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| Delegates attend the World Education Forum 2023 taking place from May 7-10 in London. (Source: Twitter) |
At the World Education Forum 2023 taking place from May 7-10 in London, the world's largest education event gathering many education ministers from countries, the UK launched the Education and Skills Programme for Girls within the framework of the Action Plan between the UK and ASEAN.
A new UK-funded programme will increase access to quality education for disadvantaged women and girls in Southeast Asia, giving them a better future.
The funding will be used to improve the quality of education for women and girls by prioritizing teaching basic reading and math skills to unlock their full potential.
The program will expand access to technical and digital education for women and girls – focusing on the skills needed to gain employment in high-skilled sectors such as technology and manufacturing. It will also promote the inclusion of minority and remote communities, the urban poor and children with disabilities by conducting disability assessments to identify additional needs and providing guidance on vision testing.
Announcing the funding, Andrew Mitchell, Minister of State for International Development at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said: “Gender equality will bring freedom, boost prosperity and strengthen global security. Countries cannot thrive if half their population cannot reach their full potential.”
This means countries need to work together to provide quality education for all, with a focus on girls to address the barriers they face including violence, poverty, harmful gender norms and climate change, said Andrew Mitchell.
“We are working with partners across Southeast Asia to address the learning crisis and improve the education and future employment opportunities of women and girls to ensure a prosperous future,” said the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s International Development Secretary.
An estimated 140 million children in Southeast Asia have missed out on schooling due to the Covid-19 pandemic, exacerbated by low quality of education, high levels of learning poverty, limited access to education in rural areas, failure to equip students with employable skills, and girls dropping out of school due to early marriage.
In the ASEAN region, girls make up a larger proportion of children who are out of school at the primary level. This limits their opportunities in later life and increases their risk of early marriage, early pregnancy and poverty.
New UK funding of £30 million will address these barriers to education for the 1.2 million girls at risk of dropping out of school permanently through cost-effective measures such as merit-based scholarships, girls’ clubs and catch-up classes to ensure children stay in school.
UK expertise will help schools improve teaching through lesson planning and classroom support so that more children can read and understand a short story by the age of 10. This means the programme will directly support the UK’s commitment to ensuring 40 million more girls attend school and 20 million more girls are literate.
This five-year programme is the first in a series of new ASEAN-UK programmes designed to deliver on London’s commitments as a dialogue partner of ASEAN. It is also further evidence of the UK’s continued efforts to prioritise girls’ education as set out in its Women and Girls Strategy.
It is part of the UK's drive to improve education outcomes and follows the recently announced Access and Learning in Education Programme to help get 6 million more girls into school around the world.
He also released a new report with the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel and the World Bank on “Cost-effective approaches to improving global learning,” which builds on the importance of early childhood education and makes recommendations on health, nutrition, and socio-emotional development.
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