Girls' Education Initiative in The Gambia

Background

Throughout the history of education in The Gambia, boys and girls have had unequal access to education. Both enrolment and retention have persistently and consistently shown gender inequalities in favour of boys. Since the onset of this century, a number of milestones have been registered in closing the gender gaps in enrolment and retention. These interventions were borne out of the realisation and recognition of the contribution of the Department State for Education for female education, to national development and that education is a basic human right. Despite all these, however, gender gaps still persist.

A 16-year-old girl who hailed from the Central River Division gained entry into St. Joseph's Senior Secondary School in 1993. She was determined to maintain her exceptional performance and yearned to eventually become an engineer when she matriculates at St Joseph's. However, her parents dashed her dreams to the ground and opted to get her married to a family relative. She protested this decision of her parents and therefore chose to dodge away to her aunt, a social in Banjul, the capital city of The Gambia. Her aunt, who is a renowned advocate for girls' education hosted her and succeeded to convince her parents to leave her under her care to pursue her dreams. Five years later, she successfully completed her career at St. Joseph's and entered the University of The Gambia. At the University, she reserved the career she proposed earlier and rather majored in Journalism, so that she could be writing about issues that affects most Gambian girls and women, with the hope of changing traditional views and situations affecting them.

 

The overall aim of the Girls' Education Initiative is to provide equal opportunities and access for girls from and early age. Thus creating an enabling environment for girls and women to compete equal with boys and men.

The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for The Gambia was 71.7 percent in 1998/99. GER for the urban areas was 77.85 percent, with male GER at 84 and Female ratio at 72.5 percent. On the other hand, GERs in the rural areas were lower than the national average and much lower than the ratio in the urban areas. For example, total GER for region five was only 67.7 percent, male ratio was 72.8 percent and female ratio was 62.4 percent. For region six, which is the farthest from the capital, total GER was 51.6 percent. Male GER for the same region was 58.3 percent and female ratio was 44.6 percent. In all the regions, female GER was found to be consistently lower and in some instances much lower than the male GER.

 

The trend in the Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) is very similar to that of the GER. Between 1991/92 and 1998/99, total NER for The Gambia rose from 46.3 percent to 59.8 percent. Male NER for the same period rose from 54.2 percent to 64.2percent, while the female NER rose from 38.5 percent to 55.4 percent. The female to male ratio in primary schools stood at 0.71 percent in 1991/92 compared to 0.86 percent in 1998/99.

This shows that there have been some improvements in terms of enrolment and retention of girls during the last decade, but there is still more room for improvement if we are to attain the recommendations of the World Education Forum {Dakar 2000).

In the recent Monitoring of Learning Achievement (MLA) Report, boys consistently performed better than girls in all the four core subjects of Maths, English, Science and Social and Environmental Studies, although in two of the subjects, the difference was found not to be statistically significant. In the same MLA studies, urban schools in regions 1 and 2, performed better than rural schools in regions 3, 4, 5 and 6. This demonstrates that girls in the rural schools of regions 3, 4, 5 and 6 surfaced at the bottom in terms of performance.

'To build a better future for all, we must ensure that every girl has not only the right but also the means to get an education -and realise her dreams." Carol Bellamy UNICEF Executive Director

Objectives

The 1988 -2003 education policy, revised in 1998, presents girls' education as one of its priority programmes. The objectives of the policy are:

• To increase the enrolment and retention of girls in schools.
• Improve the quality and relevance of education for girls

"Educating girls to build an empowered electorate of women could be the most cost-effective form of defence spending" Kofi Annan UN Secretary General

Strategies

Government of The Gambia through The Department of State for Education in collaboration with UNICEF and other development partners such as the World Bank have pursued a number of strategies within the context of its current education policy to meet its objectives. These strategies are:

Policy Development: ensuring a favourable policy environment for girls' education, has increasingly become a top priority for the Department of State for Education and the Government of The Gambia. Recently, these include the Education for All (EFA) Assessment, Monitoring of Learning Achievement (MLA), Disability Survey and Mainstreaming of Disability in schools, the Situation Analysis of Women and Children in the country. UNICEF has provided technical and financial support to several of these policy initiatives linked to girls' education.

Capacity Building: building the human and material capacities of the Girls' Education Unit of the Department of State for Education to better deliver quality educational services to all especially girls, has been a priority for the Department. This included training and provision of equipment. UNICEF has supported the capacity building efforts of government by contributing to the training of education officers, teachers and Early Childhood Care facilitators at both pre-service and in-service levels and training of school guidance counsellors. It has also provided vehicles and computer equipment to various units of the Department of State for Education and to The Gambia Chapter of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE-GAM).

Service delivery: The Department of State for Education is not only interested in increasing access to education but also improving the quality of education. To this end, it has consistently tried to make basic learning materials accessible to every child. With the support of a United States National Committee called Alpha Kappa Gama, UNICEF has contributed to this effort by providing 40,000 copies of core textbooks for girls in grade one, to reduce the direct cost of education and ensure access to learning materials which is a prerequisite for quality education.

Advocacy and Social Mobilisation: the Government has all along been aware of the importance of advocacy, sensitisation and mobili- sation of communities to ensure sustainability and change negative attitudes towards the education of girls. UNICEF has supported sensitisation campaigns of the Department of State for Education to raise awareness and mobilise resources for girls education.

