- For every 10 girls who complete primary school, fewer than four finish secondary
- Open source STEP tool supports ministries to manage vulnerable transitions
June 23, 2026 - Governments and education leaders must address a critical blind spot if they are to help the most disadvantaged girls stay in education, a high-level panel has heard.
While the global gap between girls' and boys' enrolment into primary education has almost closed , a stark reality remains: for every 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa who complete primary school, fewer than four will finish upper secondary. Those most at risk are girls facing multiple intersecting barriers, including teen pregnancy, early marriage, conflict, extreme poverty, geographic isolation, negative social attitudes, and disability.
Some girls who drop out re-enter education via non-formal catch-up programmes but only around half then successfully make the jump to formal school. Experts on the panel agreed that education systems must pivot to focus on the fragile transition periods between formal and non-formal schooling as this is where many girls are falling out.
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Dr. Randa Grob-Zakhary, Founder & CEO of Education.org , said: "Girls are not being lost because we don't know what to do. They're being lost because our systems - including governments, funders, and CSOs - are not yet organised around ensuring successful transitions. We've made so much progress on strengthening access for girls' education but we must remember to keep sight of retention and progression."
From policy to practice
To move from discussion to action, experts highlighted the STEP decision-making tool. Drawing on evidence analysed by Education.org from more than 60 countries, the open-source resource gives governments a practical framework for navigating the girls transition challenge.
Sierra Leone's Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Hon. Conrad Sackey, outlined the need for robust policies with measurable targets for tracking girls' retention, not just enrolment. Highlighting his country's ban on early marriage and the reversal of a law banning pregnant girls from school, he noted how these legislative shifts successfully increased the number of young mothers returning to complete their education.
"Progress for out-of-school girls is never accidental; it's the product of deliberate, courageous policy choices that remove structural barriers before the first classroom door is even opened," he said.
However, legislation must be paired with grassroots engagement. Hon. Minister Sackey emphasised the necessity of community buy-in, particularly by engaging mothers and religious leaders.
"Even the most progressive legislation will under-perform where community norms continue to assign girls to domestic roles, where their safety on the route to school remains a concern, or where the perceived value of a girl's education is lower than that of their brothers," he said.
The human impact
The urgent need for targeted intervention was underscored by the personal testimony of Anisha Nabulega, a seventeen-year-old mother from Uganda. After falling pregnant in primary school following repeated abuse, she faced intense bullying and nearly abandoned her education. She was supported to continue by the Trailblazers Mentoring Foundation, a peer-led group of former teen mothers.
"They are the ones who picked me up when I lost hope," Anisha said. "They helped me because I thought my life is done. But my mentor came out and talked to me... she persuaded me to stay in school."
This vital need for mentorship and counselling was echoed by Claudia Lagat, of Usawa Agenda , a Kenyan civil society organisation. Following a survey of over 40,000 households and visits to 2,700 schools across Kenya, the organisation found that just over half of pregnant girls returned to school, citing stigma as the primary obstacle.
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Investing in girls
Ultimately, participants agreed that keeping all girls in school is not just a fundamental rights issue, but a critical economic imperative for developing human capital and building a productive future workforce.
Sally Gear of the Global Partnership for Education concluded: "What today's discussion really illustrates is the importance that gender and inclusion are at the heart of all education systems planning and in everything we do in education. Because being right at the centre, supporting girls in and through accelerated learning programmes and formal and informal pathways, isn't just an add on but part and parcel of delivering the mission of an education system."
The online dialogue was hosted by non-profits Education.org and FAWE , the Forum for African Women Educationalists.
