Figure displays average marginal potential impacts.
When assessing the potential cost of not educating girls, it education. Results for the models with additional controls are
is important to consider not only the gains from educational very similar. Note that from Table 1, the potential individual
attainment, but also the proportion of girls or women in any gains from 12 years of schooling (12 times the annual gains)
country that have a low level of education. The potential cost are slightly larger than the gains from secondary education
of low educational attainment for girls and women depends in the model in levels. This is as expected, since again the
indeed on both the magnitude of the gains from education, secondary education category in Table 1 for the model
and the share of women who have low levels of education. in levels combines women with partial and completed
What could be the gains in earnings that could be expected secondary schooling, while 12 years of education corresponds
nationally if all women who have no education where to in most countries to the completion of secondary education,
acquire a primary education, and if all women who have thus generating higher gains.
less than a secondary education would be able to achieve
that level of education? Table 2 provides the estimations, With the model with the years of education without controls
considering all women who work whether they are wage for location and the sector of activity, if all women were to
earners or not (imputations of expected wages or earnings have at least six years of education, on average their earnings
are done when women work but do not declare wages or could increase by 8.9 percent on average across countries.
earnings in the survey). With nine years of education, the increase could be at 21.0
percent, and with 12 years, the gain could be at 44.8 percent.
In Table 2, countries are treated equally, so the results do The increases are smaller than the (marginal) potential
not account for population size or the fact that the level of impacts reported in Table 1 in part because in the simulations,
earnings is different in different countries. Results that factor only a subset of women are assumed to have higher
in both population sizes and differences in earnings between education levels and thereby higher earnings. For women
countries will be discussed later in this study, when providing who already have six, nine, or twelve years of education,
dollar values for the global potential cost of not educating no change in earnings is assumed. No simulations are
girls. Here, the focus is on what gains in percentage terms implemented for earnings with universal tertiary education,
from higher educational attainment girls and women may but such simulations will be implemented for other outcomes
expect in an average country in the sample, assuming - this below.
is important, that an influx of better educated women in the
labor market would not affect the gains from education (see In low income countries where few women have a secondary
Box 4). education, the gains are larger. In developed countries where
most women already have a secondary education, they are
The focus for the simulations in table 2 is on the model with smaller. The estimates in Table 2 are averages across a wide
years of education and no additional controls, as this is the range of counties. But the results confirm that earnings gains
model used later to compute global economic losses from from universal secondary education could be large, while
not educating girls up to the completion of secondary school. gains from universal primary education could be smaller.
The reliance on this model stems from the fact that we can Note also that the gains provided here pertain to women
assess gains from the completion of universal secondary only, not the whole labor force. As a percentage of the entire
education (12 years of schooling), while the model in levels labor earnings of countries including men, the gains would be
combines the categories of partial and completed secondary smaller.
Table 2: Simulated Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Earnings Nationally (%)

Years of Education
Women only sample
(126 Countries)
At Least 6 Years At Least 9 Years At Least 12 Years
No additional controls 8.9 21.0 44.8
Source: Authors. Regression analysis based on data from the World Bank’s I2D2 database.
BOX 4: LIMITATIONS OF THE METHOD USED TO
COMPUTE POTENTIAL EARNINGS GAINS
The estimation of the potential gains in earnings for women in Table 2 implicitly assumes that labor markets would be
able to absorb a larger supply of better educated women. Specifically, the assumption is that gains from educational
attainment for women would not decrease once more women become better educated. For simulations related to
universal primary and secondary education, this may not be a major issue in high and many upper middle-income
countries where only a relatively small share of women have less than a primary or secondary education. But the
assumption is more problematic in low and lower middle-income countries where many women have low levels of
educational attainment and sample selection as well as general equilibrium issues are likely to be more acute. The
estimation also does not consider potential effects on men of rising educational attainment for women. Men’s earnings
may decrease if women are better educated and have access to the same employment opportunities as men, resulting in
reductions in occupational segregation by gender that has traditionally led to higher earnings for men.
There is substantial evidence that over time, labor market premiums associated with higher levels of educational
attainment may be reduced once more workers have those higher levels of education. Angrist (1995) showed that the
expansion of access to education in the Palestinian territories led to a reduction in the skills premium. Acemoglu et
al. (2004) note that during World War II, higher labor force participation by women depressed wages for low skilled
workers. Duflo (2004) suggests similar effects in Indonesia after a large school construction program. These are just a
few examples of studies that document general equilibrium effects which, as noted by Acemoglu (2010), may be large
(for a recent study focusing on one sector, see Qvist et al., 2016, on engineers).
Since we do not account for potential general equilibrium effects on both men and women of improvements in
educational attainment for women, the estimates in Table 2 could be considered as an upper bound of the gains that
could be achieved from better educational opportunities for women. However, other factors could lead to larger gains
than those reported here, for at least two reasons. First, the estimation for earnings does not factor in the potential
effect of higher educational attainment for women on their labor force participation. As shown in the next section, with
higher educational attainment, the opportunity cost for women of not working increases, which may lead more women
to enter the labor force, thereby generating even larger earnings gains. In the simulations for earnings, we keep labor
force participation constant. In addition, as women (and men) become better educated, this could transform economies
especially in developing countries, leading to better jobs and more innovation. This in turn could generate higher rates
of economic growth. Through multiplier effects, unleashing women’s earnings potential through better educational
opportunities could generate even larger gains for both men and women than suggested here. We also do not account
for intergenerational benefits from unleashing women’s earnings potential through better education for their children.
As a result, in the long run, gains could be larger than suggested by wage regressions capturing current conditions. In that
case, the estimation could perhaps be considered as a lower bound of potential gains.
Given these issues, to be conservative in the estimates of the aggregate potential benefits from higher educational
attainment for girls, we will consider later in this study a baseline scenario that relies on estimates provided in Table 2,
and a second scenario whereby only half of the benefits are obtained. This could happen if the economy fails to grow
at a rate that can generate sufficient jobs to absorb the more educated women entering the labor market, and/or if the
educational expansion were to negatively affect education quality due to the lack of adequate investments in inputs
required to ensure learning.
LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION a secondary or tertiary education in comparison to having
primary education or less. Table 3 and Figure 3 provide the
Apart from leading to higher expected earnings for working potential effects. When women have a secondary education
women, a higher level of educational attainment may also level, they are 9.6 percentage points more likely to work than
increase their labor force participation or the number of if they only have a primary education or less. With tertiary
hours that women work. When women are better educated, education, the potential effect on labor force participation is
the opportunity cost of not working or only working part an even larger gain at the margin of 25.4 percentage points
time increases, which may lead more women to enter the in comparison to a primary education or less. As women with
labor force, or work full time instead of part time. higher levels of education are more likely to enter the labor
force, this may result in increases in the likelihood of working
To measure the potential effect of educational attainment full time, working part-time, or being unemployed. In terms
on labor force participation, we rely on data from the Gallup of type of employment, the largest increase at the margin
World Poll for many countries (see Appendix 1 on data from more education is for full-time work. There is also an
sources). With the Gallup World Poll, we can look at the increase for part time work and unemployment, but to a
potential impact on women’s employment status of having lower extent and this is not always statistically significant.
Table 3: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Labor Force Participation for Women
Women only sample Secondary (vs. Primary) Tertiary (vs. Primary)

Labor force participation 0.096 0.254
Working full-time 0.090 0.256
Working part-time NS 0.005
Being unemployed 0.008 NS
Source: Authors. Regression analysis based on data from the Gallup World Poll.
Note: Regression estimates reported for the pooled sample that includes data for more than 100 countries. NS means that an estimate is not statistically significant at the 10 percent level.
Figure 3: Potential Gains in Labor force participation (versus Primary Education)
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Secondary Tertiary
Labor force participation Working full-time
Source: Authors. The Figure displays marginal potential impats with pooled data.
Given the estimates of potential impacts provided in Table columns reproduce the same calculations under a scenario
3, what could be the potential effect of universal secondary of universal tertiary education. Globally, with universal
or tertiary education on labor force participation, and secondary education, there could be an increase of 3.9
more precisely on full-time work, part-time work, and percentage points in the share of women in the labor force,
unemployment? The answer is provided in Table 4. The which could represent an increase of 8.4 percent versus the
second column in the Table provides the baseline value of base. With universal tertiary education, the gain in labor
each indicator. The next column provides the simulated value force participation could be at 16.7 percentage points, a jump
of each indicator under universal secondary education. This from the base of 34.4 percent. Most of these gains in labor
is followed in the next column by the increase or decrease in force participation could translate into full-time work.
percentage terms of the indicator versus its base. The last two
Table 4: Simulated Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Labor Force Participation (%)
Baseline Universal Proportional Universal Proportional

Women only sample
Estimate Secondary Change Tertiary Change
Labor force participation 48.4 52.5 8.4 65.1 34.4
Working full-time 30.6 34.6 13.2 47.5 55.4
Working part-time 13.1 NS NS 13.6 4.0
Being unemployed 4.7 5.1 8.3 NS NS
Source: Authors based on Gallup World Poll data.

Note: Simulations reported for the pooled sample that includes data for more than 100 countries. NS means that a simulation is not shown because the coefficient was not statistically
significant at the 10 percent level.
PERCEPTIONS OF STANDARDS OF LIVING Due to data limitations to do this well for a large number
of countries, this study does not provide measures of the
By increasing earnings and labor force participation for potential impact of educational attainment on monetary
women in adulthood, higher levels of educational attainment poverty. These potential effects are likely to be large
contribute to poverty reduction in the future in several ways. (UNESCO, 2017). Not only does low educational
Poverty is usually measured by comparing a household’s attainment reduce earnings for women, but it is also
level of income or consumption per capita (or per equivalent associated with higher fertility as will be discussed later in this
adult) with a poverty line that captures the resources note. The combination of low earnings and high needs given
needed by households to meet their basic needs. The most larger household size can be devastating. Not being able to
important pathways for potential impact are therefore provide for one’s own children is perhaps one of the most
likely to be related to (1) higher earnings and consumption severe forms of deprivation.
for women and their household; and (2) a reduction in
household size and household needs through lower fertility. Using data from the Gallup World Poll, we do however
Higher educational attainment for women helps not only by estimate the potential impact of the level of women’s
increasing the numerator (higher income or consumption), educational attainment on two types of perceptions:
but also by reducing the denominator (smaller household the perceptions of their own standard of living, and the
size). perceptions of whether economic conditions are improving
or favorable. The potential effects are documented in Table
5. For example, when women have a secondary education
level, they are seven percentage points more likely to state
that they have enough money to buy food in comparison
to women who have only a primary education or less. With
tertiary education, the potential effect for the perceived
ability to satisfy food needs is a gain at the margin of 12
The hardest thing about being a percentage points in comparison to a primary education or
parent is that you do not have less.
what you need to support your
children. One would like to give It should be emphasized that individuals with higher levels of
educational attainment have on average higher expectations
them the best of the world, what for their own standards of living. This implies that if we had
they deserve to live well, to have been able to measure potential impacts of educational
good food, clothes, notebooks so attainment on objective standards of living, the potential
that they can study and become impacts would probably have been larger. This was the
someone. One gets up every day case when looking at the potential effect of more years
of schooling on earnings in the previous section. Also, the
thinking how am I going to do it? potential effects reported for educational attainment in Table
... But sometimes, you have to go 5 are obtained after controlling for other factors that could
to bed with only one meal. affect perceptions of standards of living, including the level
of per capita income of the woman and her employment
SOURCE: PLAN INTERNACIONAL REPÚBLICA status. We report here only the direct potential effect of
DOMINICACA (2017) educational attainment on perceptions of standards of living,
not including additional indirect potential effects that could
logically come from higher per capita income as well as a
better employment status.
All measured potential effects of secondary or tertiary affects also perceptions of economic conditions more
education in comparison to lower levels of education in Table generally, apart from perceptions of one’s own standard of
5 are positive and statistically significant. The magnitude living. This could suggest that when economic conditions are
of the potential effects tends to be larger for perceptions good, better educated women have more opportunities to
of women’s own standards of living than for perceptions of take advantage of these opportunities than women who have
economic conditions more generally. This is what one would primary education or less.
expect. But it is interesting that educational attainment
Table 5: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Women’s Perceptions of Standard of Living

Perceptions of own standard of living
Not having enough money for food -0.07 -0.12
Not having enough money for shelter -0.03 -0.06
Satisfied with standard of living 0.02 0.07
Perceptions of changes in conditions

