International Women’s Day: Accelerate Action Through Girls Education
by Fajer Rabia Pasha

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The theme for International Women’s Day 2025 is Accelerate Action. The past few years have witnessed increased discourses on gender parity to spread awareness about the issue. These discussions have led to formulation of international commitments regarding gender equality, making many countries to work towards achieving parity.

While the progress on the subject varies from country to country, the message seems to have sunk in to some extent. Now it’s time to focus on the pace of the progress. At the current rate, it will take until 2158 to achieve full gender equality; that’s 134 years and around five generations from now.

Hence, it’s crucial to accelerate action for achieving gender equality. In order to pace up our efforts, we need to focus on areas that are a proven track of women empowerment. One of those key areas is education.

Impact of Education

According to research, an individual’s hourly earnings undergo a 9 percent increase for every extra year of schooling. Education promotes employment, health, poverty reduction and overall wellbeing. At the societal level, it steers long-term economic growth, drives innovation and strengthens institutions while fostering social cohesion. Moreover, it can help states to enhance climate action through skilled workforce and an aware populace.

Given its importance, it’s important to ensure that education is accessible for everyone. However, in developing countries particularly, girls are in a more disadvantaged position in terms of access to education. It means that girls are denied level playing field from the very beginning. Moreover, limited educational opportunities for girls impact countries profusely.

According to a World Bank report, such limitations and barriers cost countries losses between $15 trillion and $30 trillion in lifetime productivity and earnings. With these statistics, it’s highly urgent for developing countries to ensure access to education for girls so that they can attain the same level of personal and professional growth as boys do.

Out of School Girls in Pakistan

As of 2022-23, there are 13.71 million girls out of school from over 26 million out-of-school children (OOSC). The OOSC rate for girls remains 41.5% as compared to 34.9% boys from primary to higher secondary level. Some of the major reasons for the high out of school rate for girls is cultural and religious norms, safety issues, lack of transport, limited infrastructure and poverty.

There is a dire need to tackle these issues urgently, as with increasing population, the situation is expected to worsen in the absence of proper measures. Furthermore, enrollment of girls drops as the education level progresses. From 9.44 million students in primary, girls’ enrollment slumps to 3.79 million in middle school, 1.84 million in high, and 1.09 million at higher secondary level.

Therefore, not only that the girls need to be brought to school, but they also have to be retained between various education levels as well. The government should have in place early warning systems to identify students at the risk of dropping out as well as a pathway to bring back students who dropped out of school for some reason.

Community Schools As a Bridge

While the formal education system grapples with a plethora of issues, non-formal education can step up and fill the gap to ensure that every girl has a level playing field and eventually attain gender equality. Community schools are an effective form of NFE that enable access to education while facilitating them in other realms as well.

Star Schools Program by Pakistan Alliance for Girls Education (PAGE) has been serving this purpose since 2018. It is a model of community-based non-formal education centres designed to enroll out-of-school children and give them a second chance at education. Here is a brief overview of the STAR Approach:

Only in 2024, the STAR schools enrolled 6000 students, providing them an opportunity to enter the education stream and opening up more doors for them.

In this time of education emergency, non-formal education solutions like Star Schools play a pivotal role in ensuring no child, especially girls, is left behind.

Investing in girls’ education is not just about individual empowerment. It is a transformative force that uplifts entire communities and drives national progress. By providing girls with access to quality education, we create a level playing field where they can reach their full potential, breaking cycles of poverty and inequality. Community schools and non-formal education models have proven to be effective tools in expanding educational opportunities, especially in rural and underserved areas.

To truly accelerate action, collective effort is required. Governments, civil society, and communities must work together to remove barriers, invest in education, and create safe, inclusive learning spaces for girls. Only by ensuring that every girl in Pakistan receives an education can we build a more just, prosperous, and equitable society. The time to act is now—because when we educate a girl, we empower a nation.