| Resumen: |
Good policy is sharp policy. It is policy that targets specific problems and
bottlenecks. For this, we need a clear picture of what is happening and good
data. This first World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education responds to this
need on one of the most important questions for human rights and
sustainable development today.
Girls and women remain deprived of full and equal opportunities for
education. There has been progress towards parity at the primary level, but
this tapers off at the secondary level in developing regions. The global
economic crisis is deepening inequalities, made worse by cuts in education
budgets and stagnating development support.
Gender equality is one of the six goals of the global Education for All
campaign that UNESCO leads. This was launched in 2000, when the
countries of the world agreed to “eliminate gender disparities in primary and
secondary education by 2005, and achieve gender equality in education by
2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement
in basic education of good quality”.
Gender equality is essential for protecting universal human rights and
fundamental freedoms. It is also a powerful development accelerator.
The education of girls and women can lead to a wide range of benefits –
from improved maternal health, reduced infant mortality and fertility rates
to increased prevention against HIV and AIDS. For this to happen, we need
to target the gender gap at every level.
This Atlas illustrates the linkages between different levels, and it situates
issues of gender equality in a broader context. Equality in education must
be integrated into wider policies at the economic, social and political levels.
This is how the transformational power of education for girls and women
can translate into sustainable development for society as a whole.
Maps are a way to understand the world; they are also excellent tools to
communicate to a wide audience. This Atlas allows readers to access
information at a glance and to examine issues of gender equality from
different perspectives.
This is possible thanks to the availability of sex-disaggregated data in
education, produced by UNESCO’s pioneering Institute for Statistics.
The Institute regularly develops sex-disaggregated statistics for all levels
of education in order to monitor the progress of girls and the educational
attainment levels of women. It creates new indicators to provide
policy-relevant information at the national and international levels.
All of this allows for a clearer picture to emerge on gender progress and gaps.
This Atlas is a map of the world; it is also a call to action, to concentrate ever
more on promoting gender equality in education as a human right and a
development multiplier.
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