Found economic condition better 0.01 0.03
Good time to find jobs 0.004 0.01
Better standard of living 0.04 0.06
Note: Regression estimates reported for the pooled sample that includes data for more than 100 countries. NS means that an estimate is not statistically
Given the estimates of potential impacts provided in Table share of women declaring that they do not have enough
5, what could be the potential effect of universal secondary money for food (a reduction of 12.0 percent versus the
or tertiary education on perceptions of standards of living? base). With universal tertiary education, there could be a
The answer is provided in Table 6. As was the case for Table reduction of 8.1 percentage points in the share of women
4, the second column provides the baseline value of each feeling that they do not have enough money for food, which
indicator, while the next four columns provide the results of would represent a reduction from the base of 29.0, percent.
the simulations, both in absolute and proportionate terms. By contrast, potential effects are smaller on perceptions
Different orders of magnitudes are observed for the various of whether economic conditions are favorable, but this was
indicators. Globally, with universal secondary education, to be expected. As mentioned earlier, one would expect
there could be a reduction of 3.4 percentage points in the potential impacts on perceptions of standards of living to
indeed be larger than on perceptions of changes in economic
opportunities.
Table 6: Simulated Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Perceptions of Standard of Living (%)
Women only sample
Perceptions of own standard of living
Not having enough money for food 28.0 24.6 -12.0 19.9 -29.0
Not having enough money for shelter 20.9 19.3 -7.7 16.7 -20.3
Satisfied with Standard of Living 64.1 65.2 1.6 68.9 7.5
Perceptions of changes in conditions
Found economic condition better 64.5 65.3 1.1 66.5 3.0
Good time to find jobs 36.8 37.0 0.6 37.3 1.3
Better standard of living 47.6 49.3 3.7 51.1 7.5

Note: Simulations reported for the pooled sample that includes data for more than 100 countries. NS means
that a simulation is not shown because the coefficient was not statistically significant at the 10 percent level.
DOMAIN 2: CHILD marry early when they are not in school because of a concern
that she may otherwise engage in sexual activity. In many
MARRIAGE AND EARLY contexts, a pregnancy outside of marriage may lead to
ostracism for the girl, thereby fundamentally affecting her
CHILDBEARING prospects in life. For many parents, the decision to marry
their daughter is taken to protect her.
There is a strong mutual relationship between girls’ education
and child marriage, defined as a girl entering in a formal For girls themselves, when education and employment
or informal union before the age of 18. Child marriage is opportunities are limited, staying idle at home may not be a
one of the main factors leading girls to drop out of school good option. Some girls may also drop out of school because
prematurely in many low-income countries (e.g., Field and they want to get married. Overall, while there is no doubt
Ambrus, 2008; Nguyen and Wodon, 2014). Conversely, that many girls are forced to marry early against their will,
keeping girls in (secondary) school helps in reducing child ending child marriage is probably at the global level less a
marriage. Especially in countries where the prevalence of matter of preventing parents from forcing their daughter to
child marriage is high, parents often have their daughter marry early, than a matter of providing viable alternatives to
an early marriage for parents and girls alike. In this respect,
enrollment in school is often the best alternative to early
marriage. Recognizing that keeping girls in school is key
to end child marriage does not mean that other types of
interventions and policies – such as setting the minimal
I felt a sharp pain in my lower ab- legal age for marriage at 18, are not needed. Child marriage
is a deeply rooted social norm. The practice needs to be
domen and noticed that my skirt addressed through multifaceted interventions. But offering
was stained with blood… I rushed alternatives like a quality education for girls is essential.
to my mother. She smiled and held
my hand and explained menstrua- Keeping girls in school is also crucial to reduce teen
pregnancies (with or without marriage) and early
tion. When my father came home childbearing, defined as a girl having her first child before the
that night, he called me and asked age of 18. Previous work on the economic impacts of child
if I had a suitor. I told him no. Af- marriage at the World Bank (Wodon et al., forthcoming)
ter some days my mother told me suggests that for a group of 25 developing countries
that I was to be married. I knew accounting for most instances of child marriage and early
childbearing in the world, three in four women (75 percent)
that there would be merriment and who have their first child before the age of 18 did so because
that I would be bought clothes, of child marriage. In addition, more than four in five children
shoes, a bed, and a chest of draw- (84 percent) born of mothers younger than 18 are due to
ers. I was happy about this but sad child marriage. In other words, if keeping girls is essential for
that I would be leaving my fam- ending child marriage, it should also be beneficial for reducing
teen pregnancies and early childbearing quite substantially1.
ily to live at my future husband’s
home. I wanted to stay in school. Analysis with Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data
But I could not disobey my father. confirms the importance of keeping girls in school to end
child marriage and reduce early childbearing. The results
SOURCE: PERLMAN ET AL. (2018B). are provided in Table 7 for 15 developing countries. The
estimation is based on an instrumental variable technique,
and potential impacts are statistically significant for all
1
There are differences between and within countries in the relationship between child marriage and early childbirths. Especially in Latin America and parts of sub-Saharan Africa, there
appears to be a trend towards earlier sexual activity along with an increase in the average age at first marriage, suggesting a reduction over time in the connection between marriage and sexual
activity as well as early childbearing.
countries in the case of child marriage, and 14 of the 15 for the risk of having a first child before age 18. With several
countries in the case of early childbearing. Each additional years of education, the reductions in risks of child marriage
year a girl completes in secondary school reduces the and early childbearing are larger correspondingly. Keeping
likelihood of marrying as a child on average by 6.1 percentage girls in school is not the only strategy that is required to end
points across the 15 developing countries. The potential child marriage and early childbearing, but it clearly is a major
impact is similar with a reduction of 5.8 percentage points contributor to both goals.
Table 7: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Child Marriage and Early Childbearing
Reduction in risk per additional year of secondary education
Reduction in risk of child marriage -0.061
Reduction in risk of early childbearing -0.058
Source: Authors based on Demographic and Health Surveys.

Note: Estimates based on country-level analysis for 15 developing countries. All estimated potential impacts are statistically significant except for one country for early childbearing.
These results should not be too surprising. Reviews of that all groups are mutually exclusive and account for 100
the literature suggests that interventions to promote percent of the population of girls age 15 to 19. The last group
education are among the most likely to help reduce child in the Table is girls who are married and in school. That group
marriage and early childbearing. These interventions tend accounts for only 2.4 percent of the total, and most of the
to work better than interventions focusing only on ‘safe girls in that group are 18 or 19 years of age. This very simple
spaces’ or interventions aiming to empower adolescent statistics shows how very few girls get married as children
girls economically. As an additional piece of evidence on when they manage to remain in school, and conversely how
the crucial role of keeping girls in school to reduce child hard it is to remain in school when married. In most cases,
marriage and thereby early childbearing, consider Table 8 this results from social norms and other constraints within
and Figure 4 which provide a typology of girls according to households that make it very difficult for girls to go back to
various categories. The typology was initially proposed to school when married or pregnant, but unfortunately in some
identify target groups for interventions adapted to the needs countries, government or school policies preventing married
of each group. But for this study, simply consider the fact or pregnant girls to return to school exacerbate the issue.
Table 8: Typology of Adolescent Girls by Age, School Enrollment, and Marriage Status
Group Share (%)

In school, not married, ages 15-16 26.5
In school, not married, ages 17-19 20.5
Out of school, not married, ages 15-16 12.5
Married, not in school, any age 23.4
Out of school, not married 17-19 years 14.7
Married and in school, any age 2.4
Total 100.0
Source: Authors. Statistical analysis based on data from Demographic and Health Surveys.
Note: Average statistical estimates for 15 developing countries.
Figure 4: Typology of Adolescent Girls Aged 15-19 (Share of Girls in Each Group)
2%
27% In school, not married, ages 15-16
15% 13% Out of school, not married, ages 15-16

27%
21% In school, not married, ages 17-19
23% 15% Out of school, not married, ages 17-19
21% 23% Married, not in school, any age
13%
2% Married and in school, any age
Source: Authors. Average shares for 15 developing countries.
Dropping out of school, having a child at a young age or data to measure the benefits from educating girls, we will
marrying as a child can all have long lasting negative impacts highlight both the direct potential impact of educational
(see Box 5). The close relationship between educational attainment on development outcomes, and the additional
attainment for girls, child marriage, and early childbearing indirect potential impact that would result from the fact
has implications for the analysis conducted in the rest of this that universal secondary education could virtually end
report. Ending child marriage and early childbearing would child marriage. Said differently, when considering universal
not be sufficient to ensure that all girls are able to complete secondary education, we get two benefits: the direct benefit
their secondary school. However, ensuring that all girls can from educational attainment, and the additional benefit from
complete their secondary education could lead to a virtual ending child marriage, or in some cases (for child health) the
elimination of child marriage and a dramatic reduction in indirect benefit from reduced early childbearing.
early childbearing. In subsequent sections, when using DHS
BOX 5: LONG-LASTING IMPACTS OF DROPPING OUT
OF SCHOOL AND EARLY CHILDBEARING
Susan was 18 years old at the time she was interviewed. Her mother had died. With one sister and four brothers, she
lived with her father. She started school at six years of age and dropped out last year because she became pregnant at
the age of 17. She was still in primary school. She had dropped out previously to help her mother who was bed-ridden
just before she died. At that time, she was in the third year of primary school. She now works as a casual laborer in
people’s gardens, earning about 8,000 shillings a week. Payment is usually in cash, but at times in kind with sorghum
or millet to bring back home. She uses her earnings to buy essential things for the home such as soap, salt, sugar, and
food. The challenge she faces now is that she cannot work effectively because she is pregnant and sickly. Yet, she is
still supposed to look after her siblings. In her assessment, gardening is much tougher than school, but she is emphatic
that “I cannot go back to school any more. I just want to take care of my young siblings and see them through primary school,
and if possible up to secondary school.” Support that could help her realize her wish of a better education for her siblings
could be seed money to help her start an income generating activity, again to help her siblings complete school.
Source: Wodon et al. (2016).
and Wodon (2018). The analysis estimates the potential

DOMAIN 3: FERTILITY AND impact of educational attainment and child marriage on total
fertility. It also considers what total fertility could be under
POPULATION GROWTH better educational outcomes (specifically, universal primary
and secondary education scenarios) and if child marriage
TOTAL FERTILITY were to be eliminated. Because the models consider the
number of children that women have towards the end of
There is a strong relationship between girls’ educational their reproductive life, they account implicitly for desired
attainment, the risk of child marriage, and women’s total or fertility and substitution effects in the timing of birth when
lifetime fertility. Women who drop out of school prematurely considering the implications of ending child marriage or
are more likely to marry as children, as mentioned in the achieving universal primary or secondary education.
previous section. Low educational attainment and child
marriage may both lead women to have children earlier in life, Results are provided in Table 9 for educational attainment
and more children over their lifetime. The potential impact and Table 10 for child marriage. In Table 9, the second
on total fertility – the number of children that women have column indicates the number of countries for which a given
towards the end of their reproductive age, may be large2. The level of educational attainment is associated in the regression
factors leading to fertility are complex. The analysis in this analysis with a statistically significant reduction in total
section does not look at all these factors comprehensively, fertility. The potential effects are measured versus women
but it provides insights into the specific role that educational who have no education at all or less than primary completed.
attainment and child marriage may play. These roles are For example, for seven out of 18 countries, a primary
estimated using Poisson regressions with DHS data for 18 education completed is associated with a reduction in total
developing countries using a model adapted from Onagoruwa fertility that is statistically significant, while this is the case
2
The term “total fertility” is defined in this study as the number of live births that a woman has over her lifetime. This definition is needed for individual-level econometric work to measure
the (marginal) impact of child marriage on fertility. By contrast traditional “total fertility rates” are population-level estimates. Our definition of “total fertility” is thus similar, but not exactly
the same as “total fertility rates” traditionally measured. The econometric analysis is conducted for women ages 35-49 for sample size considerations (this may underestimate total fertility
somewhat, as women may still have children after the age of 35).
for all 18 countries with higher education. The next column simulation, for the seven countries where primary education
simply provides the share of countries for which a statistically is found to have a potential impact on total fertility, all
significant potential effect is measured. The following column women who did not complete their primary education are
provides the average potential impact for all countries where assumed to have that level of schooling. This is the universal
the potential effect is statistically significant. For example, primary scenario. In the second simulation, all women are
having a completed secondary education is associated assumed to have their secondary education completed – the
with a reduction in total fertility in 17 of the 18 countries universal secondary simulation. Under universal primary,
in comparison to no education or incomplete primary, and there could be a reduction in the average number of children
on average, the reduction in fertility is estimated at 23.5 that all women in seven countries have (including women
percent in these 17 countries. These potential impacts are with higher levels of education) of 0.30 child over the
visualized in Figure 5. women’s lifetime. This is a reduction from current levels of
fertility of 5.5 percent on average in the 18 countries. Under
The message from Table 9 is clear: controlling for other universal secondary education, the reduction in total fertility
factors that may affect total fertility, a higher level of nationally is estimated at 1.26 child per woman on average
educational attainment is associated with a substantial in the 17 countries where potential impacts are found to be
reduction in lifetime fertility, with the potential impact being statistically significant. This could be a reduction from the
larger when the level of educational attainment increases. base of 22.3 percent.
The last two columns in the Table provide results for expected
national fertility rates under two simulations. In the first
Table 9: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Women’s Total Fertility and Simulations
Statistically Significant Potential Impacts versus Less National Simulated Potential Impacts
than Primary Completed Universal Primary Universal Secondary
Number of Share of Average Absolute Proportional Change
Countries Countries (%) Impact Reduction from Base (%)
Primary Completed 7 39 -7.1 0.30 5.5
Some Secondary 14 78 -14.2 - -
Secondary Completed 17 94 -23.5 1.26 22.3
Higher Education 18 100 -32.1 - -
Source: Authors. Regression analysis based on data from Demographic and Health Surveys.
Note: Estimates are based on country-level analysis for 18 developing countries. Average potential impacts and simulation results are reported for countries where coefficients for the
variables of interest are statistically significant.
Figure 5: Potential Reduction in Total Fertility (versus Less than Primary Completed)
Primary Completed
Some Secondary
Secondary Completed
Higher Education
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Two conclusions emerge from the analysis. The first fertility of 0.51 child per woman nationally, which could
conclusion is that completing the secondary education lead to an additional reduction in the total fertility rate at
level is found to have a potential impact on total fertility in the country level of 9.6 percent. What the analysis thereby
virtually all countries, while completing primary education suggests is that universal secondary education could lead to a
is found to have a statistically significant potential impact in reduction in total fertility in the 18 countries considered for
only a third of the countries. The second conclusion is that the analysis of about a third (22.3 percent in Table 9 plus 9.6
when potential impacts are statistically significant, they are percent in Table 10 if child marriage were to be eliminated,
much larger at the secondary than at the primary level. In for a total of 31.9 percent).
other words, ensuring universal primary education is unlikely
to be sufficient to accelerate the demographic transition in
countries with high fertility rates. By contrast, enabling girls
to complete their secondary education would probably have
a much larger potential impact.
In fact, the difference in the potential impacts of primary and

