EFA Global Monitoring Report

Have you ever been to school? Have you ever studied at a school? If you have, be thankful and grateful because more than 67 billion children can’t go to school according to UNESCO “EFA Global Monitoring Report（2011）.” In developing countries only 29 to 35% of children can go to school while almost 100% of children normally go to school in developed countries. Then, what causes this situation? Can you imagine? There are a lot of causes such as a lack of money, health problems, wars, a lack of schools, and parents’ permissions. Among them, I point out and focus on what I think is the biggest cause of this situation, discrimination. It’s because even though we deal with other issues such as a lack of money or parents’ permission, children

It is said that no country in this world has perfect gender equality. For example, Emma Watson, a famous actress from the United Kingdom, stated in her speech at the U.N. that “sadly, I can yet say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to see these rights. No country in the world can yet say that they achieved gender equality.” Gender inequality is a serious problem worldwide. However, in developing countries, the situation is far worse. According to the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2013/2014, only 60% of all countries achieved gender equality in enrollment in elementary school, and only 38% in middle school. There are five barriers which make it difficult for girls to go to school: the stereotypes or conventions of society, the lack of laws to keep safety of girls, the economic issues, the lack of protected private bathrooms, the high possibility of violence or physical punishment, and the lack of female teachers. Furthermore, some parents think that it’s not necessary for girls to be educated because they are not educated, too. All boys and girls must be equal, because every single child has a right to be educated without any barrier between girls and

No one knows. It occurs without any strong reasons. However, it’s difficult to eliminate all discrimination immediately because people don’t know the reasons why it started or how to stop discrimination. As there is no apparent reason to start discrimination, there might be no apparent reason or opportunity to stop discrimination. We have to face seriously with this vicious circle. We have to make an action to eliminate discriminatory stereotypes. To achieve this, it’s important to start with small steps. What steps can we take? One of the steps is to think about discrimination and share opinions with others. It might look very simple but this is what we can start today. Moreover, we can donate to children who can’t go to school through international organization such as UNICEF or Japanese Red Cross Society. We should think about and look for ways to help children go to school as we do in our daily lives. I hope the day when every child can go to school without any discrimination will soon