08/03/2012
To mark International Women’s Day, UNESCO and the UIS have jointly released the 'World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education'. It includes over 120 maps, charts and tables featuring a wide range of sex-disaggregated indicators.
"The atlas illustrates the educational pathways of girls and boys and the changes in gender disparities over time", says UNESCO. "It hones in on the gender impact of critical factors such as national wealth, geographic location, investment in education, and fields of study.
The data show that:
- Although access to education remains a challenge in many countries, girls enrolled in primary school tend to outperform boys. Dropout rates are higher for boys than girls in 63% of countries with data.
- Countries with high proportions of girls enrolled in secondary education have more women teaching primary education than men.
- Women are the majority of tertiary students in two-thirds of countries with available data. However, men continue to dominate the highest levels of study, accounting for 56% of PhD graduates and 71% of researchers.
The atlas also provides a fresh perspective on the progress countries are making towards gender-related targets set by the international community under Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals."