secondary education on lifetime fertility is even higher than
suggested in Table 9. This is because if girls could complete
their secondary education, they would be unlikely to marry
as children. Table 9 provides only the direct potential impacts
of educational attainment on lifetime fertility. For girls
completing their secondary education, we should also include
the indirect potential impacts through the elimination of
child marriage. These indirect potential impacts are shown in
Table 10 for the case of child marriage according to the age
at first marriage. For example, marrying at age 13 instead of
after age 18 leads in all 18 countries to statistically significant
increases in total fertility, with the average potential impact
across countries estimated at 26.3 percent more children
over the woman’s lifetime. If child marriage were ended,
which could virtually be the case with universal secondary
education, there could be an additional reduction in total
Table 10: Potential Impact of Child Marriage on Women’s Total Fertility and Simulations
Statistically Significant Potential National Simulated Potential Impacts

Impacts versus Marrying at 18+ Elimination of Child Marriage
Marrying at 12 17 94 24.6
Marrying at 13 18 100 26.3
Marrying at 14 18 100 24.2 Combined effect: Combined effect:
Marrying at 15 18 100 19.2 0.51 9.6
Marrying at 16 18 100 19.8
MODERN CONTRACEPTIVE USE percentage terms if universal primary or secondary education
were achieved and if child marriage were to be eliminated.
Part of the potential effect of educational attainment
and child marriage on total fertility may come from the Consider first the results for educational attainment in Table
use of modern contraceptive methods since such use 11. As was observed for total fertility, the potential impact of
tends to increase with higher educational attainment and primary education is less often statistically significant versus
when women do not marry as children, at least in some a lower level of education than is the case for secondary
countries. This relates to family planning and issues of sexual education. In addition, when potential effects are statistically
reproductive health and rights as well as agency for girls and significant, they are much larger for secondary than for
women. primary education. This translates into larger national
increases in modern contraception use with higher levels
To measure the potential effect of educational attainment of educational attainment. For example, under universal
and child marriage on modern contraceptive use, probit secondary education, the increase in modern contraception
regressions are used with DHS data for the same group use nationally is estimated at 5.20 percent on average for
of 18 developing countries. Results are provided in Tables the seven countries where potential impacts are found to be
11 and 12. The Tables provide estimates of the average statistically significant. This could be an increase from the
potential impact at the margin of educational attainment by base in modern contraceptive use of 26.7 percent in those
level and of child marriage according to the specific age at countries (the baseline estimates of the share of women using
which women got married. For educational attainment, the modern contraceptives tends to be low in those countries, so
coefficients estimates are statistically significant for about that even a limited absolute increase results in a substantial
half of the countries, while for child marriage this is the case increase in percentage terms from the base).
in about a third of the countries. As done for total fertility
in the previous section, the Tables also provide estimates of Recall again that when achieving universal secondary
simulated potential impacts nationally both in absolute and education, child marriage could be drastically reduced, if not
Table 11: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Women’s Contraceptive Use and Simulations
Impacts versus Less than Primary Completed Universal Primary Universal Secondary
Primary completed 4 22 3.8 1.75 6.5
Some secondary 11 61 4.4
Secondary completed 7 39 6.0 5.20 26.7
Higher education 10 56 4.5 - -
eliminated. This could lead to additional potential effects, effects are observed, in that the average potential impacts
but in the case of modern contraceptive use, the direction are sometimes negative, and sometime positive. When
of these potential effects is not clear à priori. Marrying early girls marry very early, this is associated with a reduction in
may reduce contraceptive use if women are not able to rely contraceptive use, but when they marry at age 15, 16, or 17,
on contraception in their household. There may however this is associated with an increase in contraceptive use later in
also be cases where child marriage may be associated with an life. Overall, the estimates of the combined potential effects
increase in contraceptive use later in life, presumably because suggest that ending child marriage could result in a very small
when women have reached their desired fertility (which increase in contraceptive use across the 18 countries. These
may be earlier if they marry early), they may want to rely potential effects are small in comparison to those observed
on contraception more. As shown in Table 12, both potential for educational attainment in Table 11.
Table 12: Potential Impact of Child Marriage on Women’s Modern Contraceptive Use and Simulations

Marrying at 12 10 56 -1.4
Marrying at 14 10 56 -0.3 Combined effect: Combined effect:
Marrying at 15 5 28 4.4 -0.20 -0.12
POPULATION GROWTH To what extent does low educational attainment for girls
contribute to high population growth? This is a complex
Through its potential impact on total fertility, a lack of question as the potential impact of educational attainment
educational attainment for girls may contribute to higher may change over time as it depends, among other factors,
population growth. In some contexts, especially in low on the age structure of the population and age-specific
income countries with limited arable land or water, high fertility rates that may also change over time. Demographic
population growth may threaten long-term prosperity projection tools can however help in providing a tentative
and exacerbate competition for access to scarce natural answer. Building on previous work on the potential impact of
resources. High population growth may also weaken the child marriage and early child-bearing on population growth,
ability of governments to provide basic services of sufficient estimations are based on a parametrization of demographic
quality to their growing population, among others in the projection tools (DemProj and FamPlan) using data from the
areas of education, health, nutrition, and basic infrastructure most recent DHS surveys. The advantage of these tools is
(including electricity, water and sanitation, transport, that they rely on age-specific fertility rates, which is exactly
connectivity, and more). what is needed when simulating the potential impact of
ending child marriage and early childbearing since these are
age-specific, affecting girls aged below 18.
The approach used for this study consists of reporting results universal secondary education, the average potential effect
obtained for child marriage and early childbearing, and could be at 0.42 percentage points. As with other estimates,
simply scaling those results up or down to account for the this is meant to provide only an order of magnitude of
potential impact on total fertility rates of universal primary potential effects. The potential effects could be larger or
or secondary education in comparison to the potential smaller using alternative estimation methods, but they are
impact of child marriage. The analysis is conducted for 18 clearly large and could help usher the demographic dividend
countries and average results across those countries are (see Box 6) in countries that have not yet benefited from it.
reported. The results are provided in Table 13. On average
across the 18 countries, the annual rate of growth in those In a subsequent section in this study, a valuation of the
countries could be reduced by 0.18 percentage point if potential benefits from lower population growth will
child marriage and early childbearing were eliminated. In be provided. This valuation is based not only on the 18
some countries, the potential effect is larger, as is the case countries for which estimates are provided in Table 13, but
in Niger for example. In other countries, the potential effect more generally for a set of more than 100 countries using
is smaller. Given the comparative potential effects on total extrapolations, and from there for the world. As will be
fertility of child marriage and universal primary or secondary discussed later, the impact of universal secondary education
education documented earlier, a straight extrapolation for for this larger set of countries is a bit smaller than the
those countries suggests that the average potential impact estimate in Table 13 in part because when considering a larger
of universal primary education on population growth across set of countries, the prevalence of child marriage and low
the 18 countries could be at about 0.1 percentage point. For educational attainment is lower.
Table 13: Simulated Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Population Growth

Reduction in Annual Rate of Population Growth
(Percentage Points)
Estimates with demographic projection tools
Ending child marriage and early childbearing -0.18
Estimates based on comparative potential impacts on fertility

Universal primary education -0.10
Universal secondary education -0.42
Source: Authors.
Note: Estimates based on analysis for 18 developing countries with extrapolations for more than 100 countries.
BOX 6: THE DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND
While different definitions of the demographic dividend have been proposed, the term is associated with improvements
in standards of living and accelerated economic growth when a developing country achieves a population structure that
is favorable thanks to a reduction in birth (and death) rates that is followed by rapid fertility decline. As a result, the
share of the population of working age individuals may increase sharply for a period of time, which tends to generate
faster economic growth (e.g., Canning et al., 2015; World Bank, 2015). In addition, with lower dependency ratios,
households are better able to support themselves and invest among others in education, nutrition, and health (or human
capital broadly conceived). These investments in turn may lead younger generations to be better educated and more
productive in adulthood. This demographic and human capital transition may help reduce poverty rates dramatically.
Achieving universal secondary education for girls should help reduce population growth and improve skill levels in
countries where fertility rates remain high, thereby helping to usher in the demographic dividend.
DOMAIN 4: HEALTH,
NUTRITION, AND WELL-
BEING
WOMEN’S HEALTH
A lack of educational attainment for girls may have potential

negative impacts on women’s health, simply because women
may be less aware of how to take care of themselves when
sick or injured. Low educational attainment may also lead to
lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases such
as HIV/AIDS. In addition, through its potential impact on
child marriage and early childbearing, a lack of educational
attainment may lead girls to give birth at a young age, which
in turn increases the risk of maternal mortality and morbidity
(see Box 7). For example, a lack of physical maturity when
giving birth may lead to complications such as obstructed
or prolonged labor as well as fistula. Other risks related to
low educational attainment and its implications for child
marriage may include malnutrition, isolation, depression and
an inability to negotiate sexual and reproductive behaviors
with partners. This last risk can lead not only to exposure
to sexually transmitted infections, but also to lower rates of
modern contraceptive use which may lead to insufficient
birth spacing, unwanted pregnancies, and abortions. Finally,
as also noted in Box 7, lower educational attainment for girls
is associated with substantially higher risks of suffering from
intimate partner violence either directly or directly through
child marriage.
BOX 7: MATERNAL MORTALITY AND INTIMATE
PARTNER VIOLENCE
There is a clear association between giving birth at a very early age and a higher risk of maternal mortality.
This association emerges from quantitative analysis (Nove et al., 2014). It also emerges from qualitative
work, as this quote for an ethnographer embedded in a village in Niger illustrates: “Maternal mortality is high.
Two young women died in childbirth during the first week of our stay in the community. The first woman married
at fourteen and had three children. She had complications during each previous delivery and died from post-
partum hemorrhage a few hours after being rushed to the health center. The second was twelve years old when she
married. She lost her first child at age fourteen and was advised to wait several years before trying again. Her last
pregnancy came with a series of complications that finally claimed her life a week after delivery.”
(Perlman et al., 2018b).
Another way not explored in this specific study in which low educational attainment for women may
influence health outcomes is through intimate partner violence (IPV). Estimates of the correlates of the
risk of IPV by Savadogo and Wodon (2018) suggest that higher educational attainment tends to reduce
risks of IPV for women. In addition, eliminating child marriage could also lead to a decline in IPV in many
countries, although the potential impact is lower than for educational attainment.
For this study, the focus is only on a few specific aspects Still with DHS data, we also look at whether women can
of women’s health using both DHS data and the Gallup make their own decision on whether to seek healthcare
World Poll. First, using DHS data, we look at whether higher when sick or injured, as opposed to asking permission to their
educational attainment is associated with a more thorough husband or partner for obtaining such care. The literature
knowledge of HIV/AIDS. To conduct the analysis, an index suggests that women’s choices are often constrained, for
of knowledge of HIV/AIDS is created through principal example in terms of how/where to deliver a baby. Sometimes
component analysis using a range of questions available in the husband or partner may make these decisions, or it may
DHS surveys. The values of the index are normalized to take be made by the mother in law in some cultures. The same can
a value between zero and 100. Results from the estimations be said about decisions for antenatal care, which impacts the
are provided in Table 14 with a visualization of potential health and well-being of the mother and the future newborn.
impacts in Figure 6. The potential effects of educational Table 14 suggests that again, potential effects of educational
attainment on knowledge of HIV/AIDS are statistically attainment on decision-making are statistically significant in
significant in most of the countries, and higher when women many countries. For secondary completion, potential effects
have completed their secondary education than is the case are statistically significant in two thirds of the countries. In
for primary education. Under universal secondary education, these countries, universal secondary education could increase
there could be an increase in the index of knowledge of HIV/ the ability of women to make their own healthcare decisions
AIDS nationally of 11 percentage points in the 14 countries by nine percentage points or just over twenty percent from
where the potential effect is statistically significant. This is the base values.
equivalent to an increase of twenty percent from the base
value of the index. The potential effect is thus large and it
underscores the value of education for knowledge.
Table 14: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Women’s Knowledge about HIV/AIDS and Decision-making
Ability Regarding their Own Healthcare, and Simulations
Statistically Significant Potential

