Education Systems for Girls’ Education in the Indo-Pacific Region

Abstract

Despite substantial progress over the last two decades, girls in many parts of the world experience worse educational outcomes than boys, particularly at the secondary and tertiary levels. The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have exacerbated this learning gap in many regions, making research on the relationship between girls’ education outcomes and education systems increasingly urgent.

This rapid review explores the determinants of girls’ education outcomes in a specific group of Indo-Pacific countries. It examines the education system determinants of these outcomes such as government investment, teacher training, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure in schools, school-related gender-based violence, and indirect costs of education, drawing from pre-COVID-19 data. It also investigates societal determinants such as political factors, poverty rates, labour market participation trends, and child marriage rates. By attempting to explain differences in learning outcomes for girls, it also achieves a typology of countries in the region and suggests ideas for further research and FCDO programming.