Realizing the right to education for all: Approaches to removing barriers based on gender, disability, and socioeconomic status in 193 countries

Major global gaps persist in educational access and attainment, and disparities across gender, disability, and socioeconomic status remain vast. All countries have committed to realize universal primary and secondary education through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet with just five years left to achieve the SDGs, hundreds of millions of children and youth remain out of school and little information exists on whether countries have adopted evidence-based policies to advance educational equity. This article draws on over 1200 legal and policy texts across 193 UN member states to systematically examine legal and policy approaches to removing barriers faced by low-income children, guaranteeing schools are inclusive of children with disabilities, and prohibiting discrimination based on gender and disability as well as sexual harassment. We find that nearly a third of countries globally still charge tuition before the completion of secondary school. Twenty-six percent of countries lack legal protections against sexual harassment in education, while 21 % fail to prohibit disability-based discrimination. Only a third of countries explicitly provide for inclusive education. Protections against multiple bases of educational exclusion were also scarce: only 11 % of countries had guarantees that enabled fundamental access to education across gender, disability, and socioeconomic status. We found significant variation in protections by country income level and region. Fulfilling the right to education for all has long been recognized as one of the most effective development strategies; this article identifies how countries’ legal and policy frameworks could be strengthened to achieve educational equity and reap its immense benefits.