National Simulated Potential Impacts
Impacts versus Less than Primary Completed
Knowledge about HIV/AIDS
Some secondary 17 100 8.6 - -
Own healthcare decisions
Note: Estimates are based on country-level analysis for 17 developing countries. Average potential impacts and simulation results are reported for countries where coefficients for the variables
of interest are statistically significant.
Figure 6: Potential Gains in Women’s Knowledge of HIV/AIDS and Healthcare Decision-making (versus Less than
Primary Completed)
Own Healthcare Decisions
Primary Completed
Some Secondary
Secondary Completed
Higher Education
Knowledge about HIV/AIDS
Primary Completed
Some Secondary
Secondary Completed
Higher Education
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%
Could universal secondary education generate additional decisions. As shown in Table 15, in most countries, child
benefits for the above two indicators through the dramatic marriage does not appear to have a direct statistically
reduction in child marriage that could ensue? While this was significant potential impact on knowledge of HIV/AIDS and
the case for some of the indicators considered previously, it the ability for women to make their own healthcare decisions.
does not seem to be the case for knowledge of HIV/AIDS Furthermore, even when statistically significant potential
and the ability for women to make their own healthcare impacts are observed, their magnitude is much smaller than
what is observed for secondary completion in Table 14.
Table 15: Potential Impact of Child Marriage on Women’s Knowledge about HIV/AIDS and Decision-making Ability
Regarding their Own Healthcare, and Simulations

Knowledge about HIV/AIDS 4 24 -2.0 0.59 -0.05
Own healthcare decisions 2 11 5.0 -2.13 -3.65
Turning to data from the Gallup World Poll, the potential case increases by 17 percentage points when a woman has
impact of educational attainment on psychological well- a tertiary education as opposed to a primary education or
being is estimated for a dozen indicators. A total of five less. A tertiary education is also associated with a decrease
positive and six negative outcomes are considered. As shown in the likelihood of feeling pain of nine percentage points
in Table 16, in comparison to women with only a primary versus primary education or less. Note again, as was the
education or less, a higher level of educational attainment case for perceptions of standards of living, that all these
is systematically associated with an increase in positive potential effects are obtained after controlling for a wide
outcomes, and a decrease in negative outcomes. Virtually range of other factors that may affect psychological well-
all estimated potential impacts are statistically significant, being, including age, per capita income and employment
and they are larger as expected with a tertiary education. status. Note also that the Poll does not have data on child
The largest potential impact is observed for the question on marriage except for a few pilot countries, so that only the
whether women learned or did something interesting in the direct potential effects of higher educational attainment on
day preceding the interview. The likelihood that this is the psychological well-being is reported here.
Table 16: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Women’s Perceptions of Well-being and Simulations
Positive Outcomes
Felt well-rested yesterday 0.01 0.02
Had enjoyment yesterday 0.04 0.06
Laughed yesterday 0.02 0.04
Treated with respect yesterday 0.01 0.03
Learned/Did something interesting yesterday 0.07 0.17
Negative Outcomes
Felt pain yesterday -0.06 -0.09
Felt worried yesterday -0.03 -0.02
Felt sad yesterday -0.04 -0.05
Felt stressed yesterday -0.02 NS
Felt anger yesterday -0.02 -0.02
What could be the potential effect of universal secondary or

tertiary education on psychological well-being for women?
The results are reported in Table 17 in a format similar to
what was done for perceptions of standards of living and labor
force participation earlier. Different orders of magnitudes
are again observed for the various indicators. For positive
outcomes, the largest potential effects are observed with
tertiary education for women who learned or did something
interesting in the day preceding the interview. Globally, with
universal tertiary education, there could be an increase of
one fourth in the likelihood of learning or doing something
interesting in the day preceding the interview. This is
substantial given that the regression controls for a wide range
of other factors that could affect such feelings. For some
of the negative outcomes listed in the table, the potential
impacts are also large in proportional terms, as is the case for
feeling pain.
Table 17: Simulated Potential Impacts of Educational Attainment on Perceptions of Well-being (%)

Women only sample
Positive Outcomes
Felt well-rested yesterday 70.2 70.7 0.7 71.2 1.4
Had enjoyment yesterday 73.0 75.0 2.9 76.9 5.4
Laughed yesterday 73.8 75.1 1.7 76.1 3.1
Treated with respect yesterday 86.0 86.9 1.1 88.6 3.1
Learned/Did something interesting 47.7 51.1 7.0 59.5 24.6
Negative Outcomes
Felt pain yesterday 29.8 27.0 -9.5 24.3 -18.5
Felt worried yesterday 34.6 33.1 -4.2 33.5 -3.0
Felt sad yesterday 22.9 20.9 -8.4 19.8 -13.3
Felt stressed yesterday 30.6 29.8 -2.6 NS NS
Felt anger yesterday 20.6 19.7 -4.2 18.8 -8.5

CHILDREN’S HEALTH AND SURVIVAL affects their risk of exposure to intimate partner violence
and may result in mental health issues, this may generate
Early childhood is critical for a child’s development (Black spillover effects for children. In harsh conditions, toxic stress
et al., 2017). Poor conditions early in life affect brain responses on the part of children can have damaging effects
development and capabilities, with lasting consequences in on learning, behavior, and health later in life. There is even
adulthood, including for the ability to earn a decent wage. evidence that when children are exposed to intimate partner
A lack of educational attainment for mothers may affect violence in utero, they tend on average to have worst health
children’s health simply because better educated mothers at birth and increased mortality rates.
may have a better understanding of what they need to do
to care for their child when sick or injured. Through early For this study, we measure the potential impact of
childbearing, child marriage may also affect the health educational attainment for mothers and early childbearing
of both mothers and their children. When girls have not (which as mentioned earlier often results from child marriage
matured yet, giving birth is risky. Furthermore, when in developing countries) on the risks for young children of
mothers are poorly nourished, this may put their children dying by age five and being stunted. A child is considered
at higher risk of intrauterine growth restriction. A mother stunted if she has a height more than two standard deviations
herself may be stunted due to lack of food rather than the below the median reference height for her age. Stunting
choice of it, and it is important to recall that stunting for often results from persistent insufficient nutrient intake
young children may start during pregnancy. and infections. It may lead to delayed motor development
and poor cognitive skills that can affect school performance
When girls are not physically, emotionally, or even financially and productivity later in life. For this study, stunting is an
ready to give birth, this may affect them, as is the case when important measure given its potential impact on earnings in
they suffer from obstetric fistula, but it may also affect adulthood.
their children (see the text box with a quote from a study
of men living with wives suffering from obstetric fistula). Estimates of the potential impacts of a mother’s education
Furthermore, as low education attainment for mothers level on the risks of under-five mortality and stunting are
My wife cannot control urine since her first delivery that resulted in the
death of our first baby… She started labor at 5.00 pm. She spent the whole
night at a local birth attendant’s home, who tried to assist but failed... We
were very poor and had nothing… We used engozi [stretcher carried by four
men] to the nearest road. The baby was lying with the head up and the legs
coming first. As she pushed, the baby’s legs kept kicking her urinary bladder.
Finally, there came a vehicle carrying charcoal and we hired it. We travelled
about 40 km on top of the charcoal to Hoima hospital where she was oper-
ated promptly but the baby had already died.
SOURCE: BARAGEINE ET AL. (2026).
provided in Table 18 after controlling for a wide range of other example, the estimates suggest that universal secondary
factors that may affect those risks (see also Figure 7 in the education for girls could reduce stunting rates by more
case of stunting). The analysis is based on DHS data for 18 than a third (38.3 percent) in the countries for which the
developing countries. In the case of under-five mortality, estimations generated statistically significant potential
potential effects are statistically significant for primary and impacts. Unexpectedly, for stunting the potential impact
secondary education only in a handful of countries, and for higher education is smaller than for secondary
the magnitude of those potential effects when statistically education.
significant is similar for primary and secondary education. In
the case of stunting, potential effects at the secondary level Universal secondary education for girls could virtually
are statistically significant slightly more often than is the eliminate child marriage, leading to a large reduction
case at the primary level, but they are also much larger. For in early childbearing in many developing countries.
Table 18: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment for Mothers on Young Children and Simulations

Under-five mortality
Primary completed 3 17 -1.7 1.39 20.3
Some secondary 4 22 -1.8 - -
Secondary completed 4 22 -1.6 1.34 21.8
Higher education 9 50 -2.6 - -
Under-five stunting
Primary completed 3 17 -1.1 0.16 0.7
Some secondary 5 28 -10.7 - -
Secondary completed 7 39 -26.1 13.75 38.3
Higher education 8 44 -10.6 - -
Figure 7: Potential Reductions in Under-five Stunting (versus Less than Primary Completed)
Primary Completed
Some Secondary
Secondary Completed
Higher Education
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
As done for other indicators, when assessing the potential significant risk of dying by age five or being stunted. After
impact of universal education for girls, it therefore makes controlling for a wide range of other factors affecting those
sense to consider the additional benefit from ending child risks, being born to a mother younger than 18 increases the
marriage and reducing early childbearing. In the regression risk of under-five mortality by 4.0 percentage points on
analysis for under-five mortality and stunting, the variable of average when potential effects are statistically significant.
interest is whether a child was born of a very young mother The risk of stunting increases by 7.2 percentage points on
since the literature suggests that this may affect the child’s average when potential effects are statistically significant.
health. Table 19 shows that in two thirds of the 18 countries These are rather large potential effects at the margin versus
considered for this analysis, an early childbirth (being born baseline values, especially for under-five mortality.
of a mother younger than 18) is associated with a statistically
The potential impacts of early childbearing on under- or stunting. This is because only a relatively small share of
five mortality and stunting are large and have dramatic children is born to mothers who are younger than 18 at
implications for the children exposed to those risks. At the time of their birth. This is why in Table 19, the national
the same time, nationally, ending early childbearing would potential impacts of ending early childbearing tend to be
not have a large potential impact on under-five mortality relatively small.
Table 19: Potential Impact of Early Childbearing for Mothers on Young Children and Simulations

Under-five malnutrition 12 67 4.0 0.28 4.40
Under-five stunting 12 67 7.2 0.44 1.19
DOMAIN 5: AGENCY AND making in regard to health care (as mentioned in the previous
section), household purchases, visits to friends and relatives,
DECISION-MAKING and the use of husband’s earnings; (ii) women’s ability to
refuse to have sex with her husband or to negotiate their
WOMEN’S DECISION-MAKING ABILITY husband’s use of a condom; (iii) whether women feel that
a husband is justified in beating his wife under the certain
The fifth domain of potential impact considered is women’s circumstances; and finally (iv) whether women needed their
agency and decision-making ability. A woman’s capacity husband’s permission to get medical assistance if needed. The
for choice depends on agency, access to resources, and values of the index are normalized to take a value between
past achievements. Educational attainment clearly has a zero and 100, as was done for knowledge of HIV/AIDS.
potential impact on resources, for example by contributing
to women’s ability to earn a living on the labor market. Results from the estimations are provided in Table 20 with
Educational attainment also affects past achievements as well potential impacts visualized in Figure 8. The potential effects
as capabilities, as is the case when a lower level of education of educational attainment on the index of decision-making
reduces the types of employment that women have access ability are statistically significant in virtually all countries,
to. Finally, educational attainment may also affect agency and higher as expected when women have completed their
if it reduces girls and women’s decision-making ability in secondary education. Under universal secondary education,
the household, among others. The question is whether the there could be an increase in the ability of women to make
potential effects are large or small. decisions within the household nationally of 6.6 percentage
points in the 17 countries where the potential effect is
To measure the potential impact of educational attainment statistically significant, which corresponds to an increase of
of the ability of women to make decisions within their ten percent from the base value. The potential effect is at
household, an index is created using variables available in one third of that for primary education.
DHS datasets. The variables pertain to (i) women’s decision-
Table 20: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment on Women’s Decision-making Ability and Simulations

