Presentation by Adelaide Sosseh at the Workshop
on Inclusive Education for Select Committee of
the National Assembly on Education & Training
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The socially ascribed roles that society has
given to males and females.
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The EFA Initiative grew out of Jomtien 1990
Given more specificity in Dakar 2000
Key elements to be accomplished by 2015 are:
Expand ECCD
Provide Free and compulsory education for all
Promote learning & lifelong skills for young
people & adults
Increase adult illiteracy by 50%
Achieve gender parity by 2005 & gender equality
by 2015
Improve the quality of education
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Achievement of these goals were premised on
the following commitments:
• Strong national and international political
commitment for EFA, development of national
plans & significant investment in basic
education.
• EFA policies to be linked to other sectors to
eliminate poverty
• CSO participation at all levels
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Development of responsive, participatory and
accountable systems of educational governance
and management;
Meeting the needs of education systems affected
by conflict, natural calamities and instability and
conduct educational programmes that promote
mutual understanding, peace and tolerance, &
that help to prevent violence & conflict;
Implement integrated strategies for gender
equality in education
Implement education programmes and actions to
combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic;
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Create safe, healthy, inclusive and equitably resourced
educational environments conducive to excellence in
learning, with clearly defined levels of achievement for
all;
Enhance the status, morale and professionalism of
teachers;
Harness new ICTs to help achieve EFA goals;
Systematically monitor progress towards EFA goals and
strategies at the national, regional and international
levels; and
Build on existing mechanisms to accelerate progress
towards EFA
EFA SITUATED AT THE HEART OF NATION STATES
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Education is a basic human right
Girls and women’s education is a human
right, provides economic and social benefits
and is an international objective (EFA goal
and MDG 3)
Most countries including The Gambia have
lived up to this objective but still gaps.
Worldwide 72 million children out of school
majority (41 million) of whom are girls. In
The Gambia gender parity attained at the LBS
but gaps in the UBS and SS levels.
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The term EFA is all inclusive and non
discriminatory.
Exclusion of women and girls because of their
gender is discriminatory.
Exclusion leads to marginalisation, nonparticipation, low status, low self esteem,
powerlessness and helplessness.
Regardless of what creates the exclusiongender, ethnic minority, linguistic group,
caste, poverty, disability -the education
consequences of the excluded are real.
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Discrimination by the wider population
effectively prevents the socially excluded
from participating in education. Thus girls
are
i.
Denied access to school
ii.
Withdrawn from school early compared to
boys.
iii. Such behaviour can be due to social (early
marriage) cultural or economic reasons
(costs of schooling, household chores and
so on)
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Education is an economic investment in human
capital-Profitability of the private returns are
undisputable, universal & global
Further schooling has a large pay off-direct
implications for the individual, national
aggregate outcomes & distribution of
outcomes across society.
Females remain an untapped resource for the
labour market, health & children’s education,
for environmental protection, for management
of natural resources, conflict prevention &
peace building, governance & so on.
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When girls encounter problems of access
their performance in school can suffer.
Such constraints occur when they are kept:
Home from school.
Receive fewer hours of instruction.
When teachers discriminate against them.
When negative gender stereotypes and
expectations are activated in the classroom
and schools and
When girls motivation is lowered.
When they suffer from GBV
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Since Dakar, much has been done to reach
poor children and excluded groups from
education. A two pronged approach is used:
Expanding school opportunities and
Boosting demand for education.
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Expanding school opportunities involves:
i.
Building schools nearer homes of learners
ii.
Provision of ECD as transition from this level
facilitates access to Primary level
iii. Mentoring programmes for girls
iv. Distance learning programmes (radio, TV &
ICT)
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Boosting demand for education.
• Improvements in the quality and relevance of the
curriculum
• Child friendly schools (separate toilet facilities for boys
and girls). Water supplies. Good school infrastructure
Including access for children with disabilities.
Adequate number of teachers (male and female) who
interact effectively with learners.
Adequate number of gender and culturally sensitive
TLMs.
Violence free-corporal punishment & sexual
harrassment.
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Creating incentives for households to send
their daughters to school
i.
Scholarship schemes & stipends-Girls
Education Trust Fund, PEGEP, AGSP & others.
ii.
