By Patricia Lone Choose a desk in a primary school in the developing world and the chances are that it will be occupied by a boy.
Many forces combine to spell an early end to education for girls.
Chief among them is poverty. The cost of voluntary' contributions, uniforms, books, and bus fares can make even free education expensive - especially if there are many children. When a poor family considers how much a daughter can help in cleaning, cooking, collecting wood and water, and looking after younger children, and how little opportunity there will be for her to get a paying job even if she is educated, then the returns rarely seem to warrant the expenditure. So it is usually the daughters who are withdrawn from school. Even when girls are enrolled, the burden of domestic chores stands in the way of educational progress.