What about the potential impact of child marriage? Table could be that in contexts where women have limited decision-
21 suggests that the additional benefit from virtually ending making capacity in general, those married as children may
child marriage through universal secondary education could not necessarily show statistically significantly lower decision-
be smaller. We find that the direct potential impact of child making ability as compared to those who marry one or a few
marriage on women’s decision-making ability is statistically years later, when they reach the age of 18. However, child
significant in only a few cases, and when potential effects are marriage itself is often a reflection of the lack of decision-
statistically significant, they tend to be small in magnitude. It making ability of women (see Box 8).
Table 21: Potential Impact of Child Marriage on Women’s Decision-making Ability and Simulations
Marrying at ≤15 6 33 -1.0
Combined effect: Combined effect:
0.13 0.35
Figure 8: Potential Gains in Overall Decision-Making Ability (versus Less than Primary Completed)
Primary Completed
Some Secondary
Secondary Completed
Higher Education
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12%
BOX 8: LACK OF DECISION-MAKING FOR GIRLS AND
WOMEN MAY START WITH CHILD MARRIAGE
The question of whether girls and women have a say in key decisions affecting their life starts with the decision to marry
and whom to marry. Findings on this decision depend on context. The study by Perlman et al. (2018b) in Niger suggests
that some girls do not object to marrying early as this is the practice in their community. As one girl expressed it: “I was
already twelve and most of my friends were married. I just knew I was ready too. The boys started coming to the motor park
where I hawked to talk with me. Some brought gifts. The next year the number of boys coming to visit me increased, though
none of them mentioned marriage until this man from another community came along. He’s now my husband.” But other girls
clearly do not want to marry early and may be forced to. Parents can exert a great deal of pressure on their daughters to
marry, as illustrated by the following quote: “Years ago a wealthy man gave my neighbor 17,000 Franc CFA twice without
any reason. My neighbor accepted it happily as poverty is his problem. The next time the wealthy man visited, he told my
neighbor he wanted to marry his daughter. My neighbor said his daughter was in school and that he didn’t want to marry her
out yet. The wealthy man then asked for his money back. My neighbor had nothing to sell and had no wealthy friends or family
members to lend him money. In the end he decided to give his daughter out without completing her education. We used to face
these kinds of problems more often as a result of poverty and ignorance.”
SATISFACTION WITH SERVICES water quality, and healthcare. It is also the case for women’s
satisfaction with the city they live in and their perception
One aspect of agency is the ability for women to properly of the availability of good affordable housing. The potential
assess the quality of the basic services that they rely on in effects are as expected larger with a tertiary education.
their daily life. The Gallup World Poll includes interesting Note that we refer in the title of Table 22 to ‘associations’
data on the satisfaction with a wide range of services. as opposed to ‘potential impacts’ to note that for these
Especially in developing counties, the quality of these basic specific indicators, one should be especially careful about not
services is often low. For example, while children may be necessarily inferring causality.
enrolled in school, they may learn little while in school.
One would expect well-informed individuals to be more A negative correlation is not necessarily a bad thing.
critical about the quality of the services they receive, and Indeed, lower levels of satisfaction with basic services could
one would also expect that individuals with higher levels of lead women to exercise their agency and require better
education would be better informed of potential issues with services, which could in turn lead to some improvements.
those services. However, less educated individuals are likely When women are not satisfied with a service provider, they
to have access to lower quality services. Thus, in a given could also turn to another provider, and thereby through
cross-section of data the educational attainment of women competition in local provision drive the various providers
could be negatively or positively correlated with their level of towards improving services. It also seems that well educated
satisfaction with basic services. women are especially discerning about the quality of the
education systems in their country, since the largest potential
As shown in Table 22, a higher level of educational impacts are observed for the education system. Although
attainment is associated with a lower satisfaction with various this is not shown in the Table, it is also worth noting that the
types of services after controlling for a wide range of other baseline levels of satisfaction with services are not very high,
variables that could affect satisfaction levels. This is the with typically only two thirds of women satisfied with any
case for all six services for which data are available: public given service, and sometimes less. The only exceptions are
transportation, roads and highways, education, air quality, for the satisfaction of individuals with the city or area they
Table 22: Associations between Educational Attainment and Women’s Satisfaction with Services
Satisfied with public transportation system -0.01 -0.04
Satisfied with the roads and highways -0.02 -0.05
Satisfied with education system -0.03 -0.09
Satisfied with the quality of air -0.04 -0.08
Satisfied with the quality of water -0.02 -0.04
Satisfied with the quality of health care -0.03 -0.05
Satisfied with the city you live in -0.02 -0.03
Availability of good affordable housing -0.01 -0.04
live in and for air quality where satisfaction rates are higher at rates could be lower if women were better educated. The
close to 80 percent (for air quality this is not surprising given results would however need to be interpreted with caution,
that most people in the world still live in areas with limited air given that confounding factors are likely to be present
pollution). especially for those subjective outcomes, so that inferring
any causality and assuming that any bias in estimates may be
Simulations could be carried to assess the potential impact limited is more problematic. Therefore, while we do note the
of universal secondary and tertiary education on satisfaction interesting associations suggested by Table 22, simulations
rates. These simulations would suggest, based on the for universal secondary and tertiary education are not
potential impacts provided in Table 22, that satisfaction provided here.
BIRTH REGISTRATION the analysis was implemented, a higher level of educational
attainment for mothers is associated with an increase in the
The last illustrative example of analysis of agency is for likelihood of birth registration for their children. In the case
birth registrations. The benefits of birth registration are of universal secondary education, in the countries where
important for children, and one would expect a higher level statistically significant potential effects are observed, the
of educational attainment for mothers to be positively gains in registrations could be at more than nine percentage
correlated with the likelihood of registering their child at points, which is equivalent to an increase of almost a fourth
birth. This could also be considered as an indirect indicator of from the baseline registration rates. Potential effects for
agency for women. Table 23 and Figure 9 provide the results primary education tend to be substantially lower, as has been
from the analysis. In 40 percent of the countries for which observed for many other indicators in this study.
Table 23: Potential Impact of Educational Attainment for Mothers on Birth Registration and Simulations

Some secondary 6 40 6.6
Figure 9: Potential Gains in Birth Registration (versus Less than Primary Completed)
Primary Completed
Some Secondary
Secondary Completed
Higher Education
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
What about the potential impact of child marriage, or depends on the context of each country, and whether the
rather in this case early childbearing, on the likelihood of legal minimum age for marriage is enforced, which is not
birth registration? When mothers have children below the necessarily the case in developing counties. Table 24 provides
minimum legal age for marriage, legislation aimed at delaying estimates of the potential impact of early childbearing on
the age at marriage could potentially lead to lower birth birth registrations. In most cases, potential impacts are not
registration rates if women are fearful that having a child at statistically significant, and in the few cases where statistically
a young age suggests that marriage took place before the significant potential impacts are observed, they tend not to
minimum legal age. Whether such disincentives are at work be large.
Table 24: Potential Impact of Early Childbearing for Mothers on Birth Registration and Simulations
Impacts versus Mother at 18+ Elimination of Early Childbearing
Birth Registration 4 27 -8.5 0.68 1.03
DOMAIN 6: SOCIAL Table 25 and Figure 10 provide the estimates of the

association between educational attainment with each
CAPITAL AND behavior. Controlling for many other factors that affect
these behaviors including levels of per capita income, a
INSTITUTIONS secondary education level is associated with an increase in
the likelihood of engaging in the three behaviors of four to six
ALTRUISTIC BEHAVIORS percentage points. For tertiary education, the increase is at
10 to 14 points. As done for Table 22, we refer in the title of
Altruistic behaviors are fundamental for the well-being Table 25 to associations as opposed to potential impacts to
of individuals – both those who benefit from altruism and emphasize that for these specific indicators, one should again
those who practice it. The behaviors also matter for social be especially careful about not necessarily inferring causality.
cooperation and trust at the level of communities and The same terminology is used for other indicators in this
societies. As with other indicators, multiple factors are likely section.
to affect individual altruistic behaviors. For this study, we
look again at the potential impact of women’s educational Why is a higher level of educational attainment associated
attainment on the likelihood that they engage in altruistic with a higher likelihood of altruistic behaviors? Research
behaviors using data from the Gallup World Poll. Three has found that social exclusion decreases the likelihood of
indicators of altruistic behaviors are considered: (1) whether prosocial behavior, and this may be one of the channels
a woman made in the past month a monetary contribution underlying the correlation between low educational
to a charity; (2) whether she volunteered her time with any attainment and the measured altruistic behaviors. Another
organization in the past month; and (3) whether she helped a hypothesis is that women with higher levels of education
stranger or someone she did not know who needed help. tend to in a better position in life, and thereby are more
able to help others. Even though we control among others have the social networks nor the resources that would enable
for household per capita income and women’s employment them to volunteer, donate to charity, or help strangers. In
status in the regressions, a higher level of educational other words, it is not that women who are better educated
attainment is likely to be associated with a position in life are intrinsically more altruistic than those who are less well
where women have a higher ability to help others. By educated. Rather, those who are better educated are on
contrast, women who are less educated tend to be poorer average likely to be in a better position to help others. This
and they may struggle just to make ends meet. They may not is a conjecture, but a reasonable one to interpret the results
from the analysis.
Table 25: Associations between Educational Attainment and Women’s Altruistic Behaviors

Donating to charity 0.04 0.10
Volunteering 0.06 0.14
Helping strangers 0.06 0.12
Figure 10: Potential Change in Altruistic Behaviors (versus Primary Education)
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
Donating to Charity Volunteering Helping Strangers
Secondary Tertiary
Source: Authors. The Figure displays marginal potential impacts with pooled data.
What could be the potential effect of universal secondary or volunteers in the baseline estimates, the proportion is at one
tertiary education on altruistic behaviors? The estimates are in three for charitable donations and four in ten for helping
provided in Table 26. Universal secondary education could strangers. For universal tertiary education, the increase could
lead to an increase in altruistic behaviors of two to three be at close to ten percentage points, leading to gains versus
percentage points, an increase of up to one tenth versus baseline values of one fifth to one third, depending on the
the baseline values. Indeed, while only one in five women specific altruistic behavior considered. These gains are again
substantial.
Table 26: Simulated Potential Change in Altruistic Behaviors by Educational Attainment
Women only sample
Donating to charity 30.3 33.0 9.0 39.0 28.9
Volunteering 19.1 21.0 10.0 26.0 36.0
Helping strangers 43.5 46.5 7.0 51.6 18.7

FRIENDSHIPS AND SUPPORT NETWORKS
Increased education can be important for nation-building can rely on these friends when in need. As shown in Table 27,
and for social cohesion. At the individual level, friendships in comparison to women with only a primary education or
made in late secondary school and in tertiary education less, a higher level of educational attainment is not associated
can be very important for girls’ transition to adulthood. Two with an increase in the opportunity to make friends, but it is
interesting questions are asked in the Gallup World Poll in associated with a higher ability to rely on such friends when
this area. The first is whether women are satisfied with their in need. The gain is at five percentage points with secondary
opportunities to make friends, and the second whether they education and seven points with tertiary education.
Table 27: Associations between Educational Attainment and Women’s Friendships

Having friends that help you 0.05 0.07
Satisfied with opportunities to make friends NS NS

What could be the potential effect of universal secondary or a wide range of other factors that could affect the ability
tertiary education on psychological well-being for women? to have friends that can help. One potential explanation is
The results from the simulations are reported in Table 28. that individuals often become friends with others from a
Globally, with universal tertiary education, there could be similar socio-economic background. Therefore, friends of
an increase of up to one tenth from the base in the reported better educated women may have the (financial) ability to
ability to have friends on which to rely on when in need. This help them especially when they are in need, while friends of
is again high given that the regression analysis controls for women with lower levels of educational attainment may not
have that ability.
Table 28: Simulated Potential Change in Women’s Friendships and Support Networks by Educational Attainment

Women only sample
Having friends that help you 76.1 79.5 4.4 82.9 8.9
Opportunities to make friends 78.1 NS NS NS NS

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
expect well-educated women to be more critical about core
The last set of indicators considered in this study pertains to institutions or their leaders as they may be better informed
trust in social institutions, trust in a country’s leaders, and of potential issues with those institutions or leaders. As
perceptions of one’s community. For the three categories of was the case for satisfaction rates for basic services, this is
indicators combined, a total of 15 perceptions are considered. not a bad thing as concerns may lead women to exercise
The results are provided in Table 29 for the potential impacts their agency and require better functioning institutions,
of secondary and tertiary education controlling for a wide less corruption, and better leaders. At the same time,
range of other factors that could affect these perceptions. for their own community, women with higher levels of
There are indications that a higher level of educational educational attainment tend to be more satisfied in terms
attainment is associated with less confidence in institutions, of how welcoming the communities are to various types
a perception that corruption is widespread, a concern that of individuals that could face hardship or discrimination
freedom of the press may be limited, and lower approval such as racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, gay and
ratings for leaders. lesbian people, or people with intellectual disabilities. These
perceptions may reflect the women’s own attitudes as
The story here may be similar to that mentioned for the opposed to the actual reality in communities, but the fact
satisfaction of women with basic services. One would that the measured associations are positive is encouraging.
Table 29: Associations between Educational Attainment and Women’s Perceptions of Institutions and Leaders
Perceptions of Institutions
Confidence in local police force -0.04 -0.05

