Access to and completion of a quality basic education is
widely accepted as a fundamental human right and a key way for citizens to gain
valued knowledge, including learning the skills and attitudes necessary to lead
an active, engaged and productive life. Over the past 25+ years, the global
community has sought to prioritize educational development as a key strategy
for national development and economic growth.
However, given the importance of education for development,
it is deeply concerning that despite the progress achieved over the years in
terms of expanding enrollment, particularly at the primary/basic levels, so
many children and youth remain out of school around the world, the majority of
whom are girls.
Moreover, beyond the
challenge of ensuring that all children have the opportunity to attend school
is the matter of how schooling is experienced differently by boys and girls and
what this means for gender equality in terms of retention, attainment, quality
learning and educational outcomes.
The need to address gender-based inequalities that limit
girls’ schooling opportunities, experiences and outcomes is supported by evidence
demonstrating a wide range of valuable individual, social and economic benefits
associated with girls’ and women’s education. For example, for every year of
primary schooling she receives, a girl’s earning potential increases by 10 to
20%, and for every year of secondary education the increase is between 15 and
25%.
As further quantified evidence of the extrinsic value of
girls’ education, a child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to
survive past the age of five, and educated mothers are more than twice as
likely to send their children to school (according to UNICEF).
Beyond the extrinsic values associated with girls’ education
in terms of how much more an educated woman can do for her family, community
and country are the intrinsic values of education as a human right and what it
means to the individual person in terms of their own human and personal
development.
The purpose of this short piece is to provide a snapshot of
contemporary gender and education issues/trends and the policy options
available to governments and their partners that can support the elimination of
gender inequalities in schooling in the sub-Saharan and North African regions.
Despite differences in socioeconomic, cultural, religious
and political contexts, gender inequality in education is a recognized global
phenomenon and as such represents a shared challenge amongst nations of the
world. Before discussing contemporary gender (in) equality trends and
challenges and the available policy responses, I first offer a brief conceptual
discussion of key analytical and measurement terms.
Distinguishing
between “sex” and “gender” difference
To start with, the concept of gender is not synonymous with
“sex” or “girls” or “women”. When we speak of sex differences, we are referring
to the biological differences between males and females; when we speak of
gender differences, we are referring to the socially defined and enacted
differences between women and men in terms of characteristics, capabilities,
roles, etc.
We learn our gender roles through socialization practices in
our families, communities and schools. Over the past 15 years or so there has
been a movement in the scholarly literature to better understand the nature and
significance of various masculinities or femininities in relation to
educational access, retention/attainment, learning and outcomes.
The concept of gender stereotype refers to attitudes and
beliefs about the characteristics associated with, and the activities
appropriate to, men or women in a given community or society. Gender bias
occurs when people make assumptions or stereotypes about behaviours, abilities
or preferences based on gender. For example, gender-based assumptions
concerning girls’ future roles as wives and mothers can shape what is learned
in school and to what level.
Yet, despite the deeply entrenched and taken-for-granted
nature of gender, recognizing that gender roles and gender identities are
socially rooted and performed brings us to the powerful conclusion that gender
norms and values can and do change. The significance of this realization cannot
be over-stated as it suggests that we have the power to address gender-based
inequalities in schools and through schooling.
Distinguishing
between “gender parity” and “gender equality”
While the concepts of gender equality and gender equity are
often used interchangeably in international and national development frameworks
and policy, gender parity has dominated as a key indicator of progress towards
gender equality in education.
A key theme in current scholarship and policy advocacy
concerns the limits of pursuing gender parity – or the achievement of “equal
participation of girls and boys in all forms of education based on their
proportion in the relevant age-groups in the population” – and instead suggests
the need to re-calibrate our compasses to focus more on gender equality and
equity and less on gender parity.
Gender equality, emphasizing sameness, refers to the
provision of equal conditions, treatment and opportunity for both men and women
to realize their full potential, whereas gender equity emphasizes difference
and refers to the process of being fair to men and women.
