For most rural youth,
6th grade will be the last time they see a classroom.

Students are completing primary school in record numbers globally without a place to continue their secondary education.

What are rural families up against?

Financial Capacity

In a study among E2E communities, parents report the cost of sending their child to the nearest formal secondary school would total between 30%-280% of their total household income. This includes the cost of lodging, transportation, and meals.

Logistics

Where transportation options exist, they are typically unaffordable and unreliable due to poor road conditions. To reach the nearby town where the single secondary school might be located, a bus may pass only a few times a week with frequent breakdowns. For girls who walk, they risk assault on the late journey home.

Few Investments

Real action by governments to invest in  secondary school expansion to rural areas is scarce. Similarly, few NGOs focus primarily on this demographic and instead congregate more in urban or peri-urban areas.

Why secondary school matters

Primary education: Necessary but not sufficient

Primary school teaches basic skills to function in society, while secondary school trains students to use the knowledge gained to alter their behavior at the individual, familial, community, and national level.

An inflection point for girls

Secondary school education goes beyond functional literacy to form critical thinking and analytical skills. It is positively associated with girls and women’s participation in different social sectors such as the environment, community programs, democracy, crime and violence, and human rights.

Greater primary school outcomes

The existence of a nearby secondary school increases parental motivation to see their child complete primary school. 

"Before E2E arrived to our community, we couldn't study because we didn't have the means.We had our dreams but you can say we were trapped."
- Saby (E2E Alumna)

A tool to combat adolescent pregnancy

Girls and young women with a secondary education are more likely to be able to support themselves rather than depending on a sexual partner or husband. The confidence and self-esteem that girls gain in secondary school are valuable tools in equipping girls to negotiate with their parents to delay marriage or to resist voluntary yet risky relationships with older men.

Greater civic engagement

While primary education may equip students with the reading skills to be able to vote or read a newspaper, it is a secondary education that allows them to analyze and understand political arguments. These are the building blocks to civic participation, democracy, and the empowerment to change societies.

Shifting gender norms

Secondary school plays an important role in dismantling unhealthy gender norms for both boys and girls. In addition, self confidence and self esteem aide girls in asserting their own power and beliefs in some situations, and in beginning to educate their families and communities on the detrimental effects of some gender norms, including control by male partners of financial resources.

Since 2012, we've created access to secondary school for over 1,000 students.

For every year that an adolescent is out of school, they face increasing pressure to migrate to cities or other countries in search of job opportunities. Without the option to keep studying, most girls will marry and start having children once they finish 6th grade.

We're racing against the clock.

Together we can use education to transform communities for generations to come.