Confidence in military -0.04 -0.07
Confidence in judicial system and courts -0.08 -0.08
Confidence in national government -0.07 -0.07
Confidence in the honesty of elections -0.07 -0.03
Afraid to express political views 0.01 NS
Perceptions of Corruption and Leaders
Corruption is widespread across government 0.03 NS

Approving job performance of the leader -0.06 -0.05
Approving way the President handling his job -0.05 -0.05
Your country’s media has a lot of freedom -0.04 -0.08
Satisfaction with Community
Good place to live for racial and ethnic minorities NS 0.01

Good place to live for immigrants 0.02 0.04
Good place to live for gay and lesbian people 0.03 0.07
Good place to live for people with intellectual disabilities 0.01 NS
Recommend your city to others 0.01 0.03

If simulations for the potential changes in these perceptions possibly differences in the actual quality of the services
under universal primary or secondary education were provided or in the integrity of institutions at the local level,
conducted, the potential effects would follow readily from with possibly lower quality services in poorer and less well-
the above potential impacts. As was the case for perceptions educated areas. The complexity of the factors at play make
related to the satisfaction with basic services, we do not inferences that could suggest causality more problematic,
provide here the simulations. This is again because for issues even if again we note the interesting relationships that
related to trust in institutions, the coefficient estimates the coefficient estimates in Table 29 suggest between
provided in Table 29 are likely the result of several factors. educational attainment and indicators of trust in national
This includes not only potentially higher expectations for institutions that are constitutive of social capital.
service quality or integrity in the management of institutions
among women with higher levels of education, but also
POTENTIAL ECONOMIC losses or gains as annual flows (the GDP or annual earnings
approach), we focus on losses in human capital (the wealth
COSTS approach). Human capital wealth is defined as the present
value of the future earnings of today’s labor force, considering
MEASUREMENT APPROACH individuals aged 15 and above. When the analysis is done by
gender, human capital wealth can be estimated separately for
Low educational attainment for girls has major potential men and women, and the losses in human capital wealth from
negative impacts for themselves, their children and their not educating girls can be measured accordingly.
households, their communities, and societies. These potential
impacts have been documented in previous sections for more At least three arguments justify using a wealth (stock)
than 50 different indicators, and many more could have been approach as opposed to a GDP or earnings (flow) approach
considered. What are some of the economic costs associated to measure the economic losses from not educating
with those potential impacts? For many potential impacts, girls. First, using a flow approach does not reveal the full
this is a hard question to answer, but for a few potential magnitude of the losses faced by women throughout their
impacts, estimations can be provided. This is done in this working life. Estimates of losses from low educational
section for the losses in earnings for women and the welfare attainment based on human capital wealth are substantially
losses for populations from high rates of population growth larger than those based on annual earnings or GDP simply
in countries with high fertility rates. In addition, we discuss because wealth is much larger than GDP. The full magnitude
briefly the potential for losses in earnings in adulthood for of the losses from low educational attainment for girls
children who are stunted. As mentioned in the introduction, appears only when considering women’s human capital
the objective is not to provide precise costs, but rather to give wealth, that is the present value of women’s future earnings
an order of magnitude of expected potential costs, simply to over their lifetime.
show that these potential costs are indeed likely to be very
large. Second, a flow approach tends to emphasize losses for
individuals at the peak of their earnings, since they account
Typically, researchers looking at the potential impact of for a larger share of the labor earnings in GDP. Again, it
a lack of educational attainment on development have seems more appropriate to look at women’s lifetime earnings
focused on annual measures of income losses or gains, or to better reflect expected losses from low educational
measures of growth in income. These analyses focus on attainment. This should give a higher weight to younger
the potential losses in earnings or Gross Domestic Product women than is the case with the flow approach.
(GDP) from low educational attainment, whether for girls/
women of boys/men. This focus on annual incomes is natural Third, and perhaps most fundamentally, a wealth approach
since GDP is the standard measure according to which the is forward-looking as it emphasizes sustainability. As
economic performance of countries is measured today. Yet already mentioned, countries’ economic development has
GDP growth is a short-term measure of performance, which traditionally been assessed through GDP per capita, a
may be misleading about the health of an economy because measure of the income produced by a nation in a given year.
it does not reflect whether a country is investing in the assetsSimilarly, economic performance has been traditionally
base that will sustain its long-term growth – including the assessed through growth in GDP per capita. But with which
education of its workforce and especially girls. For example, a resources is GDP produced? GDP, or more precisely the
country could deplete its natural capital base or fail to investconsumption component of GDP, is essentially is the annual
in the human capital of its people and still be able generate return that a country reaps from its wealth, the assets base
high rates of GDP growth in the short run, although that it uses for production. Wealth consists of natural capital
probably not in the long-run. such as agricultural land, forest, oil, gas and minerals, to give
a few examples. It also consists of produced capital – think
In this study as in previous work at the World Bank on the about infrastructure, machinery, factories, or buildings.
cost of gender inequality (Wodon and de la Brière, 2018), we Finally, wealth consists of human capital, such as a well-
rely on a different approach to measure the losses that result educated and productive labor force. These three categories
from low educational attainment for girls, or equivalently, the – produced, natural, and human capital, are considered the
gains associated with higher attainment. Instead of measuring three main components of the changing wealth of nations,
that together with net foreign assets, provide the assets base capita terms. The estimates are from Lange et al. (2018).
that countries rely on to produce GDP capita from year to They are based on data for 141 countries accounting for
year. The wealth approach thus emphasizes sustainability. 95 percent of the world’s population. All estimates are in
constant US dollars of 2014.
Given the advantages of wealth accounting over annual
earnings or GDP measures to measure losses in earnings As shown in Table 30, global wealth stood at US$ 1,143
due to low educational attainment for women, we rely in trillion in 2014. Human capital wealth was at US$ 737 trillion,
this note on research recently completed by the World accounting for more than two thirds of total wealth versus
Bank on the Changing Wealth of Nations study (Lange et just under one tenth for natural capital and about a quarter
al., 2018). Building on two previous reports (World Bank, for produced capital. In per capita terms, total wealth stood
2006, 2011), the study covers the period 1995 to 2014. It at US$ 168,580 per person, with human capital wealth
includes not only estimates of produced capital and natural estimated at US$ 108,654 per person. Inequality in human
capital, as did previous reports, but also estimates of human capital and total wealth between countries is high. In high
capital following the approach suggested by Jorgensen income OECD countries, total wealth per capita is above
and Fraumeni (1992a, 1992b). The estimations of human US$ 700,000, and human capital wealth is at close to US$
capital are based on household survey data. They represent 500,000 per person. This is more than 90 times the level in
a significant improvement over past estimates where total low income countries where human capital wealth is at only
wealth included a large unexplained residual called ‘intangible US$ 5,564 per person.
capital’. This residual, it turns out, consists for the most
part of human capital wealth. By measuring the shares of Table 30 also provides estimates of human capital wealth
human capital wealth associated to men and women at the by gender. Globally, in 2014 women accounted for 38
country level, as done in previous work on gender inequality percent of human capital wealth versus 62 percent for men.
(Wodon and de la Brière, 2018), the methodology enables This proportion is similar to results obtained by studies of
us to estimate lifetime earnings losses due to low educational the share of women and men in Gross Domestic Product
attainment for women specifically. (McKinsey, 2015; World Economic Forum, 2017). In
absolute terms, human capital wealth attributed to women
was estimated at US$ 283.6 trillion in 2014 versus US$
LOSSES IN HUMAN CAPITAL WEALTH FROM 453.2 trillion for men. These are in fact essentially the
WOMEN’S EARNINGS proportions observed for upper middle and high-income
OECD countries which account for the bulk of human
The methodology for estimating human capital wealth is capital wealth globally due to higher earnings in those
explained in Appendix 2. Before discussing losses in human countries. In low and lower-middle income countries, in part
capital wealth from low educational attainment for girls due to India, women account for a third or less of human
and women, it is useful to provide the baseline estimates of capital wealth.
human capital and total wealth in absolute value and in per
Table 30: Estimates and Components of the Wealth of Nations
Total Wealth in 2014 Per Capita Wealth in
Women only sample
(US$ Trillions) 2014 (US$)
Total wealth 1,143.2 168,580
Produced capital 303.5 44,760
Natural capital 107.4 15,841
Human capital 736.9 108,654
Of which men 453.2 66,832
Of which women 283.6 41,823
Net foreign assets -4.6 -676
Source: Lange et al. (2018). Analysis based on 141 countries with a population of 6.8 billion people in 2014.
To measure the potential cost of not educating girls, wage regressions. As mentioned in Box 4, the estimates
simulations are again conducted. Since the gains from of potential gains in earnings from universal secondary
primary education tend to below, the focus is on losses in education do not account for general equilibrium effects. A
human capital wealth in comparison to a scenario in which all second scenario could be considered in which the educational
women would have a secondary education, whether partial expansion could reduce by as much as half the benefits
or completed. The idea is to shift women with no or only from higher educational attainment. This could happen
primary education to secondary education, and measure the if the economy fails to grow at a rate that can generate
gains in earnings and thereby human capital wealth that could sufficient jobs to absorb the more educated women entering
result. These gains are equivalently the measure of the losses the labor market, and/or if the educational expansion were
from not having universal secondary education (partial or to negatively affect education quality due to the lack of
completed) for women. The individual-level losses from low adequate investments in inputs required to ensure learning.
education are aggregated first at the country level, then at In that case, with a reduction of the potential benefits from
the global level. higher educational attainment of 50 percent, the losses in
human capital wealth from achieving universal secondary
Different models for the simulations would generate education would be valued at US$ 15 trillion.
different results. Referring to the earlier discussion on the
wage regressions, both models with education defined in These estimates of the losses in human capital wealth from
years or levels could be used. The two types of models low educational attainment for girls and women are again
would generate different results. To simulate the benefits of only orders of magnitude – they are not meant to be precise
secondary education completion, we rely on the model with or definitive given the many assumptions involved. On
years of education to estimate potential gains in earnings the one hand, with the baseline estimate, the model may
and thereby human capital wealth from universal secondary overestimate gains, since general equilibrium effects that
education defined as 12 years of schooling completed for could lead to smaller gains in earnings when more women
all women. Using the baseline data on human capital wealth become better educated are not factored in. On the other
in Table 30, and applying to these estimates the expected hand, only earnings gains for women already working are
country-specific gains in earnings from the wage regressions considered in the analysis. Therefore, the estimate may be
when shifting women from less than 12 years of schooling to conservative because gains in labor force participation are
12 years, the global losses from low educational attainment not included and, as shown in Table 4, the increase in labor
are estimated at just under US$ 30 trillion, or about ten force participation could be important. Overall, by providing
percent of the baseline value of women’s human capital. a range of potential benefits from US$ 15 trillion to US$ 30
This is an approximate estimate whereby human capital trillion, we wish to indicate that while it is difficult to provide a
wealth estimates are scaled up in the simulations by the precise estimate of potential benefits, it should be clear that
average country-specific gain in women’s earnings from the the benefits are large.
The suggestion that women’s human capital wealth would The analysis of nutrition outcomes presented earlier suggests
increase by only five to 10 percent globally with universal that in countries where the potential impact was found to
secondary education (partial or completed) may be be statistically significant (just over a third of the countries
surprising. In separate work using a similar approach, the for which the analysis was carried), universal secondary
potential gains in human capital wealth from achieving gender education for mothers could help reduce stunting rates
equality in earnings between men and women were estimated by more than a third. In addition, early childbearing could
at US$ 160 trillion (Wodon and de la Brière, 2018). Why are be reduced by keeping girls in school and avoiding child
the gains from universal secondary education for girls/women marriage, which could also contribute to lower stunting
smaller? The main reason is that gender gaps in earnings rates, although to a smaller extent than better educational
between women and men are observed worldwide, including attainment for mothers. Simulations based on these results
in upper middle and high-income countries that concentrate and the potential impact of stunting in childhood on earnings
most of the world’s human capital wealth. By contrast, low in adulthood suggest that universal education for girls could
educational attainment for women is concentrated in low and bring additional gains, but that those gains are of a smaller
lower middle-income countries where estimates of human order of magnitude in comparison to those mentioned above
capital wealth per woman are much smaller. In other words, for women’s earnings.
the number of women assumed to benefit from a higher level
of educational attainment in upper middle and high income
countries is limited. While many more women benefit from LOSSES IN WELFARE DUE TO POPULATION
higher educational attainment in the simulations in low and GROWTH
lower middle-income countries, the absolute gains in human
capital wealth for those women are smaller in absolute The earlier analysis demonstrated that women’s educational
value. Still, in comparison to base values, the simulated gains attainment has a large potential impact on their lifetime
in human capital wealth in low and lower middle income fertility and population growth, both directly and through
countries tend to be larger in proportional terms, and are in a reduction in child marriage and early childbearing. In
some cases quite large. the 18 countries for which simulations were carried with
demographic projection tools, the average reduction in
population growth was estimated at -0.18 percentage points.
LOSSES IN HUMAN CAPITAL WEALTH FROM The reductions in annual population growth rates are however
UNDER-FIVE STUNTING different depending on which country is considered. In India,
the largest of the 18 countries, the reduction was estimated
For stunted children and their families, the cost of stunting at only -0.08 percentage point because the country has
may not be primarily economic. At the same time, when already gone through much of its demographic transition.
considering the potential impact on human capital wealth For perspective, India’s annual population growth rate is
of stunting due to low educational attainment for mothers, currently at 1.2 percent per year, versus more than two
the focus must be on potential monetary costs. What is percent and in some cases three percent or more per year for
the loss in human capital wealth from higher stunting rates many other countries included in the simulations.
among children due to a lack of educational attainment for
their mothers? Research suggests a loss in productivity in At the global level, estimates of the potential impact of
adulthood associated with lower height. It has been suggested ending child marriage in 2015 on the global population were
that undernutrition may lead to economic losses equivalent obtained based on detailed analysis for 18 countries and
to four to 11 percent of Gross Domestic Product in sub- extrapolations for another 88 countries with data on child
Saharan Africa and Asia (Horton and Steckel, 2013). Results marriage. The results suggest that the world population
from an experiment in Guatemala suggest that children could be 1.4 percent lower in 2030 if child marriage could
who benefited from nutrition supplements were less likely have been ended in 2015 versus business-as-usual trends.
to be stunted and had better cognitive abilities and higher This cumulative reduction in the total population of the
levels of per capita consumption in adulthood, making the world after 15 years is smaller than the reduction in the 18
intervention highly cost effective (Hoddinott et al., 2013). reference countries because the incidence of child marriage
is lower in the rest of the world than in those 18 countries.
Now, the potential impact on fertility of universal secondary
education for the same 18 countries is more than twice that of that wealth (0.3 percent per year) is valued at more than
of child marriage, as was shown earlier. Therefore, universal US$ 3 trillion in terms of the increase in human capital
secondary education could lead to a larger reduction in wealth that could result from lower population growth in the
population growth by 2030 of up to 3.3 percent versus initial year for the simulations. This is the valuation for the
business as usual scenarios. Universal secondary education first year of potential impact only. The benefits from lower
could also virtually end child marriage. Hence, combining population growth would increase from one year to the next
the potential impacts of ending child marriage and that of since the reduction in population growth would continue
achieving universal secondary education could generate a in subsequent years (each year, the population growth rate
reduction in the world’s population of up to 4.7 percent by would be about 0.3 percent lower than under a business-as-
2030 under the same reasoning. This is a large potential usual scenario).
impact, but it corresponds to extreme assumptions – the
achievement of universal education and the elimination of Given this cumulative effect, over ten years, the potential
child marriage right from the start of the simulations in 2015. impact could be about ten times larger (in fact, slightly larger
The annual reduction in population growth leading to that due to compounding), at which time it could be of an order
potential effect would be at about 0.3 percent per year. of magnitude similar to that observed for losses related to
women’s earnings. In addition, as standards of living, wages,
How much is this worth in terms of human capital wealth and thereby human capital wealth would increase, so would
per capita? In the medium term, since children who would also the valuations of the gains in wealth per capita from
not be born would have taken at least 15 years to enter the lower population growth. Thus, while the losses from higher
labor force if not more, lower population growth results in population growth due to low educational attainment for
an increase in human capital wealth per capita since the women could be initially smaller than the losses related
denominator (population) is smaller while the numerator to women’s earnings mentioned above, losses from high
(human capital wealth) does not change (it could actually population growth are far from being negligible and would
increase if lower fertility rates lead to higher labor force increase over time, ultimately catching up and probably
participation by women). With global wealth at US$ 1,143 exceeding losses from women’s earnings.
trillion in 2014 as shown in Table 30, even a small percentage
CONCLUSION lower standards of living. When girls drop out of school
prematurely, they are much more likely to marry as
Globally, only three in four girls complete their lower children, and have their first child before the age of 18
secondary education. In low income countries, the when they may not yet be ready to be wife and mothers.
proportion is one in three. Low educational attainment This in turn is associated with higher rates of fertility and
for girls has negative consequences not only for them, but population growth, which in low income countries are major
also for their children and household, as well as for their impediments for reaping the benefits of the demographic
community and society. This study has documented the dividend. Low educational attainment is also associated with
potential impacts of educational attainment for girls and worse health and nutrition outcomes for women and their
women in six domains: (1) earnings and standards of living; children, leading among others to higher under-five mortality
(2) child marriage and early childbearing; (3) fertility and and stunting. Girls who drop out of school also suffer in
population growth; (4) health, nutrition, and well-being; adulthood from a lack of agency and decision-making ability
(5) agency and decision-making; and (6) social capital and within the household, and in society more generally. They
institutions. The results are sobering: the potential economic are also less likely to report engaging in altruistic behaviors
and social costs of not educating girls are large. such as donating to charity, volunteering, or helping others.
Finally, when girls and women are better educated, they may
Key findings are summarized in Table 31. Low educational be better able to assess the quality of the basic services they
attainment reduces expected earnings in adulthood, rely on and the quality of their country’s institutions and
and it depresses labor force participation, leading to leaders.
Table 31: Selected Potential Benefits from Secondary Education for Girls
Domain Coverage Estimated Potential Impacts
Global Doubling of expected earnings in adulthood
Earnings and standards of living Global Increase in labor force participation by one tenth
Global Gain in perceptions of standards of living of up to one tenth
DCs Virtual elimination of child marriage
Child marriage and early childbearing
DCs Reduction in early childbearing by up to three fourths
DCs Reduction in total fertility by one third
Fertility and population growth DCs Increase in contraceptive use by one fourth
Global Reduction in global population growth by 0.3 point
DCs Increase in women’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS by one fifth

