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 EFAEFA 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, non-participation, low status, low self esteem, powerlessness and helplessness.

• Regardless of what creates the exclusion-gender, 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 schoolii. 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:1.Home from school.2.Receive fewer hours of instruction.3.When teachers discriminate against them.4.When negative gender stereotypes and

expectations are activated in the classroom and schools and

5.When girls motivation is lowered.6.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:

1.Expanding school opportunities and 2.Boosting demand for education.

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Expanding school opportunities involves:i. Building schools nearer homes of learnersii. Provision of ECD as transition from this

level facilitates access to Primary leveliii. Mentoring programmes for girlsiv. 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 infrastructureIncluding 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 environment-such 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 curriculum-students/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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