Literacy and Girls at Risk of Exclusion

Formal schooling and education are often viewed as integral to a meritocratic society, potentially offering all children the opportunity to learn, develop and succeed in later life. There are many pieces of legislation at country-level that are drawn from the internationally ratified United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which enshrine education as a right for all children. In England however, children in primary, secondary, and/or further education, can find themselves officially excluded from school for a multitude of reasons. Such exclusions are mandated by a head teacher and/or board of school governors in response to an alleged rule infringement on the part of the child being excluded, and are different from the general exclusions to education that are faced by learners unable to access education. For example, ‘suspensions’ are temporary exclusions from school for up to 45 days, and ‘permanent exclusions’, as the term suggests, prevent a child from ever attending that school again.