DCs Increase in women’s decision-making ability for health by one fifth
Health, nutrition and well-being Global Increase in women’s psychological well-being
DCs Reduction in under-five mortality rate by up a fifth
DCs Reduction in under-five stunting rate by more than a third
DCs Women more likely to exercise decision-making in the household
Agency and decision-making Global Women possibly more likely to better assess quality of basic services
DCs Increase in likelihood of birth registration by one fifth

Global Women more likely to report altruistic behaviors
Social capital and institutions Global Women more likely to report ability to rely on friends when in need
Global Women possibly more likely to better assess institutions and leaders
Global Loss in human capital wealth from US$ 15 trillion to US$ 30 trillion
Potential economic costs Global Benefit from reduced population growth of more than US$ 3 trillion in first year after
universal secondary completion, cumulative over time
Source: Authors.
Note: DCs = Developing countries.
This study does not discuss interventions and policies to and more so than safe space programs that do not provide
ensure that girls can complete their primary and secondary incentives for girls to remain in school. Beyond interventions
education and learn while in school. But promising to improve education opportunities and delay marriage as
interventions have now been implemented for some time well as early childbearing, programs providing economic
in many countries. These interventions have been evaluated opportunities for women help in making investments in
rigorously, and useful lessons can be learned from those education more attractive to girls and their families. Some
evaluations, whether for educating girls (Evans and Yan, of these interventions are reviewed in a separate World
2018) or for delaying marriage and childbearing (Botea et Bank study on the cost of gender inequality in earnings
al., 2017). For educating girls, the literature suggests that and programs to achieve equality (Wodon and de la Brière,
interventions specific to girls may help increase access and 2018). Improving education and employment opportunities
thereby educational attainment. By contrast, to improve for girls and women could have substantial budget costs, but
learning, successful interventions don’t necessarily need to the benefits from higher educational attainment for girls
be targeted to girls. For delaying marriage and childbearing, could also generate budget savings (see Box 9).
education interventions tend to be the most successful,
BOX 9: BUDGET COSTS AND SAVINGS WITH

