Keeping Girls in School: Puberty Education

UNESCO is fully engaged in the European Year for Development 2015 (EYD 2015). During February, the EYD focus will be on education in development.The UNESCO Liaison Office has collected human-centered stories which showcase UNESCO’s successful programmes in the field of education.

You can read the introduction of the third story below and you can access the full story by clicking on the following link: https://europa.eu/eyd2015/en/unesco/stories/keeping-girls-school-pubert…;

The HIV and Health Education-team at UNESCO works on the content and methods of skills-based education and the policies and practices to promote school health. In 2014, they published their findings and recommendation on the topic in the booklet ‘Good Policy and Practice in health education – Puberty Education and Menstrual Hygiene Management’.

Improving girl’s educational outcomes is one of UNESCO’s priorities. But how to keep them in school and what is affecting the quality of their education? The answer to this question is the result of a complex web of systemic, economic, cultural and social issues. While most of these are dependent on the specific context, one is universal – puberty, and the advent of menarche (first menstruation cycle).