GENDER AND EDUCATION Michael Brophy December 2011

1. GENDER AND EDUCATIONMichael BrophyDecember 2011

2. There is a general acceptance that in many, if not most developing countries, girls do not have equal access to either primary or secondary school. Girls are also less likely to be enrolled in school and less likely to complete either 4 years or 8 years of primary schooling.

3. Girls in South Sudan are more likely to die in child birth than to finish primary school . The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

4. Is this a fact or an opinion ? • What evidence is there that it is true? • How would you find out ?

5. Paper for UNESCO – Jackie Kirk (2003) Statistics collected from teachers and district education officers. 2010 World Food Programme Somalia – Ghost schools. Southern Sudan Materials for “16” schools Ghost teachers –salaries Ghost pupils - 200 pupils supplies for 100

6. School Baseline Assessment (SBA) 1998- 2004 30- 40 trained assessors Civil War, size of country, no roads 1460 schools assessed – direct observation 400 two visits Photos for proof

10. 12 was the average age of pupils in Grade 1 Percentage of girls falls regularly year after year from one grade to the next. In the 1460 schools surveyed, only 433 girls had made it through to Grade 8. 0.5% of the total girls in the schools and only 1.2% of those in the first grade. 90% of students were in the first 4 grades. Few students get through to Grades 5,6,7,or 8 - boys or girls - but girls even less than boys.

11. WHY DO SO FEW GIRLS ENROL IN SCHOOL AND WHY DO SO FEW GIRLS COMPLETE PRIMARY EDUCATION

12. “Why should I pay to educate another man’s wife?” • In many African communities a bride leaves her family and goes to live in and with her husband’s family, community, tribe or clan. • No longer supports her own mother and father. Her brothers are responsible. • No state pension when they become too old or too sick to work. • Dependent on their children to look after them. Their sons. • “My sons will look after me when I am old. My daughters won’t. The more I invest in my sons’ education the better off I will be when I am old. There is less return for investing in a daughter’s education”. • The poor man’s pension fund. • Another man’s wife.

13. Early marriage, virginity and pregnancy • Daughters safer at home • Male teachers and male students • Walking to school mornings. • Social shame –family honour • Economic – bride price • Early marriage to avoid shame – more children for security in old age.

14. Hundreds of Kenyan teachers sacked over sex abuse • Most cases of abuse reported have occurred in rural schools • More than 1,000 teachers have been sacked in Kenya for sexually abusing girls over the past two years, the authorities say. • Senior government official Ahmed Hussein told the BBC that most of the victims were aged between 12 and 15.

15. Aboke Abductions in Uganda • Abductions of 139 girls students by rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army from St Mary’s College in Aboke, Northern Uganda. • Deputy head mistress negotiated release of 109 girls • 30 girls kept to be “wives” for the commanders • Five died in captivity, 2 have disappeared and the rest had escaped by 2006 – 10 years later.

16. Loss of economic input to home Role of mothers and daughters to fetch and carry water, which may be miles away. Girls are also expected to help their mother with the cooking and cleaning. When a mother is working in fields or selling produce in a market her daughter looks after the babies and younger children. Without the daughters’ labour, the family may starve.

17. Society’s higher expectations for boys than for girls: “I shall drink the blood of Paul ”. In the vast majority of African societies and cultures men are traditionally seen as the elders and as the leaders. If we were to count all of the presidents and prime ministers in Africa since independence or for the past 50 years, how many women presidents or prime ministers would we find ?

18. First African Woman President • Published: April 7, 2009 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia will speak at Yale. Sirleaf is the first woman to head an African country. She began her career in banking and finance in 1965 in the Treasury Department in Liberia. In 1979, as Minister of Finance, Sirleaf spearheaded governmental financial reform. First female US President ?, Canada ?

19. “The teachers only talk to the boys in our class” Teachers face and talk to the boys and rarely even look at the corner of the classroom where the girls are sitting. Girls – bias Teachers – “girls shy” If other male teachers take advantage of girls – teachers own protection?

20. SOME COMMON APPROACHES TO PROMOTING GENDER EQUITY IN EDUCATION [1] Raising Awareness and Gender Sensitization Radio Programmes - BBC Somalia Secondary / SOMDEL Course modules - Fort Hare, Mandela University Workshops for staff, educators, parents – MOEs, PTAs School materials - EVE and MTE Girl Writes” DVD – YouTube

21. Workshop for District Education Officers Southern Sudan “This is the fifth time we have had a sensitization workshop from that young woman since she has come back with her masters from UK. Every time she berates us, because there is hardly any change in enrolment. We have sensitized our communities. They are just not changing.” UK Drink driving – binge drinking ?

22. [2] Single sex schools • There is some evidence that girls in “girls only” secondary schools do better in examinations than girls in mixed secondary schools. • One suggestion is that girls do not do as well in the mixed schools because they don’t want to do better than the boys in what are seen as the male subject areas. • Single sex classes in mixed schools have been suggested. • However, for the girls to get to the secondary level they first have to complete their primary education • Much less support for separate primary schools. • Girls only schools can be seen as second rate schools. Schools with less funding and that teach “girl’s subjects” such as domestic science rather than physics or chemistry.

23. [3] Grants and Scholarships for girls • Providing grants or scholarships. • In Somalia school fees and university scholarships • Does this do anything to promote gender equity overall or does it just help a few individual girls? • Does it encourage the belief that girls can not succeed by themselves? • How long should it last ?

