SDG 4 mid-point challenge: Fixing the broken interlinkages between education and gender equality

M Asadullah, Amber Webb and Kazi Md Mukitul Islam

International Journal of Educational Development, 2024, vol. 106, issue C

Abstract: While the UN's SDG Summit 2023 marks the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda, many of the SDGs are moderately to severely off-track. In this commentary, we place emphasis on addressing hidden quality gaps that can help fix broken interlinkages, and in turn create positive correlations and harness untapped synergies, across goals. To illustrate broken interlinkages between SDGs 4 and 5, we focus on the puzzle of “education without employment” in South Asia. We argue that a hidden form of gender inequality in education quality -- gender stereotypes in learning materials – potentially undermines interlinkages between SDG targets in the region, among other factors. If gender inequality in educational production is overlooked, a focus on enrolling more girls will not fix the broken links between SDGs 4 and 5. Addressing hidden gaps in public service quality should be a priority during the final half of the SDG campaign.

Keywords: Gender bias; Women’s empowerment; Textbooks; School quality; South Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059324000373
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:injoed:v:106:y:2024:i:c:s0738059324000373

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2024.103015

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Educational Development is currently edited by Stephen P Heyneman

More articles in International Journal of Educational Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().