The ripple effect of girls’ education is well-known. When a girl is educated, not only does she become empowered, but her whole community benefits. Her education can break cycles of poverty, decrease child mortality and greatly improve her country’s economy. In South Asia alone, if girls were given equal access to education in the years between 1960 and 1990, per capita income would have grown 0.9 % faster annually (Herz, 2006).

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However, girls’ access to a fulfilling and useful education remains a persistent problem in the twenty-first century. Inspiring progress has been made in the past few decades to close the school enrolment gender gap in the developing world, yet this progress does not reflect the true state of girls’ education. 

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South and East Asia present vastly different situations in terms of girls’ education, and even within these regions education varies with class, caste, geography, and race. Although not without its own problems, East Asia has made much progress for girls’ education and houses one of the most effective education systems in the world. In contrast, South Asia has one-third of the world’s out-of-school girls, so this report will primarily focus on South Asia’s girls’ education crisis (Herz, 2006).

Intersecting inequalities for girls in and out of the school system persist in South Asia, many of them driven by the region’s high rates of poverty. It is difficult to decouple the causes of educational inequality from socio-economic, environmental, and cultural factors, but some of the key barriers to girls’ access to an effective education in South Asia are inadequate sanitation facilities and resources at school, gender-based violence in and out of the school system, and ineffective, low-quality education. In communities where gender norms are prevalent and poverty is high, education for girls is of low priority and families may not realize the benefit of girls’ education. The state of girls’ education in South Asia was already in a fragile state but 2020’s COVD-19 pandemic will worsen pre-existing inequalities, risking the future of 11 million girls around the world who will never return to school after the pandemic (France-Presse, 2020).

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However, there is still hope for girls’ futures with strong leadership from governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). COVID-19 presents a unique opportunity to rebuild education systems that are more accommodating and inclusive to the needs of all children. As seen pre-pandemic in various countries, community mobilization through school-community partnerships is key to making education more accessible and beneficial for girls in South Asia. Increasing funding for teachers, prioritizing flexible learning strategies and reforming education curricula are some actions that require political and humanitarian support to ensure that progress made for girls’ education in the last few decades is not completely erased by the pandemic.