UNIVERSAL SECONDARY EDUCATION
Achieving universal quality secondary education for girls would have a cost, both for state budgets and for households
(out-of-pocket and opportunity costs). The costs for households could be computed from household surveys, and
those for states could be computed from budget simulation tools, such as the tool created by Wils (2015). Apart from
increasing access for girls to secondary education., it is also important to increase quality, which could also lead to costs
that should not be underestimated.
However, as mentioned in the conceptual framework for this study, budget savings could also be realized with universal
secondary education for girls, for example through lower population growth from smaller fertility rates. In education
for example, lower fertility would reduce the size of new cohorts of children, with the reduction becoming larger over
time in comparison to business-as-usual projections since the potential effect of lower population growth would be
cumulative over time (Wodon, 2018). Savings in the provision of basic services from lower rates of population growth
would also be observed in other areas such as healthcare and basic infrastructure. It is beyond the scope of this study
to compare the cost of secondary education for girls to the savings from lower population growth and other potential
effects (such as an improvement in the health status of young children), but it is important to note that some budget
savings for governments could be achieved, if not immediately, at least in the medium term.
To conclude, the potential negative impacts of not educating just with the two potential impacts for which tentative costs
girls are both substantial and wide-ranging. Monetary were estimated. Finally, an important message from the
estimates of a few of the potential impacts of low educational analysis is that ensuring universal primary education is not
attainment have been provided using measures of human enough. The benefits from education are much larger at
capital wealth. These estimates should be considered as the secondary and tertiary levels than at the primary level.
illustrative only, since they rely on many assumptions, and Investing in proven programs and policies will be key to
different estimation approaches would lead to different ensure a better future for girls and enable countries to fulfill
estimates. What is clear however is that the potential their development potential. This makes economic sense. It is
economic costs are large, running in the trillions of dollars also the right thing to do.
APPENDIX 1: DATA AND survey data or specific questions are not available for all years
for all countries, the pooled data set used for the analysis is
METHODOLOGY large, with more than 200,000 observations. A total of 114
countries are included in our final sample: 10 from East Asia
DATA SOURCES and the Pacific, 40 from Europe and Central Asia, 21 from
Latin America and the Caribbean, four from the Middle East
Three main types of surveys are used for the quantitative and North Africa, one for North America, seven from South
analysis. Estimates of the gains from education and losses Asia, and 31 from sub-Saharan Africa. While some regions
in earnings due to low educational attainment for women have better representation than others, most of the world’s
are based on nationally representative household and labor population is included because large counties in terms of
force surveys from the World Bank’s International Income population are covered. Because of the large sample size of
Distribution Database (I2D2). The analysis builds on previous the pooled dataset, it is easier to obtain statistically significant
work at the World Bank to measure human capital wealth for coefficients in the regression analysis with those data. While
141 countries as part of an analysis of the changing wealth of for this study regression estimates are obtained for the world,
nations. In a nutshell, human capital wealth is defined as the in subsequent work estimates could be obtained for various
present value of the future incomes of the labor force, and it regions or groups of countries.
can be compared to other sources of wealth such as natural
or produced capital. The estimates of human capital wealth In addition to relying on surveys, the team conducted
have been disaggregated by gender. When using surveys qualitative work on the constraints faced by girls to continue
from the I2D2 database and when estimating human capital their education, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa were
wealth, the regression analysis is conducted for each country these constraints are most severe. Qualitative data were
separately. obtained for countries in West Africa, Central Africa, and
East Africa. While these data are not used systematically for
The second key source of data for the estimations is a set of this note, excerpts from respondents in focus groups or in-
publicly available Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). depth qualitative interviews are provided to illustrate findings
Building on previous work on the economic impacts of child that emerge from the quantitative analysis.
marriage, detailed analysis of the correlates of selected
development outcomes was implemented with the most METHODOLOGY
recent DHS for 18 developing countries: Bangladesh,
Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican The study aims to estimate the potential impacts of low
Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, educational attainment for girls on development outcomes
Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of Congo, and the economic costs associated with some of these
Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The choice of these countries potential impacts. The term potential ‘impact’ is used for
was guided by policy considerations and the fact that most simplicity and for the study to be readable to non-technical
have low levels of educational attainment for girls and high audiences, but one must be careful about not necessarily
levels of child marriage. While the sample is titled towards inferring causality. Estimates of potential impacts are
sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, Latin America and the obtained through regression analysis to control for other
Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa are each variables that may affect the outcomes of interest. Different
represented by one country. As with surveys from the I2D2 types of regression techniques are used depending on
database, regression analysis is conducted for each country the outcomes of interest. In some cases, simulations or
separately when using DHS data. statistical analysis are used. What is measured are thus
statistical associations, and not necessarily impacts as
The third main source of data is the Gallup World Poll which could be observed with randomized control trials or quasi-
covers more than 150 countries. The Poll typically surveys experimental methods. Said differently, the regression
1,000 individuals in each country, using a standard set analysis provides estimates of likely potential impacts, but
of core questions that has been translated into the major there is always a risk of bias (and in some cases upward bias)
languages of the respective country. Because the samples at in the measures of the likely potential impacts being reported
the country level are relatively small, the regression analysis due for example to the risk of omitted variables bias.
for this study is conducted with the pooled dataset. While
To reduce the risk of bias in coefficient estimates, different disaggregate education levels more finely. This is why
specifications for the regressions have been used, and we potential impacts are reported for five different education
typically report results obtained with the largest number levels in comparison to having no education at all. These five
of controls. In addition, we report only the direct potential levels are no education at all or some primary education, a
impact of educational attainment on outcomes of interest. completed primary education, some secondary education,
Because educational attainment may affect other variables a completed secondary education, and finally higher
included in the controls, we tend to underestimate total education. When using data from the I2D2 surveys, we
potential effects. This is done on purpose to be conservative either consider the number of years of education of the
in the claims made about the benefits of educating girls individual, or four levels: no education at all, primary
or the potential cost of not doing so. For example, in the education, secondary education, and tertiary education, in
regressions with the Gallup World Poll, per capita income each case whether the cycle was completed or not.
as well as the employment status of women are included
in the controls. Apart from the direct potential effect of A second difference relates to the fact that when using DHS
educational attainment on many outcomes, additional or I2D2 data, as mentioned above, regressions are estimated
beneficial potential impacts would normally be observed with each individual country. By contrast, when using the
through the indirect potential impact of educational Gallup World Poll, only one regression is estimated per
attainment on per capita income and employment status. indicator of interest for the full dataset. For results based
These indirect potential effects are not reported. The on the Gallup World Poll, there is thus only one regression
only exception is for child marriage and early childbearing coefficient to report. But for results based on DHS and
under the assumption supported by the data that achieving I2D2 data, we have different regression coefficients for each
universal secondary education could reduce dramatically the country. For analysis with DHS data where estimations were
rates of child marriage and could also reduce substantially done in most cases for 18 countries, the option adopted
early childbearing. for presenting results is to report the number and share of
countries where statistically significant potential impacts
Based on measures of likely potential impacts, potential are observed, and the average value of those potential
costs associated with selected potential impacts are then impacts when the coefficients in the regression analysis
computed. Note that we provide such cost estimates only are statistically significant. For I2D2 data, because of the
for a few potential impacts. These potential costs rely on much larger number of countries involved, we simply report
assumptions and are thus tentative. The estimated costs average values across countries (most coefficients in wage
represent an order of magnitude of potential costs rather regressions are statistically significant).
than precise estimations. More details on the data sources
and methodologies used for estimations and how they relate
to key findings are available from the authors. APPENDIX 2: HUMAN
PRESENTATION OF RESULTS CAPITAL WEALTH
An explanation may be helpful as to why results are reported ESTIMATES
slightly differently for work based on DHS and I2D2 data
and work based on the Gallup World Poll. Two differences are The estimation of the potential economic costs of low
worth mentioning. educational attainment for girls provided in this study for
earnings and population growth rely on previous estimates
First, the Gallup World Poll provides data on educational of human capital wealth (Lange et al., 2018). Human capital
attainment in only three categories: primary and below, wealth is defined as the discounted value of future earnings
secondary, and tertiary. This means that we can only report for a country’s labor force. In practice, we estimate how
the potential impact of a secondary or tertiary education likely it is that various types of individuals will be working, and
in comparison to having a primary education. We cannot how much they will earn when working. By “various types”
distinguish those who have some primary education or a of individuals, we mean individuals categorized by age, sex,
completed primary education from those who have no and level of education. Essentially, we use household surveys
education at all. By contrast, with DHS surveys, we can to construct a dataset that captures (1) the probability
that individuals are working depending on their age, sex, rely on two variables obtained from data compiled by the
and years of education; and (2) their likely earnings when United Nations Population Division: (1) population data
working, again, by age, sex and years of schooling. This is by age and sex (so that the data in the household surveys
done separately for men and women, and results in estimates can be better calibrated); and (2) mortality rates by age
of human capital wealth by gender. Typically, women earn and gender (so that the expected years of work can be
significantly less than men on average, whether this is due adjusted, accounting for the fact that some workers will die
to lower labor force participation, fewer hours of paid work before age 65). Again, we adjust data from the surveys to
when working, or lower earnings per hour worked. population estimates from the United Nations to ensure
that estimates are adequate. For individuals in the 15-to-
Estimates of the likelihood of working for individuals are 24 age group, the probability of remaining in school is also
based on observed values in household and labor force considered.
surveys. Estimates of expected earnings are based on wage
regressions. The regressions are used to compute expected Given the estimation of human capital wealth based on
earnings throughout individuals’ working life, considering wage regressions, the measure accounts not only for the
their sex, education level, and assumed experience number of years of schooling completed by workers, but
(computed based on age and the number of years of also for the earnings gains associated with schooling (which
education completed). Expected earnings are computed for implicitly factors in the quality of learning in school),
all individuals in the surveys from age 15 to age 65, noting whether individuals work (labor force participation), and
that some individuals may go to school beyond age 15. The for how many years they work (accounting for health
analysis also considers the life expectancy of the labor force. conditions through life expectancy). Estimations of
In countries with high life expectancy, workers are expected human capital wealth are done separately for men and
to work until age 65, but in other countries they may not be women. This means that once we have estimates of human
able to. For simplicity, when estimating the present value of capital wealth by gender, we can estimate losses in human
future earnings, the same discount factor for future earnings capital wealth due to low educational attainment for girls
is applied to all countries. specifically.
The household surveys used for the computation of the When considering gains in wealth per capita from lower
earnings profiles—as well as the probability of working—are population growth, total wealth estimates are used instead
nationally representative. The surveys are in most cases of of estimates of human capital wealth. This is because lower
good quality, but they may still generate estimates that are population growth would result in higher wealth per capita
not consistent with either the system of national accounts or for other categories of wealth too (produced and natural
population data for the countries. Therefore, two adjustments capital).
are made. First, to ensure consistency of the earnings profiles
from the surveys with published data from national accounts,
earnings estimates from the surveys are adjusted to reflect
the share of labor earnings (including both the employed
and the self-employed) in GDP as available in the Penn
World Tables. Second and separately, the estimations also
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Recommended citation for this study:
Wodon, Q., C. Montenegro, H. Nguyen, and A. Onagoruwa. 2018, Missed Opportunities: The High Cost
of Not Educating Girls. The Cost of Not Educating Girls Notes Series. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
This study was prepared by a team at the World Bank with support from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation,
the Global Partnership for Education, and the Malala Fund. The work builds on previous studies at the World Bank on
the economic impacts of child marriage (jointly with ICRW), the changing wealth of nations, and the cost of gender
inequality in earnings. The authors are grateful to Sameera Maziad Al Tuwaijri, Rafael Cortez, Bénédicte de la Brière,
Oni Lusk-Stover, Harry Patrinos, and Jeffrey Waite for valuable peer review comments, and Omar Arias for additional
comments and advice. Apart from Omar Arias, Luis Benveniste and Meskerem Mulatu provided guidance. Patricia
da Camara led the work on communications together with Barry Johnston at the Malala Fund. Weight Creative
formatted the study for dissemination. The team is also grateful to Erin McCarthy and Linda Weisert at the Children’s
Investment Fund Foundation and Louise Banham at the Global Partnership for Education for continuous support.
The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this study are entirely those of the authors and should
not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, its affiliated organizations or members of its Board of Executive
Directors or the countries they represent. Citation and the use of material presented in this study should take into
account its provisional character. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work.
Information contained in this study may be freely reproduced, published or otherwise used for noncommercial
purposes without permission from the World Bank. However, the World Bank requests that the original study be cited
as the source.
© 2018 The World Bank, Washington, DC 20433.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: THE HIGH COST
OF NOT EDUCATING GIRLS
¿QUÉ ES EL FEMINISMO?
Licenciatura en Biología -7mo semestre -grupo 2 – Didáctica y comunicación de la Biología
Elda Melissa García Retama
Weik determinó en 2019 que el significado de feminismo es claro, ya que se refiere a un movimiento
teórico y sociopolítico que nace a partir de la desigualdad en el status de la sociedad a la que las mujeres se
enfrentaban, no obstante, el uso del término y el sector de la sociedad femenina a la que se aplica difiere con
respecto al uso actual. No obstante, la idea inicial fue dar derecho al voto hacia el siglo 18 y buscaba dar otros
derechos políticos; después hacia la década de los 60, el movimiento busco el trato equitativo entre hombres y
mujeres en general. Por tanto, hoy en día el movimiento busca dos objetivos, de acuerdo con Freedman en
2001:
1. Busca terminar con el acoso, opresión y desigualdades laborales; a partir de estudios de caso
a profundidad y sus estadísticos
2. Busca cambiar el pensamiento machista, lo que se basa tanto en argumentos académicos y
objetivos como en opiniones que retiren la naturaleza de género.
Referencias consultadas
• Freedman ,J. (2001) Introduction: Feminism or Feminisms? En Feminism .Philadelphia ,E.U.A pp. 8-
12
• Weik,E.(2019).Feminism.Recuperado el 1 de marzo de 2019 desde :
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44951825_Feminism

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26 UN ENFOQUE DE LA EDUCACIÓN PARA TODOS BASADO EN LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS

El derecho a la educación exige el compromiso de asegurar el

los Sistemas Educativos (PASEC) de la CONFEMEN en seis paí-

Este marco conceptual pone de relieve la necesidad de un enfoque global de la educa-

1. El derecho al acceso a • La educación en todas las fases de la niñez y

• Disponibilidad y accesibilidad de la educaciónn

2. El derecho a una • Un programa de estudios amplio, pertinente

• El aprendizaje y la evaluación basados en los

• Un entorno que no resulte hostil al niño, seguro y

3. El derecho al respeto • El respeto de la identidad

1. EL DERECHO AL ACCESO A LA EDUCACIÓN

Obligaciones para asegurar el derecho al acceso a la educación

• Instaurar la enseñanza primaria gratuita y obligatoria..

• Poner en práctica formas de enseñanza secundaria disponibles y accesibles a todos y adoptar

• Facilitar información y orientación accesibles sobre educación y enseñanza profesional.

• Impartir la educación conforme a la igualdad de oportunidades.

• Establecer un sistema educativo integrador en todos sus niveles.

• Proteger frente a la explotación económica y el trabajo que obstaculiza la educación.

El derecho al acceso a la educación comprende tres elementos: la prestación de edu-

La educación en todas las fases de la niñez y después de ésta

El aprendizaje es un proceso que dura toda la vida. El enfoque de la educación basado

capacidades óptimas a lo largo de la niñez y después de ésta. Necesita un planteamiento

La educación de calidad en los primeros años de vida desempeña un papel vital en

Además, el desarrollo de una persona no concluye cuando cumple 18 años. La educa-

Disponibilidad y accesibilidad de la educación

Los Estados tienen obligaciones en cuanto a establecer el marco legislativo y norma-

Todos los entornos de aprendizaje deben ser accesibles material y económicamente a

Las propias escuelas pueden impedir directa o indirectamente el acceso de algunos

integradora y no discriminatoria y que esté adaptada para garantizar la igualdad de

2. EL DERECHO A UNA EDUCACIÓN DE CALIDAD

Obligaciones para asegurar el derecho a una educación de calidad

• Promover el respeto del entorno natural.

• Asegurar el acceso del niño a información de diversas fuentes.

• Promover el respeto de las capacidades en evolución de los niños en el ejercicio de sus

• Respetar el derecho de los niños al descanso, el ocio, el juego, la diversión y la participación en

Fuentes: Artículo 26 de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos; artículos 3, 5, 6, 12, 17, 29 y 31 de

El Marco de Acción de Dakar compromete a los países a proporcionar una enseñanza

Estas perspectivas han sido integradas en las finalidades de la educación recogidas en

Un programa de estudios amplio, pertinente e integrador

En los tratados de derechos humanos esenciales figuran unas mismas orientacio-

El aprendizaje y la evaluación basados en los derechos humanos

Un entorno que no resulte hostil al niño, seguro y saludable

La obligación de dar la primacía al interés superior del niño y de asegurar su desarro-

3. EL DERECHO AL RESPETO EN EL ENTORNO DE

Obligaciones para respetar los derechos de los niños en el entorno de

• Enseñar el respeto de los derechos humanos y las libertades fundamentales, de la diferencia y

• Dar la primacía al interés superior del niño.

• Respetar las aptitudes en evolución del niño.

• Reconocer el derecho a la libertad de expresión, religión, conciencia, pensamiento y reunión.

• Respetar la privacidad de los niños.

La Convención de la UNESCO relativa a la lucha contra las discriminaciones en la esfera

El respeto de los derechos de participación

Los niños pueden desempeñar además un importante papel en la defensa de la rea-

• La aceptación social y jurídica de la violencia contra los niños.

También se ha de reconocer que algunos de los interlocutores

que se dé a ésta en su comunidad, de la pertinencia y la calidad

Si bien existen distintos grados de obligación a la hora de dar cumplimiento al derecho

En este capítulo se examina el papel de los progenitores y demás cuidadores, las

LOS PROGENITORES Y DEMÁS CUIDADORES

Las responsabilidades de los progenitores

Entre las contribuciones de los progenitores cabe mencionar:

Un ejemplo de la defensa por los progenitores del derecho a la educación procede de

Educar a los progenitores