Community Empowerment: this has been done through training of communities in management, parenting education, Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) methodology. UNICEF has also provided financial assistance to women in communities to use as seed money to support the education of their daughters.

Partnership and Alliance Building: UNICEF has supported the establishment of working groups and task forces in support of girls' education. It has also enhanced the mobilisation of youth and civil society organisations in support of girls' education nation-wide, as well as successfully mobilising Non Government Organisations and donors, such as the United States Peace Corps, Catholic Relief Services, Voluntary Services Overseas and FAWE-GAM in the area of girls' education.

Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development. State of World's Children, 1999

 

Activity	Outcome
Newsletter on Girl's education	Quarterly newsletter being produced and circulated
Multi-sectoral Taskforce on Girl's Education activities	A multi-sectoral Technical working group set up to co-ordinate girl's education
Training in guidance and counselling	200 teaches trained as guidance counsellors
All girls in grade in grade one	40,000 copies procured for free distribution
Gender training across the curriculum	600 teacher trained on gender across the curriculum
Establishment of Mothers' club and girls' club	23 mothers' clubs and 32 girls clubs established to help with retention of girls in school
Workshop on laws affecting girls education	Parliamentarians and members of the Bar sensitised on the Rights of the girl, CRC and the Gambian laws
Mathematics, Science and Technology clinic for girls	85 girls participated in Maths, Science and Technology clinic for girls
All girl's conference on retention and performance of girls	50 girls organised and attended the conference
Sensitisation enrolment and retention of girls in school	200 parents attended the sensitisation activities
Training of female teachers	131 female teachers trained through the Remedial initiative

The Constraints

Thousands of girls in the country face a number of constraints that keep them from enrolling and staying in school. Among the most notably are:

• Direct and indirect cost of education.
• The perceived relevance of western education.
• Fear of erosion of values attributed to western education.
• Traditional pattern of gender division of labour.
• Sexual harassment and exploitation of girls.
• Early marriage and pregnancy

Intervention

The Girls' Education program initiated the following interventions:

• A scholarship scheme for girls. § A flexible tuition payment scheme.
• Abolishment of textbook rental fee at the primary school level.
• Construction of separate sanitary facilities for boys and girls to create a friendly environment for girls in the schools.
• Support the Remedial Initiative for Female Teachers (RIFT). § Support the EFA Assessment and the EFA Plan of Action.
• Support the Monitoring Learning and Achievement Study.
• Completion of a National Disability and Disability in Schools Survey.

 

An educated girl is more likely to become....... A knowledgeable family planner A more competent mother A more productive and better paid worker An informed citizen A skilful decision maker A self-confident individual and More environmentally friendly






• Curriculum review for gender bias and discrimination.
• Support policy formulation in Early Childhood Development and Education- Survival, growth and development (ECD-SGD).
• Support the training programmes of teachers in gender issues
• Support the production of the 2000 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey.
• Publication of the Girls' Education Initiative brochure.
• Publication of studies on early marriage and teenage pregnancies.
• publication of policies and laws affecting the education of the girl child in the Gambia

Way Forward

The Girls' Education programmes, one of the priority areas of co-operation adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, remains one of the fundamental components of The Gambia's Education Master Plan 1998-2006. UNICEF and other development partners, particularly the World Bank and UNESCO, agreed at the World Education Forum held in Dakar, that girls' education initiative will be the top priority of their interventions in the years to come. UNICEF was selected as the leading UN agency to promote and support the implementation of the initiative. In the future, the following interventions will make impact on the girls education programme:

Health -school-based workshops on adolescent health issues.
Curriculum -review of the curriculum to make it more relevant to girls.
Research -further research into the situation of the girl child and female teachers.
Law -Lobby to harmonise laws and establishment of a sexual harassment policy in schools.
Sensitisation -awareness creation aimed at the girl child, the community, teachers and other members of the community on the importance of enrolment and retention of girls.

Although, a lot has been achieved over the years in the area of girls' education, it must be recognised that all the stakeholders including parents, teachers, the community and the girl child herself, need to forge close partnership to successfully advance education for girls in The Gambia. These players need to be further sensitized and motivated to improve the current situations of girls' education. All have to be eventually convinced that development of a society cannot take place without the productive participation of women, and that participation can only happen meaningfully when women and girls are empower~d with the knowledge and skills that accompany education, a lifeline to development. The relevant partners need to realise the goals of quality education for all that have been set at Jomtien in 1990. In The Gambia, too many girls in rural areas still do not have access to school. Those who do, fewer than half of them survive to grade five, whereas those who remained in school are in some instance still receiving poor quality education with little relevance to their daily lives and circumstances. The Girls' Education Programme, in line with the policy objectives, intends not only to increase enrolment, but also to improve retention and enhance performance of girls. In order to do this, it will focus on increasing the numbers of female teachers in schools, encouraging teachers towards gender sensitivity, re-writing the curriculum, abolishing sexual harassment, reducing the burden of domestic work on girls and minimizing the risk of teenage pregnancy and early marriage. The way forward now for The Gambia and its development partners, is how to ensure that every person has access to free and compulsory basic education that is of good quality, relevance and will contribute to breaking the inter-generational cycle of poverty, ignorance, ill-health and malnutrition.

OTHER DOCUMENTS:
1. Progress Made Since Beijing 1995: Girls Education in The Gambia
2. The Operational Manual for Girls Trust Fund
3. Initial Proposal Advocating the Need for A Girls' Trust Fund

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