Out-of-School Girls: Strategies That Work
EDUCATION POLICYEDUCATION
Chaifry
10/13/2026
Education remains one of the most powerful instruments for social transformation and human development. Yet millions of children continue to remain outside the school system. According to the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2026: Access and Equity – Countdown to 2030, 273 million children, adolescents and youth were out of school in 2024. Of these, 140 million were boys and 133 million were girls. The number has risen for seven consecutive years, even though overall enrolment has expanded significantly since 2000, with nearly 330 million more students in school today than at the beginning of the century (UNESCO, 2026).
This article examines the global challenge of out-of-school children with a special focus on the girl child and on India. It explores the scale of exclusion, the specific barriers that keep girls out of school, the progress India has made, and the practical strategies required to address the problem. Particular emphasis is placed on three interconnected priorities: (1) accurate identification of out-of-school children, (2) ensuring regular attendance, and (3) improving retention and completion. These three areas form the operational core of any serious effort to reduce educational exclusion. Drawing primarily on the 2026 GEM Report and supported by evidence from India and comparative country experiences, the article offers a comprehensive discussion of what works and what still needs to be strengthened as the world approaches 2030.
The Global Scale of Exclusion
In 2024, while 1.433 billion children and adolescents were attending primary and secondary school, 273 million remained outside the system. The age-wise breakdown is revealing: 79 million were of primary school age, 64 million of lower secondary age, and 130 million of upper secondary age (UNESCO, 2026). These figures exclude an estimated additional 13 million children in the ten countries most severely affected by conflict, indicating that the true global total is even higher.
The out-of-school rate across the school-age population fell sharply from 27.2% in 2000 to 17.4% in 2015, but has since stagnated at around 16.8–17%. Progress has been uneven across regions. Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia together account for three-quarters of the global out-of-school population. In low-income countries, nearly one in four primary-age children and more than half of upper-secondary-age youth remain out of school (UNESCO, 2026). Demographic growth in these regions has offset earlier gains in enrolment rates.
Gender parity has improved dramatically at the global level. The share of countries with high gender disparity at the expense of girls has fallen sharply in primary and lower secondary education. Yet girls continue to face distinct and often overlapping barriers, especially in secondary education in parts of Africa and Southern Asia. Once girls reach adolescence, the risk of dropout rises sharply due to early marriage, domestic responsibilities, safety concerns, and social norms.
Why Girls Remain Particularly Vulnerable
The GEM Report highlights that girls who remain out of school are frequently held back by discriminatory social norms, early marriage, distance to school, safety concerns, lack of separate sanitation facilities, household responsibilities, and the opportunity cost of education for poor families (UNESCO, 2026). In many contexts, families prioritise boys’ education when resources are limited, perceiving lower returns to investing in girls.
Evidence reviewed in the report shows that several interventions have contributed to higher girls’ enrolment and retention. These include the construction of nearby schools, provision of sex-specific toilets, rural electrification, school feeding programmes, scholarships, and the extension of compulsory education. At the same time, the report cautions that no single reform is sufficient. Sustained progress requires coordinated action across education, health, social protection, and community norms.
India’s Progress Toward Gender Parity
India presents a complex but largely encouraging picture. The GEM Report notes that India has achieved gender parity in several key indicators of school participation and completion, a significant achievement given the country’s size and diversity (UNESCO, 2026). This progress has been supported by a series of legal and policy measures over the past two decades.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, made elementary education a fundamental right and is associated with increased educational attainment (Bhattacharjee, 2026). The expansion of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the construction of separate toilets for girls, rural electrification, and large-scale campaigns such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao have all played important roles. The report specifically cites evidence that a government programme constructing sex-specific latrines increased girls’ enrolment in India (Adukia, 2017). Similarly, electrification in earlier decades had a large positive impact on girls’ enrolment and attainment (Van de Walle et al., 2013).
India’s National Education Policy 2020 has set ambitious targets, including strengthening foundational literacy and numeracy and raising the gross enrolment ratio in higher education. Schemes under Samagra Shiksha, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, and various state-level scholarship and bicycle distribution programmes have further supported girls’ continued participation. The report places India alongside Bangladesh and Nepal as countries in Southern Asia that have made notable advances in reducing gender gaps. Nepal, in particular, is highlighted as a remarkable case of rapid progress from a very low base (UNESCO, 2026).
