Gender equality: Education and skills 

Primary education provides children with the foundation for a lifetime of learning, while secondary education equips them with the knowledge and skills needed to transition successfully into adulthood. The benefits of secondary education for girls are significant and far-reaching, not only improving learning outcomes and earning potential, but also serving as a protective factor against child marriage, adolescent pregnancy and malnutrition, including short stature and anaemia.

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Globally, the number of out-of-school girls has decreased by 39 per cent.

In 2000, more girls than boys were out of school at every level worldwide. Today the opposite is true – there are over 6 million more boys out of school than girls (128 million and 122 million, respectively) – reflecting tremendous gains made in girls’ schooling over the past three decades. At the same time, progress in reducing the number of out-of-school children – both girls and boys – has slowed significantly at the secondary level since 2011 and has stagnated at the primary level since 2007. Moreover, global statistics mask significant regional disparities in adolescent girls’ access to schooling. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, there are more girls than boys out of school at every level and the number of children out of school is increasing owing to population growth.

Girls are completing school at higher rates than boys – yet still, nearly 4 in 10 adolescent girls and young women do not complete upper secondary education.

At the upper secondary level, the proportion of girls who completed school worldwide rose from 36 to 61 per cent between 2000 and 2023, a 25-percentage-point increase. Nonetheless, nearly 4 in 10 adolescent girls and young women globally (39 per cent) do not finish upper secondary school today. For adolescent boys and young men, the rate is even higher (42 per cent). Regionally, at the lower secondary level, the highest girls’ completion rates are observed in East Asia and Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean (89 and 84 per cent, respectively), while the lowest are observed in sub-Saharan Africa (37 per cent). As with children out of school, sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in which fewer girls than boys complete school at every level.

Without digital skills, adolescents have few opportunities to secure well-paid decent jobs as they transition into adulthood.

Access to digital devices and skills has become an increasingly important part of everyday life. This necessity was amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which nearly all ministries of education adopted some form of remote learning to ensure that students continued to learn during school closures. But basic skills, such as sending an email with an attachment or copying a file, are beyond the reach of many young people, especially girls in low- and middle-income countries. For example, even within the same households, adolescent girls and young women have less access to the internet and digital technologies than male household members of the same age, suggesting pervasive gender biases that restrict girls’ digital access.

The proportion of adolescent girls and young women with digital skills ranges widely across countries, but few possess the advanced digital skills needed for careers in STEM.

Among 49 countries and territories with data, the proportion of adolescent girls and young women with digital skills ranges from 2 per cent or fewer (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Chad, Sierra Leone and Yemen) to more than 70 per cent (Turks and Caicos). But across these countries, adolescent girls and young women lack advanced information and communication technology (ICT) skills. For example, in 29 countries, only around 1 to 2 per cent report possessing programming skills. The highest proportion of adolescent girls and young women with programming skills is found in Tonga (16 per cent). While there are fewer data on adolescent boys’ and young men’s ICT skills, those that are available also indicate overall low levels of ICT skills; but in the majority of countries with data for both male and female youth (not shown), the gender gap in ICT skills disadvantages adolescent girls and young women.

For more information about education and skills, and to access the data, click here.

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