What gender equity is and how to achieve it involves value
judgments, understanding of the different experiences, positions and needs of
different women and men in a society, and the recognition that treating
individuals or groups equitably sometimes means treating them differently.
Gender (in) equality
in education: trends and challenges
Notwithstanding emergent concerns with issues of boys’
education, promoting girls’ education has been a global policy priority because
this has and continues to be the area where the need is greatest. The
sub-Saharan African region, despite showing a gender parity index (GPI)
increase from 0.85 to 0.92 between 1999 and 2012, remains the furthest from
achieving gender parity at this level.
Close to three quarters of the countries with fewer than 90
girls for every 100 boys enrolled in primary education were in the sub-Saharan
Africa region. The situation is worse at the secondary level, with the average
GPI only increasing from 0.82 to 0.84 between 1999-2012.
And again, almost three quarters of the countries considered
to be far from achieving gender parity at the secondary level are in the SSA
region. Indeed, worrying trends in terms of girls’ (and some boys’) transition
to and completion of secondary education is the main focus of gender equality
in education research and policy advocacy
The challenges to achieving gender equality in education
have been well documented over the past decades and continue to persist in the
contemporary moment. In terms of challenges related to demand-side factors, we
know that poverty, labour market structures/employment opportunities, gendered
socio-cultural expectations and practices (e.g., early marriage/pregnancy,
domestic work burdens) and security concerns continue to represent some of the
greatest barriers to girls’ (and some boys’) education.
With respect to
supply-side factors of gender (in)equalities in education, we know that school
and classroom cultures, teachers, teaching and learning materials, the physical
condition of schools, and the overall policy landscape (e.g., presence of
equity policies, anti-sexual harassment policies, etc.), all shape the degree
to which gender equality and equity is enacted (or otherwise) in school
systems.
Linking school and
society, or supply- and demand-side barriers, gender-based violence (GBV) has
become an urgent policy concern over the past decade:
“Gender-based violence [GBV] may take a psychological,
physical and/or sexual form and relates to the enforcing or upholding of power
imbalances between the sexes… It [GBV] acts of sexual, physical or psychological
violence inflicted on children in and around schools because of stereotypes and
roles or norms attributed to or expected of them because of their sex or
gendered identity. It also refers to the differences between girls’ and boys’
experience of and vulnerabilities to violence.
GBV manifests itself in a range of school setting and
interactions, including but not limited to teachers sexually harassing and/or
assaulting students, students harassing or assaulting other students, victim
blaming, early marriage/pregnancy, and punishing individuals for failing to
conform to gender role expectations. GBV has a high social and economic price
in terms of parents not wanting to send their children to school, in that it
often leads to dropping out of school, causes psychological trauma with
long-term and unpredictable consequences, in addition to pregnancy, disease and
injury.
Policy responses for
the promotion and achievement of gender equality in education
There are five main principles or patterns underpinning successful
gender equality in education approaches8.
·
First, partnership approaches that bring
together governments, donors and civil society are key.
·
Second, is the need for enacting multiple and
multi-sectoral interventions to address the complex demand and supply-side
challenges to girls’ education and gender equality in education more broadly.
·
Third, there is a need for strategic and
evidence-based policy advocacy and support for continued research, monitoring
and evaluation.
·
Fourth, there must be commitment on the part of
governments and their partners to the promotion of gender equality in
education.
·
Fifth, governments, with the support of donors
and civil society, must ensure adequate and sustainable education financing.
Research suggests that successful policies address change
and drive action in three main interconnected areas: interventions,
institutions and interactions. The following offers a brief discussion of
exemplars of policy responses associated with each of the preceding action
areas.
Interventions
The concept of “interventions” refers to specific policy
levers that can be used to promote access to education, addressing both demand-
and supply-side challenges to gender equality in schools. The building of more
schools and the recruitment of more teachers, including more women teachers to
act as positive role models, is one relatively straightforward way governments
can support educational access.
Limiting the distance
that children ‒ girls in particular ‒ have to travel to get to school can go a
long way to addressing the security concerns of parents. Innovative
interventions have included pairing volunteers from the community with children
to walk with them to and from school to ensure their safety.
