The country played host to two major conferences last week that laid strategies for increasing the participation of girls and women in basic and tertiary education.

One of the events was organised by the Federation of African Women Educationists (Fawe) whose main agenda was to promote the scaling up of good practices in girls’ education within sub-Saharan Africa.

The conference, which was held at the Safari Park Hotel, brought together participants from the World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat, Unesco, non-governmental organisations and civil societies from across the continent.

Four education ministers and delegations from 27 African countries which included Ghana, Uganda, Gambia, Burkina Faso and Zambia also attended the function.

At the conference, it was noted that the irony of sub-Sahara Africa is that despite the strong enrolment and gender parity that was realised in the 1990s, an "unacceptably" high percentage of school age-going children were still at home.

Millions of girls compared to boys are also believed to be dropping out of school, raising their number from 20 million in 1990 to 24 million in 2002.

Delegates argued that there were many systematic and targeted interventions that had become successful good practices in education, but the education systems in many countries continued to be weak and inefficient.

"These and other paradoxes suggest that Africa’s promise and potential in education and development would remain unfulfilled unless opportunities for overhauling the education systems are fully utilised by countries. And to do this, they would need strong support from their partners," one participant said at the end of the conference on Friday.

Lack of a gender responsive curriculum and unsuitable teaching and school management systems were cited as contributing to the poor performance of girls in education.

Kenya’s Education minister George Saitoti told the conference that policies and plans do not respond to inherent gender concerns, just as teachers, students and parents are not sensitive to gender traits that affect the learning of girls.

"Deeply entrenched cultural values and attitudes that relegate the woman to an inferior position cause many teachers, both male and female, to apply gender discriminatory practices in the classroom or during interactions with students," said Saitoti.

He admitted that education policies and laws do not often provide effective sanctions against gender factors, which in turn impacts negatively on the retention and performance of the girl-child.

"Rarely do school managers take action against parents who withdraw their daughters for marriage, teachers who sexually abuse students or boys who bully the girls at the school compound," said Saitoti.

However, the minister noted on a positive note that the free primary education policy introduced in Kenya last year had increased opportunities for girls to access education.

It was also observed that girls were performing better than boys in primary and junior secondary certificate examinations in many sub-Saharan African countries. However, a larger proportion of the girls tend to withdraw before the final examination years of high school.

Prof Pai Obanya of Swaziland said girls in his country, just like in many African states, are still restricted to studying "soft option" subjects, which has limited their access to scientific and technical disciplines in higher institutions of learning.

Delegates were in agreement that poverty at the household level was still a hindrance to access to basic education.

Girls have remained sacrificial lambs in the hard choices that parents have had to make in taking their sons or daughters to school.

The participants heard that in Ghana, Fawe adopted several advocacy strategies and activities to create awareness on the importance of educating girls.

The delegates noted also that teenage pregnancy and the spread of the dreaded HIV/Aids posed a serious danger to the gains made in promoting the education of girls and women.

Participants suggested that countries review and strengthen their existing education policy plans with "scaling up" packages of measures. This should be based on good practices in girls’ education in order to attain gender parity by next year.

Peer counselling and training were floated as the surest way of encouraging adolescent girls to acquire assertiveness and positive leadership as well as life skills and responsible lifestyles. By so doing, it was said, the girls would be able to protect themselves and their peers in school and the community as well as enable them acquire survival skills to stay in school.

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