African governments need to address the challenge of mapping, as much as possible, all primary education facilities and identifying all school-aged children, including tracking down out-of-school children. Although improvements in legal and institutional frameworks and higher political priorities can support further achievements, without tackling social norms around girls’ education, success will not be complete. A number of interlocking factors obstruct school retention for girls and can diminish their learning opportunities: hostile learning environments; inadequate female teachers; discriminatory practices; sexual harassment; lack of sanitation facilities for young girls; and early pregnancies. Indeed, a lack of proper sanitation facilities tends to prevent girls from regularly attending school. When girls enter puberty, their absence from school increases if no adequate sanitation facilities are available. Reportedly, between 10-50 per cent of girls miss out on schooling for this reason.