Statistical data shows that many African countries have attained gender parity in education. But the reality is that behind these numbers, there are still vast disparities - between and within countries - in access to education. National data is not unpacked to show how a poor girl, from an ethnic minority, in a dispersed rural area, with uneducated parents is lost in the national statistics.
Girls from wealthy, urban homes with educated mothers are more likely to remain in school and perform well. But some girls never get to go to school or are withdrawn after just a few years to become child brides, to work or due to violence or other reasons. Their voices are unheard, their rights to a high-quality education denied, writes GCAP Ambassador and former co-chair Adelaide Sosseh.
