By Matthias Eck (UNESCO), Catherine Jere (University of East Anglia) and Justine Sass (UNESCO)

Despite tremendous progress in enrolment over the last 20 years, current estimates indicate that 259 million children and youth are out of school. Over half of these – approximately 132 million – are boys.

While, globally, girls remain less likely than boys to enter school in the first place, in many countries, boys are at greater risk of disengagement and dropout. Prolonged school closures and the longer-term impact of COVID-19 on learning loss and school dropout are likely to exacerbate existing gender disparities unless steps are taken to address the learning needs of all.

As the new UNESCO Global report on boys' disengagement from education shows, boys are more likely than girls to repeat primary grades in 130 of 142 countries with data - indicating poorer progression through school - and less likely to proceed to upper secondary education in 73 countries, compared with 48 countries where girls' show disadvantage.

Where previously boys' disadvantage has been of greatest concern in high- or upper-middle-income contexts, including Latin America and the Caribbean, the Report's analysis shows that new patterns are emerging. Several low- and lower-middle-income countries have seen a reversal in gender gaps, with boys being left behind at primary and lower secondary levels (see the Figure below). In the Gambia, for example, where 88 girls for every 100 boys were enrolled in primary education in 2000, 90 boys were enrolled for every 100 girls in 2019. In Nepal, the gender gap in upper secondary enrolment has also reversed dramatically. In 2000, there were just 62 girls enrolling for every 100 boys; by 2019 there were 89 boys enrolled for every 100 girls. Read more of this post