Persistent Challenges for Indian Girls
Despite these gains, absolute numbers of out-of-school children remain substantial because of India’s large population. Challenges persist especially for girls from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minority communities, rural and remote areas, and the poorest households. Transition from elementary to secondary education, retention through secondary grades, and completion of upper secondary education continue to show disparities in many states.
Social norms around early marriage, domestic work, safety while travelling to school, and the perceived lower returns to girls’ education still influence household decisions. The high share of private school enrolment in India (45% in primary and 51% in secondary education in 2023) also raises equity concerns, as private schools disproportionately serve better-off families (UNESCO, 2026). The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily reversed some gains, and recovery has been uneven, with learning losses and the digital divide affecting disadvantaged girls more severely.
Strategy 1: Identifying Out-of-School Children
Accurate and timely identification is the foundation of any effective response. Without reliable information on who is out of school, where they live, and why they are excluded, targeted interventions remain ineffective.
The GEM Report stresses the importance of robust data systems that combine administrative records with household surveys and community-level mapping (UNESCO, 2026). Administrative data alone often undercount children who have never enrolled or who have dropped out and are no longer visible in school registers.
In India, the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) serves as the primary administrative database. Strengthening its coverage, accuracy, and real-time updating is essential. However, UDISE+ primarily captures children already in the system. For never-enrolled and long-term dropouts, periodic household surveys, Anganwadi records, and community-based mapping exercises are indispensable.
Effective identification strategies include:
Household-level surveys and door-to-door mapping involving local governments, School Management Committees, and community volunteers.
Integration of education databases with birth registration, health records, and social protection registries.
Age-grade monitoring and cohort tracking to detect early signals of dropout risk.
Special focus on hard-to-reach groups, including children with disabilities, migrant children, and adolescent girls from communities with strong social barriers.
Empowerment of School Management Committees, mothers’ groups, and local elected representatives for continuous monitoring.
Conflict and crisis situations further complicate identification. Even in stable contexts, continuous updating of lists is necessary because children move in and out of the school system. For India, strengthening the identification architecture under the National Education Policy 2020 and Samagra Shiksha, with clear accountability at the block and cluster level, remains a priority.
Strategy 2: Ensuring Regular Attendance
Identification alone is insufficient if enrolled children do not attend regularly. Irregular attendance is often an early warning sign of eventual dropout. Multiple factors influence attendance, including distance to school, cost, health, nutrition, safety, household responsibilities, and the perceived quality of schooling (UNESCO, 2026).
Evidence-based strategies for improving regular attendance include:
School feeding programmes: India’s Mid-Day Meal Scheme, one of the largest in the world, has been associated with improved enrolment, attendance, and retention, particularly among poorer children and girls.
Reduction of direct and indirect costs: Scholarships, free textbooks, bicycle distribution schemes, and transport support help reduce barriers.
Improvement of school infrastructure and safety: Construction of schools closer to communities, separate and functional toilets for girls, boundary walls, and safe routes increase attendance. Sex-specific latrine construction has been shown to raise girls’ enrolment in India (Adukia, 2017). Electrification has also supported better attendance and attainment for girls (Van de Walle et al., 2013).
Health and hygiene interventions: Deworming programmes, menstrual hygiene management support, and basic health services reduce absenteeism.
Monitoring and early response systems: Daily attendance tracking combined with rapid follow-up for prolonged absence can prevent temporary absence from becoming permanent dropout.
Flexible schooling arrangements: Flexible timings, bridge courses, and residential facilities support children involved in seasonal work or household responsibilities.
In the Indian context, stronger convergence between education, health, nutrition, and social protection schemes is essential. Linking Anganwadi centres, schools, and local governance structures can create a continuum of support.
Strategy 3: Improving Retention and Reducing Dropout
Even when children are identified and attend regularly in the early years, many leave school before completing elementary or secondary education. Retention is especially challenging at transition points and during adolescence.
