School Dropout Risks Among Girls in the Asia-Pacific Region

Relevant article: https://thediplomat.com/2020/11/covid-19-leaves-millions-of-girls-at-risk-of-school-dropout-in-asia-pacific/

As The Diplomat’s article describes, the COVID-19 pandemic has absolutely devastated educational access and attainment for girls located within the Asia-Pacific region. In East Asia and the Pacific, twenty percent of girls (about 40 million girls) have been left out of remote learning options due to resource limitations, including a lack of access to stable Internet connection. Current constraints on educational access are especially dangerous, as they inform future decisions on whether girls left out of schooling schemes will actually return to education in the post-pandemic world. School closures right now have a particularly salient impact on women and girls’ future educational outcomes. The Diplomat reports that, “in South and West Asia, 2.8 million women and girls may not be able to return to education, from pre-primary to tertiary levels.”

When women and girls drop out of school, society loses out on a host of benefits, including the overall economic prosperity that communities experience across the globe. The article cites recent studies from the World Bank that quantified the numerous tangible benefits that arise when women and girls are not deprived of education. Not only does education give way to positive outcomes at the individual level, whereby women and girls have greater economic autonomy, incomes, and employment opportunities, but it also aids in the global fight to eradicate child marriage, mortality, and malnutrition.

Why have women and girls been driven out of education throughout the pandemic? The Diplomat explains that “in Asia and the Pacific, 67 percent of parents have reported increases in their daughters’ domestic work, compared to 57 percent for their sons.” With women and girls bearing the brunt of increased domestic work, they have been left with less time available for learning, studying, and attending remote classes.

Both those who continue to learn virtually and those who have been effectively forced to abstain from remote education have missed out on school-provided meals, an important provision in the fight against food insecurity. Extended school closures have also adversely affected “access to essential health information, such as through comprehensive sexuality education.” Additionally, gender-based violence has only worsened in the age of lockdowns, given losses in income streams and the protection offered by simply having access to a physical school environment. The Diplomat offers that “for every three months that lockdowns continue, 15 million more global cases of gender-based violence are expected.” Women and girls who do have Internet access have also faced increased risks of cyberbullying and online sexual exploitation during the pandemic.

The article furthers that “tens of thousands of girls in Asia have been subjected to early and forced marriage since the beginning of the pandemic.” Indonesia’s child marriage rate, for one, has actualy doubled this year in comparison to their 2019 rate.

The gender-based adversities exposed by the pandemic reveal where policymakers should place their efforts in battling the challenges that women and girls have faced thus far. Advocates have found hope in the expansion of campaigns that call for the rectification of these inequities. For instance, educational advocates in Pakistan have collaborated to bring remote education to more isolated districts, helping to ensure that youth may continue to learn and gain from the huge pool of benefits that stable education has to offer.