A couple weeks ago, as part of George Fox University’s weeklong push to refocus students on loving their neighbor, the International Justice Mission club hosted a screening of Girl Rising. The 101-minute documentary film highlights nine girls’ stories to overcome physical, cultural and religious barriers in pursuit of their education.

The film is poignant with some sublime storytelling. Rottentomatoes.com praises the film highly, as did the majority of students during the post-film discussion. The film’s beautiful presentation and polished verbiage leave viewers enthusiastic. Yet, while the film achieves its goal to raise female education awareness, it leaves some gaping holes in the global pursuit for actual improvement.

The crux of the film is to inform the audience of the importance of education for young girls. Girls need education. An educated girl is more likely to be healthy and raise educated children. Though often expunged from economic markets, women, especially educated women, make better micro-finance debtors.

Women also represent an untapped labor pool that, if educated, could drastically increase a nation’s GDP. Girl Rising illustrates the necessity for and lack of female education. After the giddy emotions of the film pass, however, the documentary leaves viewers with few innovative ideas and action steps.

The film has snowballed into the Girl Rising movement which promotes worldwide female education. This idea, however, is not novel. In fact, the UN via the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) has been vigorously trying to improve education since 2000. In their most recent analysis of Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education, the UN notes that between 1990 and 2015 the literacy rate among young adults has jumped from 83 percent to 91 percent. Likewise, primary school enrollment jumped to 91 percent by 2015. Gender gaps across these categories have dropped.

Progress, however, is hot and cold. As many as 250 million children cannot read or write upon completion of primary school, calling into question the quality of education children are receiving, something Girl Rising never addresses. One of four children in first grade in the developing world will not finish their primary education; this figure has not changed since 2000. There is also evidence that progress for reducing out of school children stopped in 2011.

This data suggests that enrolling girls in school is a good first step, but not nearly enough to conquer the world’s education problem. Girl Rising focuses entirely on increasing awareness and enrollment, but forgets other key factors.

For instance, their video clip on their ‘about’ page highlights individuals who saw the Girl Rising film. They in turn have done marches or made other videos to increase awareness. But the awareness is rarely converted to action.

The clip does note one instance of tangible action: an aid-based program that sends bikes to girls abroad. The general failure and toxic dependence of aid-based programs such as this has been well documented elsewhere.

The Girl Rising movement does boast an action program of their own: Engage. The stated goals of the campaign are to “increase awareness” and “mobilize men [and] women” to be leaders in female education. Again, little tangible action or data is present. Even the site’s Call to Action page focuses primarily on increasing awareness and donations.

Girl Rising promotes few concrete actions, but their non-invasive approach could be praised. One of the hottest debates in developmental economics is whether to favor top-down or bottom-up approaches.

The Millennium Villages Project, headed by Jeffrey Sachs and one of the boldest developmental projects in this century, favors a top down approach. The Millennium Villages Project has been widely criticized by, among others, Nina Monk and Russ Roberts who believe a more organic ‘build from the bottom’ approach is key to sustaining development. Girl Rising’s goal is to increase awareness and mobilize leaders. This heavily favors the grassroots approach to development, which will perhaps leave more lasting change.

The documentary leaves a sizable hole in how to proceed in helping their cause. Whether this is for better or for worse is up for debate, but the documentary positively leaves the average viewer with three decisive questions:

1. What is the role of markets and government in education?

Girl Rising believes all are entitled to an education. This is showcased in the story of Wadley, one of the nine girls in the film. The teacher in her Haitian neighborhood charges students to attend school after the 2010 earthquake. Despite having no money, Wadley demands that she be able to join the class. This action is praised.

Girl Rising faces a contradiction here. If charging for education is scandalous, how do they justify charging to put on a screening of their own film? They will undoubtedly argue that they charge in order to keep their movement going. But opponents have a simple retort: how will teachers make a living if they are not paid? How will higher quality teachers be attracted if they are not paid? Girl Rising ignores these questions of sustainability, but the viewer ought not dismiss them.

2. Is a college campus the right target audience?

The film is built to inspire viewers, especially girls, to fight for education. In the West, there are more girls going to college than boys. Is an awareness-based documentary relevant in the West?

3. Who is to blame?

The documentary ends with a quote from an Afghani girl: “Do not tell me the blame lies in my religion, in my culture, in my traditions.” This leaves the viewer pondering who is to blame. Surely it is not the girl herself. But if cultural pressures consign girls to uneducated, abused lives, how are we not to blame the culture? If Girl Rising does not want to condemn unfair cultural practices, where do they see change coming from?

To be fair, the Girl Rising movement’s stated goal is to raise awareness. Their film does exactly that, but nothing more. Girl Rising is a step forward in the quest to globalize quality female education, but the proper direction in which to proceed is no more clear than it was before watching the documentary. The film, perhaps by intention, leaves us with more questions than answers.

For those looking for ways to continue to fight to improve girl’s education, I would encourage you to pray. Prayer is an often-overlooked tool that carries real weight and significance. I would also encourage you to look into World Vision and Compassion International – both organizations that seek to develop children holistically, including via education.