24. Her work has paid off, with impressive numbers of girls enrolled in her school. This woman has shown what can be done where there is a will. There is a shining model of to emulate. However, when the donor incentives stopped two years later, the enrolment rate for girls in the school dropped back to the previously low number.

25. Facilities for Girls • Two years ago when developing a proposal two AET staff visited a large Somali secondary school in the afternoon when it was closed. We asked the janitor where the girls’ toilets were. His answer was “ There are no girls’ toilets. Girls don’t go to the toilet”.

26. Many schools in rural areas of Africa have no toilets for either boys or girls. • Separate toilets for girls are still not common in many countries. • When they are menstruating teenage girls are likely to stay at home rather than face the embarrassment of being see to go into a shared toilet. • Building double latrines, with one door for boys and another for girls is another method by which many organizations try to improve gender equity in schools. • AET does support the construction of latrines in Southern Sudan and Uganda. • Toilets for girls, often they are placed in the open at one end of the playground and girls are reluctant to walk past boys to go into a toilet. AET is currently piloting a different approach in Somalia.

27. Girl Friendly Space A small meeting room where girls can meet, read, study, games or pray. The door as at the front but the door to the latrine area is at the back for privacy. Sink and clean water. First Girl Friendly Space established two years ago and twenty have been built. More expensive but the girls do like and use these facilities. Indications that they do increase the enrolment and retention of girls in these schools? But no proof.

28. More female teachers • Female teachers would overcome the embarrassment • Welcomed by parents • Women can relate their teaching and curriculum to the needs of the girls. • Good role models

29. Problems • Majority of teachers are male, there are few female teachers. • SBA Southern Sudan - only 6% of the teachers were women and less than a third of them were trained. • Donors and agencies have focused on trying to increase the number of female teachers. • Vicious circle. Girls in primary schools low. In secondary lower. So the number of girls who can become teachers extremely small. Small elite – university not low paid primary teachers.

30. Is there a link between the proportion of female teachers and the enrolment ? SBA Data Provided for Three Regions of Southern Sudan

31. “School Mothers Programme”. Community selects responsible women in the local area who act a School Mothers to girls in their local primary or secondary school. Mothers trained to advise the girls on any problems. Look after their interests in the school. Represent and lobby for the benefit of the girls with the local education authority. If girls drop out they can follow up with their parents and see how they can help. If girls have to travel distances they arrange to travel in groups with an adult. Evaluation positive but will they increase the numbers of girls enrolling in and completing at least primary schooling?

34. What hard evidence can you find that: • Raising Awareness and Gender Sensitization • single sex schools (iii) scholarships and grants for girls (iv) latrines and other facilities (v) female teachers increase enrolment and completion rates for girls.

35. Girls’ Education in Africa What Do We Know About Strategies That Work? Kane E., Africa Region, The World Bank 2004. There is wide international recognition that there is no investment more effective for achieving development goals than educating girls. And yet, reaching gender equity in school enrollment is still a major challenge in most countries. Nothing illustrates this better than the failure of many countries to attain the only Millennium Development Goal (MDG) fixed for 2005, i.e., “Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education”. Why is this so? If the evidence on the benefits of educating girls is so strong, why is progress so elusive?

36. Programs alone seldom can compensate for factors such as weak political priority for education, overall weaknesses in the education system, and neglect of the many factors outside the education system that impinge on whether or not a child can attend school. • “The unequivocal conclusion is that much of the literature is inadequate or not designed for drawing sound lessons, although it does offer ideas for further exploration”.

37. SOMDEL – THE RADIO TEACHER • In 2001 AET in partnership with the BBC World Service launched a different approach to education for girls and young men who had missed out on schooling. Radio Teacher or Somali Distance Education for Literacy (SOMDEL). • Designed to suit the lifestyle of girls and young men. • Three –way distance teaching approach involving radio broadcasts, local tutors and printed texts for students and teachers. • Classes run from 4 – 6 pm in the afternoons when girls can attend. • Community decides mixed or single sex classes. Classes held locally. • Young women and men were consulted on content and topics they wanted. • Curriculum was designed to suit their needs. • Course, textbooks and teachers’ guides were written by a qualified Somali woman teacher.

38. SOMDEL Very successful. Since 2001 over 90,000 people have completed its courses - 75% women. World Bank has called it one of the world’s most innovative uses of distance teaching. Recommended in the Africa Commission UNESCO has recommended to African Ministers as an successful and cost effective approach. SOMDEL approach is successful and it avoids many of the problems which affect normal primary school teaching but is it the right approach? It has significantly increased access to education for girls and young women in Somalia, increased their knowledge and understanding about health nutrition and the environment and almost 90% of those who enrolled have completed the course and been awarded certificates by their ministries of education.

39. It can be criticized as a lower quality and cheap alternative to schooling. As giving up the struggle for equality for women.

40. A Non-formal lesson in Somaliland

41. However ******************************************************************* Is it right to design programmes which take account of and work around social and cultural values which prevent girls going to normal schools or should we insist on changing those values? Are we aiming at getting a good education for girls or are we aiming at changing society ? *******************************************************************

42. References Kirk J., Women in contexts of crisis: gender and conflict, UNESCO 2003. AET- UNICEF School Baseline Assessment Report, AET 2004. Kane E., Girls Education in Africa What do we know about strategies that work ?. World Bank 2004 Empowering Village Education – improving enrolment and retention of girls in primary schools in South Sudan, AET 2011 (www.africaeducationaltrust.org ) AET Videos – “Girl Writes” http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAfricaed?feature=mhee#p/u