Reforms aimed at improving the quality of education are also
an important part of stimulating demand for schooling. Such reforms can include
the improvement of school facilities (e.g., ensuring access to clean water and
secure and separate toilet facilities) and the provision of adequate and effective
teaching and learning materials.
Gender-responsive teacher training, both in-service and
pre-service, is also seen as an effective way to support gender equitable
teaching and learning in the long term, and as such represents a valuable
policy lever available to governments and an area for serious investment.
An excellent resource for governments and an example of good
practice is the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE)’s Gender
Responsive School model, “where the academic, social and physical environments
of the school and local community recognize the specific needs of both boys and
girls”. For example, the innovative model supports the “development of
gender‐responsive pedagogy, which focuses on lesson planning, language use,
classroom interactions, and the role of management in supporting
gender-responsive approaches in schools. It targets practical skills as well as
the training of school management teams.
Promoting the establishment of school-based clubs (e.g.,
school governance/student councils, girls’ and boys’ clubs, science clubs,
etc.) and other venues for participation and the development of self-esteem and
leadership skills is an effective component of inclusive and gender-responsive
learning environments. A further supply-side intervention to support gender
equality in education is curriculum reform and textbook revision to remove
gender bias and promote gender awareness.
To address constraints related to poverty and
marginalization ‒ two of the most serious challenges to gender equality in
education – several demand-side interventions have proven quite successful in
getting more girls (and marginalized boys) into school.
·
First, the elimination of school fees has been
critically important.
·
Second, many governments offer financial subsidies
to help off-set the direct and indirect costs of schooling for the most
vulnerable groups, particularly girls.
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) incentive schemes are a more
recent policy innovation that have been used with considerable success in a
number of sectors, including education, to change behaviour and promote gender
equality in education. Additionally, the documented success of school-based
feeding programs and reproductive health education (as well as other
child-health supportive programming) support the claim that multiple and
multi-sectoral interventions are necessary to address educational challenges
related to poverty.
Institutions
Enacting and promoting gender equality in education involves
institutional reform and transformation. Gender mainstreaming and
gender-responsive budgeting represent two of the most important policy
approaches that governments have adopted to demonstrate their commitment to the
realization of gender equality in education and beyond. Institutional reform also
covers the need to develop strong monitoring, accountability and enforcement
mechanisms for successful policy implementation and development.
The collection of sufficient and appropriate data concerning
participation, gender relations, context, experience, learning and outcomes is
critical here, and a commitment to the collection and analysis of
sex-disaggregated data is of paramount importance for monitoring progress and
identifying challenges to the achievement of gender equality in education.
Effective enforcement
mechanisms are also needed to ensure, among other things, the implementation of
gender equality policies, including anti-sexual harassment policies and others
aimed at combating gender-based violence in schools.
Interactions
More recent research and advocacy has sought to highlight
the importance of engaging all stakeholders – government, school
administrators, teachers, parents and students – in gender equality in
education policy processes, a critical component of which is dialogue and
debate.
Value differences associated with varying socio-economic,
political and cultural contexts are a reality and such differences need to be
recognized and engaged in order for societies to develop the policies that best
reflect the needs and aspirations of the communities they serve. Thus,
reforming policy processes to create genuine spaces for dialogue and debate
represents a further critical component of gender equality in education
strategies.
In addition to the creation and support of Parent-Teacher
Associations, School Management Committees and the like, national and regional
forums must be established where actors can come together to take stock, assess
challenges, identify assets and plan accordingly for taking the necessary
actions to achieve gender equality in and through education.
Given that education is a human right and a cornerstone of
human and national socio-economic development, promoting gender equity in and
through education ought to remain a policy priority for governments, donors and
civil society in the 21st century. I hope that the trends, challenges and
strategies discussed above can help support and guide effective gender equity
policy and practice going forward. #SupportGirlChild
#GirlEducation #UniversalEducation #GenderEquality #GenderEquity
#EqualOpporturnities #EndGenderDiscrimination #SDG4 #SDG5
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