Press Release

Universal girls’ education – a game of chance

Hundreds of London children will demonstrate the discrimination girls in Africa face to get to school and stay there in a giant snakes and ladders game at the South Bank this weekend.

Developed at the Institute of Education, the game, which will be introduced on Friday and played until Sunday, illustrates the obstacles girls in developing countries face in getting an education.

By climbing the ladders, players join a smiling schoolgirl at the end of the board. But if they hit snakes, they join millions of girls in developing countries in not even making it to primary school.

Despite pledges made at the Millennium Summit to ensure equal access to schooling for girls and boys by 2005, 100 million children – 60 per cent girls – never get to school. Only one in five girls in sub-Saharan Africa makes it to secondary school.

The snakes come with stark messages that send players sliding away from schools and a better future. These include girls having to leave school to look after relatives sick with AIDS, having to work to feed their families and being told that their brother’s education is more important than theirs.

Ladders represent some of the actions that could be taken to get more girls into school, such as governments abolishing school fees, increasing the number of women teachers and promises of funding and political action on girls’ education from G8 leaders.

Dr. Elaine Unterhalter, co-designer of the game, comments: “Girls’ education is a game of chance for millions of girls in developing countries. This game asks G8 leaders to turn snakes into ladders for girls denied their right to even a basic education.”

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