Don't Forget About the Boys: Educational Equity in LMIC Contexts
By: Cody Ragonese, Equimundo, on behalf the Lifting barriers project consortium (UNESCO, Equimundo and the University of East Anglia-UEA)
In the push for equitable, quality education around the world, a crucial aspect of the gender equality conversation is often overlooked: how gender norms and stereotypes negatively affect boys and young men in their educational trajectories. Earlier this year, at the 2025 Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Conference in Chicago, I had the opportunity to present on a panel that brought attention to the growing disengagement of boys from education in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The panel, titled “Don’t Forget About the Boys: Educational Equity in LMIC Contexts,” was moderated by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and featured presentations from Room to Read, the Caribbean Innovation & Leadership Lab, and Raise Your Voice Saint Lucia. During the session, I took the floor to share early insights from the Global Partnership for Education’s Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (GPE-KIX) project, Lifting Barriers: Educating Boys for Gender Equality, supported by the International Development Research Institute (IDRC)-Canada, and led by a consortium comprising UNESCO, Equimundo and the University of East Anglia. The Lifting Barriers project is exploring how tackling harmful and restrictive masculine gender norms can keep boys in school, while helping to nurture gender-equitable values and practice in and through education.
The session included an overview on boys’ disengagement from education by Matthias Eck, sharing crucial evidence from UNESCO’s global report, as well as the “Price of Inaction” publication (UNESCO 2024). Raise Your Voice Saint Lucia and the Caribbean Innovation and Leadership Lab presented early findings on their project ‘Capacity building for gender equity and inclusion in Caribbean Schools’ – a GPE-KIX supported project in three eastern Caribbean countries aiming to deepen understanding of the roots and causes of gender differences in educational outcomes and how school can innovate to improve equity. Room to Read shared lessons from their experience as part of the Global Boyhood Initiative community, as well as a reflection on the “Life Skills for Equality Program” that the organization implemented with 7th and 8th grade boys in Cambodia, and how it continues shaping the organization's programming globally.Together, we explored how to diagnose and address the crisis of boys’ disengagement in education using gender-transformative and context-specific approaches grounded in evidence from around the world. In this blog, I speak to these ideas, providing insights and examples from our work in the Lifting Barriers project.
Setting the stage: Why framing matters
One of the most distinctive aspects of our work with Lifting Barriers is establishing the most effective framing to guide our project actions and address boys’ disengagement by promoting gender equality. Our overall project approach is based on two foundational beliefs:
- This is not a zero-sum game: Supporting boys’ engagement in education does not mean restricting girls’ advancement. When boys’ education includes learning values relating to gender equality, boys not only enhance their own well-being but also become powerful allies in the movement for a more just and equal society. Our approach embraces this dual imperative by centering both educational engagement and gender equality — which means that all our project actions will benefit not only boys but also girls and society more broadly.
- Boys do not need to be fixed: We do not see boys as problems to be fixed. Instead, we apply an asset-based lens: boys have values, strengths and aspirations that can be leveraged to foster both their academic success and their positive development as gender-equitable individuals. Crucially, we recognize that boys’ disengagement is often a response to rigid gender norms that discourage emotional expression, help-seeking and connection —traits essential to learning and well-being. The goal is not to “fix” boys, but to reshape the environments, expectations and cultural messages that limit their potential and lead to their disconnecting from school. When we address the gendered pressures that shape boys’ behaviour, we create space for healthier, more engaged expressions of boyhood.
Understanding the roots of boys’ disengagement
In 2023, more than 139 million boys of primary and secondary school age were out of school. As evidenced by the UNESCO global report on boys’ disengagement from education, although girls are less likely to enter education in the first place, in many countries boys are at greater risk than girls of repeating grades, having poor learning outcomes, and failing to complete their education. Since the early 2000s, boys’ disengagement has been a concern in high- or upper-middle-income contexts, or in regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean, yet there remains limited political momentum globally. And new patterns are emerging. Gender gaps in some low and lower-middle income countries – where historically girls were less likely to be in school - are narrowing and several countries are facing a ‘reversal’ in gender gaps, with fewer boys progressing and completing their education. Across all countries, evidence of boys’ disengagement is most prevalent at the secondary level.
Although boys’ educational disengagement has been receiving increasing attention, the Lifting Barriers global scoping study, led by UEA, found that few initiatives have explored its root causes through a gender-equality lens, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The scoping study, which is expected to be published in Fall 2025, describes existing initiatives and aims to fill gaps in our understanding of boys’ educational disengagement.
The impact of harmful and restrictive gender norms
One of our key findings is that harmful and restrictive masculine gender norms are a major driver of boys’ disengagement from education. Across diverse cultural contexts, we consistently observed boys internalizing beliefs such as seeking help is a sign of weakness, excelling in school is “unmanly” or they do not need an education for their expected role as financial providers. These beliefs are not formed in isolation; rather, they are actively reinforced by schools, peers, the media, culture and society more broadly.
Promising practices that work
We examined programs focused on gender equality in and through education in Cambodia, India, Malawi, Portugal, the UK and Zambia to investigate promising innovations for keeping boys engaged in school through gender-transformative education. Our findings from the six interventions indicate that gender-transformative, school-wide interventions that build on boys’ strengths and promote inclusive masculinities are the most promising way forward.
Effective, sustainable programs are not simply add-ons or extracurriculars, but aim to support comprehensive teacher training, curricula, and community engagement activities and build inclusive and equitable school cultures. The most impactful models:
- take a whole-school approach, aligning leadership, teaching and student engagement around shared values.
- prioritize interactivity and reflection, giving boys — and girls — space to question gender norms and build social-emotional skills.
- emphasize positive masculinities, reinforcing values such as responsibility, empathy, collaboration and respect.
- train teachers and facilitators with ongoing support, not just one-off workshops.
- involve caregivers and communities, helping reinforce equitable norms beyond the school gates.
These findings support Equimundo’s established approach to this challenge. At their heart is a message of potential and partnership. We urge schools and educators to engage boys with empathy and ambition — recognizing their lived realities while challenging them to become their fullest selves, to meet high expectations, and to contribute meaningfully to a more equitable world. Boys are not obstacles to gender equality; they are essential participants in it. When given the appropriate tools, trust and guidance, boys can become powerful advocates for inclusion and transformation.
A scalable vision
Informed by its associated global scoping study, the Lifting Barriers project is currently finalizing the development of a multi-component intervention that will be further adapted and piloted in Malawi in September 2025.
Our model is intentionally designed to operate across multiple levels of the socio-ecological framework, engaging all key actors who influence boys’ educational experiences. We believe that scalable, sustainable change requires coordinated efforts that involve not only boys themselves, but also their peers, educators, families, and communities and the policy and government stakeholders who shape the systems around them.
A step closer to leaving no one behind
Ultimately, our work is about more than improving boys’ access to education. It is about transforming gender norms and power dynamics that shape how boys see themselves, how they see others and how they are seen by others. It means challenging the limiting ideas about masculinity that discourage boys from expressing emotion, seeking support or embracing academic achievement. It means creating learning environments that affirm boys’ full humanity and support them in becoming empathetic, respectful and equitable individuals.
As we continue to push for gender equality in education, we must also widen our lens. If we are to “leave no child behind,” we must recognize how damaging and restrictive gender norms harm boys and limit their potential — not in comparison to girls, but in relation to who they could become. Boys deserve the chance to thrive, and that begins by reshaping what it means to be a boy and a man within schools, communities and society at large.
