• Education is only this effective if given to girls and boys alike.

There are a number of countries where education is not equally available to girls, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, with a smattering in Asia. This may simply be a supply problem - if they can't educate everyone, they think it's better to educate the boys first, because girls will just have children. This attitude used to be common in the developed world, too, and seems to die out. If this is the barrier to educating girls, then educational aid should do a lot of good.

Islam has a reputation for forcing women into traditional roles and barring girls from education. But this is the exception rather than the rule in Islam, too. In almost every case where there's a big discrepancy between girls and boys in primary school, or female and male adult literacy, male education is also low. And some Islamic nations with comparatively low education rates give nearly equal access to girls. (Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia have 62-69% primary education, for girls and boys). Islam per se is not a barrier to female education, though some fundamentalist regimes may be. Or may not. This could just be rationing with a religious explanation, from people who consider religion the most valid basis for anything.

However, if you think inflicting an educational ethic on an unwilling populace is unethical or infeasible, it might be worthwhile trying to build aid packages without education.

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