By Onalie De Silva, GSIF Regional Manager for Asia Pacific 

Education is a fundamental right of every child. Irrespective of a child’s sex, social upbringing, caste, race or religion, they all have the right to access education and enjoy learning. Unfortunately, the reality is far from this ideal. Education often times becomes a luxury, a dream and an unfulfilled desire for many children in vulnerable contexts across the world. In Asia Pacific, there are millions of children who live in vulnerable contexts such as extreme poverty, outcasted communities, war affected areas, situations of prostitution and trafficking, child-labor, internally displaced due to war, conflict and natural disasters and other forms of violence and abuse. According to World Bank Statistics, South Asia alone had 62 million children living in extreme poverty in 2022. In 2020, International Labour Organization estimated that 23.6 million children were in child labour in South Asia. These are not just numbers. These are hopes, dreams, and aspirations of children who struggle to find a better future. Given this context, education is considered a key tool that is used to provide children with better protection and an opportunity for a better future. However, the ability to access education vastly differs among children mainly depending on their socio-economic background and gender.

Gender disparities in education

Education attainment in Asia Pacific is far ahead of other regions such as Africa and Latin America. However, gender equality in education still remains a major challenge in many Asia Pacific countries. World Bank data on the number of children out of school clearly indicates that most countries in Asia Pacific such as India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal and Thailand have more girls out of school compared to boys. What is the reason for this disparity? Why are there more girls dropping out of school or not entering school compared to boys? The Social Services of the Good Shepherd Mission in Asia Pacific brings some clarity to these questions.

Despite living in the era of Artificial Intelligence and groundbreaking technology, we still have millions of girl-children living in heartbreaking situations of forced child-marriage, trafficking, prostitution, and different forms of sexual exploitation even today. Good Shepherd Mission in Asia Pacific works closely on protecting children, especially girls, through education and empowerment. Many girls in countries like Sri Lanka and India miss school for at least 4 days a month during their menstruation. This can add up to nearly 40-50 days of absenteeism during a school year, simply because she is born a female. The lack of clean water and toilet facilities in schools deprive girls from coming to school during the days they menstruate.

In addition, parents’ cultural beliefs of menstruation also force girls to stay-back home during the days they menstruate. While this being a common phenomenon among girls in poverty, girls are further humiliated and shamed by boys in co-ed schools as they come back to school after menstruation, adding on to more psychological distress. Furthermore, missing school during the days of menstruation means girls are burdened with catching up with the work they have missed. Often times, they do not catch up but move on with the lessons. Therefore, the unfortunate reality is that the ability to access education and enjoy education for a girl, largely differs from that of a boy despite being in the same classroom.

Cultural, traditional perceptions of a girl child further contribute towards the gender inequality in education. The patriarchal values and attitudes in the society still predominantly considers the role a woman as the nurturer and caregiver. Therefore, raising children and taking care of the household chores are still considered as the primary responsibility of the females in the household. Such perception of gender-roles have contributed towards girls being taken out of school to be given in marriage or to help with household work while her male siblings go to school. There are many parents still who believe that there is a better return in educating boys compared to educating girls. They believe that educating boys would help the family earn better income in the future, while girls would not be able to do the same as they must be married off and ensure their husbands’ households and children are looked after. This is the unfortunate reality in countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal and even Sri Lanka, where Sri Lanka has better education attainment among girls compared to boys but poorer labour force participation among women compared to men in the country.

Child-marriage especially among girls still happenes across the world, with South Asia having the highest rates of Child Marriage according to UNICEF data 2014. India, Nepal and Bangladesh are ranked among the top 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with India alone having over 307.3 million girls who have been married below the age of 18, according to UNICEF data in 2024. Therefore, it is evident that equality in education is challenged not only by the lack of conducive infrastructure and facilities for girls to pursue education, but also attitudes, value and beliefs that has largely hindered girls from not just breaking the glass ceiling, but even to notice there is a ceiling.

Empowering communities to ensure better access to education

Good Shepherd Sisters and Mission Partners in Asia Pacific are engaged in extensive awareness programs, training programs and programs that provide non-formal education for children, especially girls, in an effort to enable better access to education for children in vulnerable contexts. While non-formal education programs directly provide access to education for children who are otherwise left out, awareness raising and training programs aim at educating and empowering parents, teachers and community leaders about child rights, the importance of education for girls and how the community at large can be held responsible and accountable to ensure children are able to engage in education irrespective of their gender.

Over the years, Good Shepherd Mission has taken much zealous effort to develop holistic community-based child protection systems in Asia Pacific bringing together multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral actors who would play a role in protecting children. Through these efforts, thousands of children, parents, teachers, community leaders, duty-bearers, and many others have been educated, engaged and empowered to ensure children’s rights and especially girls’ rights are protected in countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and Philippines. Education is a Right of every child, therefore, it is also a responsibility of everyone to ensure each child is able to enjoy the right to education, right to learn and right to explore opportunities that can expand their horizons.