Key strategies for improving retention include:
Strengthening transition support through smoother administrative processes and targeted help for first-generation learners.
Remedial and foundational learning support, including approaches such as Teaching at the Right Level that have been scaled in parts of India (Banerjee et al., 2016).
Addressing over-age enrolment through flexible pathways, accelerated learning, and second-chance education options.
Gender-responsive measures for adolescent girls, including residential schools such as Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, life-skills education, counselling, and support for young mothers to return to school.
Curriculum relevance and vocational pathways that link education to future livelihoods.
Adequate teacher deployment, training, and academic support.
Sustained community engagement and efforts to change social norms around girls’ education, early marriage, and child labour.
Linkages with broader social protection schemes to reduce economic pressures.
Retention strategies must be sustained over long periods and adapted to local contexts.
Integrating the Three Strategies: A Systemic Approach
Identification, attendance, and retention are not sequential stages that can be addressed in isolation. They form a continuous cycle. Children who are accurately identified need support to attend regularly; those who attend regularly need academic, social, and economic support to stay and complete; and those who leave need pathways to return. Data systems must track children across this continuum.
In India, the architecture of Samagra Shiksha, the National Education Policy 2020, and related schemes provides a strong foundation. The challenge lies in consistent implementation, adequate financing, inter-departmental convergence, and continuous monitoring with a clear equity focus. The GEM Report notes that fewer than one in ten countries currently have a sufficiently strong equity orientation in their education policies (UNESCO, 2026). Strengthening this orientation is essential.
Special attention must be given to girls at every stage. Gender-sensitive identification, safety and infrastructure measures that support attendance, and retention strategies that address early marriage, domestic work, and adolescent needs are non-negotiable if gender parity is to be sustained and deepened.
The Road to 2030: Priorities for India
With only a few years left until 2030, the priorities for India include:
Accelerating the reduction of out-of-school numbers among the most marginalised girls through better targeting and last-mile delivery.
Strengthening the transition and retention of girls in secondary education.
Closing remaining gaps related to caste, tribe, disability, and geography.
Aligning school education more closely with the aspirations of adolescent girls, including life skills, vocational pathways, and safety.
Improving the quality and equity focus of public schools so that families do not feel compelled to shift to private options.
Investing in robust, real-time data systems that can identify out-of-school children quickly and trigger support.
The 273 million children, adolescents and youth who remain out of school in 2024 represent both a continuing global challenge and a call to refined action. For the girl child, the consequences of exclusion are particularly severe and long-lasting. Education is one of the most powerful tools for delaying marriage, improving health outcomes, increasing agency, and breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty.
India has already demonstrated that large-scale progress on girls’ education is achievable. Gender parity in several key indicators is a significant accomplishment. Yet the absolute numbers of out-of-school children, particularly among the most disadvantaged groups, demand continued urgency. Evidence from the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2026 and from India’s own experience shows that progress is possible when legal frameworks, resources, community engagement, and data systems work together over sustained periods.
As the countdown to 2030 continues, the focus must shift from celebrating average gains to ensuring that no girl is left behind. Ensuring that every girl and every boy not only enters school but attends regularly and completes a full cycle of education is both a moral imperative and a practical necessity for equitable national development.
References
Adukia, A. (2017). Sanitation and education. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 9(2), 23–59. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20150083
Banerjee, A., Banerji, R., Berry, J., Duflo, E., Kannan, H., Mukerji, S., Shotland, M., & Walton, M. (2016). Mainstreaming an effective intervention: Evidence from randomized evaluations of “Teaching at the Right Level” in India (NBER Working Paper No. 22746). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w22746
Bhattacharjee, S. (2026). Do compulsory schooling laws affect fertility behaviors and marriages? Evidence from India. Review of Development Economics, 30(1), 549–572. https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.13145
UNESCO. (2026). Global Education Monitoring Report 2026: Access and equity – Countdown to 2030. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54676/JLKL3223
Van de Walle, D., Ravallion, M., Mendiratta, V., & Koolwal, G. (2013). Long-term impacts of household electrification in rural India (Policy Research Working Paper No. 6527). World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-6527