Conditional Cash Transfers (Bangladesh,
Mexico & Brazil & Yemen); Pilots in Cape
Verde, Ghana, Nigeria & Sierra Leone (See
Slides 16 & 17)
iii. School feeding programmes
Low income countries unable to finance such
programmes. External support required for
these investments & for M & E.
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Cash transfers have become a powerful mechanism
for reduction of poverty & vulnerability in
developing countries.
Benefits for children include: Improvements in
nutrition; school attendance; use of health services;
birth registration & in reduced use of child labour.
At the level of the household helps to improve
living conditions & economic productivity.
Transform women’s lives by providing extra
resources that they control directly.
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The “Bourse Mamans” Cash Transfer
programme in the Mopti and Kayes Regions
of Mali provides women in Mali with a cash
transfer of about US$10 a month on
condition that children attend school at least
80% of the year. It promotes gender equity
by providing the grant to mothers and
benefitting girls more than boys. The
programme is contributing to positive
schooling outcomes for children, leading
households to adopt formal schooling.
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Schools a microcosm of wider society- Reflect
gendered division of roles & responsibilities.
Two approaches are utilised:
1. The WID approach – equal access and equal
opportunities and
2. The GAD approach- The UNGEI took the lead
& gender reviews indicate that girls educ
programmes also benefit boys. However there
is the contrary view that girls educ
marginalises boys (The Gambian experience)
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GAD approach-Goes beyond access to
examine the issue of quality.
Vision for girls education is not limited to the
formal school system (Note The Gambia as a
best practice in expanding the vision of Basic
Education to include ECCD, Grades 1-9 of the
formal school system & non-formal
education)
1st & 2nd life chances for girls
Life skills education programmes
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Quality cannot be measured in traditional
terms of examination results only
Some of the factors are school based –
stereotypes in both official & hidden
curriculum
Gender make up of teaching & non teaching
staff-presence of female teachers to serve
as reference points & role models.
Unsafe & unsecure schools lead to
breakdown in trust with far reaching
consequences
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Others in the wider society-home,
community, social & cultural environmentsuch environments should be safe, healthy,
gender responsive & conducive to learning
esp. for children with disabilities, Children
Living with HIV (CLHIV), poor & ethnic
minorities.
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Global compacts-UDHR, CRC, BPfA, EFA &
MDGs
Gender equality in education needs to be
understood from 3 perspectives:
Right to Education-access & participation
Rights within education-gender sensitive
education (environments, processes, outcomes)
Rights through education-relevant educ
outcomes that connect educ with the wider
process of gender justice in soc.
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Right to education: CFS approach ensures inclusion
of both boys & girls & addresses the issues of
exclusion such as discrimination, stereotypes,
relevant curriculum, GBV, sexual harrassment,
community disengagement (mothers clubs) &
school governace (SMCs & PTAs).
Rights within education: Hearing children’s voices
Rights thru’ education: Focuses on evidence of
inequalities in the family, employment, political
field & so on
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Poverty studies show that 80% of children in
the richest quintile complete schooling as
compared to 20% from the poorest quintile
Hard to reach children including those in
purdah, orphans & children with disabilities
Low economic returns to basic education may
be evidence of discrimination such that
women need to achieve more schooling to
earn sufficient wages.
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Costly-teachers, TLMs, Infrastructure,
innovations
Gender inequalities in the school curriculumstudents/parental perceptions & beliefs
(STEM)
Resistance to curriculum reforms-language
policies, 2nd chance education, rights based
approaches.
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TIME TO ACT IS NOW-NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
Access-new schools, additional classrooms,
rehabilitation (esp. for needs of the
disabled), mobile schools, mobile teachers
More female teachers & more Special Needs
teachers
More Gender and Culturally sensitive TLMs
CFS
ICTs for Education
Financial Incentives
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Additional resourcing for education
Involvement of all stakeholders
SWAps
Enforcement of legislation
Monitoring & Evaluation
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IT IS IN YOUR HANDS. YOU HAVE THE POWER
TO BRING ABOUT SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Through:
 Legislation
 Approval of Gender Responsive & Pro-Poor
Budgets
 Your over sight functions
 Advocacy
 Awareness creation & sensitisation of your
constituencies
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Timely and accurate reporting on innovations,
best practices, policies & so on.
Telling “HERSTORY” (it is newsworthy)
IEC for behaviour change (BCC)
Advocate for implementation of policies
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION
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