Girl-Friendly Schools

In many areas, education is known as the key to success. It has widely been accepted as the vessel toward upward mobility as its benefits have the capacity to positively change lives. For some, however, the mere notion of attending school on a regular basis is not a reality. Challenges in access and equality permeate through many communities, tribes, and villages with many students denied basic fundamental rights to a quality education. Socioeconomic barriers and longstanding traditions have equated to educational disparities in many areas but these inequities are most profound in developing countries. Through worldwide initiatives and programs, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) focuses on the largest group denied educational rights-girls.

In many remote and conflict-ridden areas, the state of education has been negative, if not nonexistent, for girls. In these populations, poverty rates and unequal power relations between genders are extremely high and girls are expected to contribute to their families’ economic needs through household chores. Many young women are forced into marriages that occur before the age of 16 and subsequently, give birth to multiple children at a very young age. These gender inequities result in girls’ inability to attend school. For the fortunate girls that are able, attending school presents yet another challenge.

Schools in developing countries such as Niger, Thailand, and Sri Lanka have traditionally had accessibility and equality difficulties for the girls in attendance. These schools, like many others, are substantially distant from their homes, lack private toilet facilities, embody a curriculum that is male-centered, and lack the existence of female teachers with whom young women can identify. Girls attending these schools face sexual harassment and violation on their way to and from school, often do not attend during their menstrual cycle due to lack of privacy and sanitary napkins, and eventually drop out or have diminished enrollment. In response to these disparities in education for girls, UNICEF created girl-friendly schools from their child-friendly schools initiative.