Gender parity in education means that equal proportions of girls and boys enter and complete schooling. However, large gender gaps still exist globally with fewer girls than boys receiving education in many areas. Achieving gender parity is an important goal but by itself does not ensure equality, as other issues like poverty, violence, and social attitudes also impact education outcomes. Recent data shows that in some countries like the Philippines, girls now outperform boys in educational indicators, highlighting the need to address challenges facing boys' education as well. International agreements like the SDGs and EFA movement aim to promote inclusive, quality education for all as a way to achieve greater gender equality.

1. Gender Parity
Parity means the state or condition of
being equal.
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GENDER AND SOCIETY

2. Gender Parity
It means that the same proportion of girls and
boys enter and complete schooling. When
there is no gender parity, there is a gap, and a
greater proportion of either boys or girls are
receiving education.
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GENDER AND SOCIETY

3. Education is a fundamental human right
– one that all individuals are entitled to enjoy
whatever the circumstances in which they live
– that also brings important benefits to
human society as a whole
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4. Education
Education can help to overcome constraints on capabilities
partly through developing the knowledge, understanding, and
skills that all girls and boys, women and men need in order to
achieve what they value for their lives. This means ensuring an
education system which allows all individuals, irrespective of
gender, to develop their capabilities and freedoms. Some
aspects of this equality are the freedom to attend school, to
learn and participate there in safety and security, to develop
identities that tolerate others, and to enjoy a range of
economic, political, and cultural opportunities and valued
outcomes.

5. For all countries, whatever their stage
of development, view education as a
cornerstone of economic
development. An educated citizenry is
also a key to social and political
stability within and between nations.
Education
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6. “Education is the most powerful
weapon to change the world”
Large gender gaps exist in access, learning achievement
and continuation in education in many settings, most often
at the expense of girls, although in some regions boys are at
a disadvantage.
Despite progress, more girls than boys still remain out of
school - 16 million girls will never set foot in a classroom
(UNESCO Institute for Statistics) - and women account for
two thirds of the 750 million adults without basic literacy
skills.
Tomas
Chloe
Nearly one billion people, one-sixth of the world’s population, have little or no education, either
because they have never been to school or have had less than five years of schooling and left before
acquiring key areas of knowledge and many useful skills. Two-thirds of these people are women and
girls.
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7. Poverty, geographical isolation, minority status, disability, early marriage and
pregnancy, gender-based violence, and traditional attitudes about the status and
role of women, are among the many obstacles that stand in the way of women
and girls fully exercising their right to participate in, complete and benefit from
education.
Concern with parity may also be linked with a focus on other tangible and
quantifiable factors such as the number of classrooms and toilets, numbers of
textbooks and supplies of materials, and measurement of learning in terms of
exam results. In places where there have been long periods of war, routinized
violence, discrimination, exploitation, exclusion, and a range of different forms
of poverty, achieving parity might be a substantive achievement of social justice,
but parity on its own is a rather limited aspiration.
Reasons Why?
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8. In many countries girls are often expelled when they
become pregnant, gender-based violence is inadequately
tackled, and schools are ill-equipped to deal with the
education of children in families affected by AIDS
For Girls
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9. Males in basic education in the Philippines were
becoming less educated than females.
Filipino boys’ underachievement is driven by parents’
and teachers’ low academic expectations for boys, the
economic viability of boys, passive classroom
experience, gender bias, stereotyping, and a lack of
learning materials.
For Boys
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10. In 2014, the Philippines’ fifth progress report on
the MDGs stated that “education indicators
continue to lean towards girls as basic
education data show that girls nearly surpass
boys in formal basic education”.
Similar findings were reported in the Philippines’
EFA 2015 review report which said that “for SY
2012-2013, girls outperformed boys in all
education efficiency indicators. Girls have also
been outperforming boys in terms of the
National Achievement Test (NAT) scores”
Comparative data consistently showing girls
doing better than boys on various education
indicators led the Philippine Commission on
Women (2014) to call on the education sector to
address the underperformance of boys in key
education indicators as a priority gender issue.
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Get Owned BOYSZ!
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11. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 Framework for Action
•SDG 4 aims to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and
promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
•SDG 5 to ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.’
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
•MDG 2: achieve universal primary education, with the target of ensuring that all boys and girls
complete a full course of primary schooling by 2015.
•MDG 3: promote gender equality and empower women, with the target of eliminating gender
disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and in all levels of education by 2015.
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Solutions?
Education for All (EFA) 155 countries!
It is a movement with all the countries agreeing in making primary education accessible to all
children and to massively reduce illiteracy by the end of the decade.
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