MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Education still not equal for girls in Namibia

By Laura Sasman

mar

ionm

ccris

tall.

com

There is a saying that goes, ‘educate a man, you educate an individual, educate a woman, you educate a nation.’ Wanting to know whether this is also true for Namibia, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGCEW), commissioned a gender assessment on

education in 2009.The report, Education Gender Assessment and Strategy, handed over to the ministry in June this year reveals that, while there are some improvements in addressing the issue, girls continue to experience inequality in education.

The Gender Equality in Education Index (GEEI) is a measure that is used world-wide to determine if and the extent to which gender equality is achieved. This tool measures girls’ primary-school attendance, their completion of five years of schooling, enrolment in secondary school as well as levels of gender inequality that girls will encounter in their future lives. The Namibian assessment shows that while more girls than boys are enrolled in primary schools, more boys remain in secondary school. This happens because many girls drop out either before they reach, or while they are in secondary school.

Reasons for the high drop-out of girls include high number of teenage pregnancies (sometimes by their teachers), harmful cultural attitudes and practices which include early marriages, as well as gender stereotypes in the very teaching materials and school curriculums. Sexual violence and abuse also have an effect on girls’ ability to remain and complete school. According to the report, in Kunene, many girls drop out after completing grades three or four only. By this time, it is assumed the girls are ready for marriage.

Other reasons why more girls than boys are dropping out of school early, include the fact that girls generally have more domestic duties. HIV and Aids is a big factor in girls having more responsibilities at home – including nursing the sick - than boys do. In some areas, girls’ duties include herding livestock.Gender-neutral interventions and curriculums are not enough to ensure girls’ continued access to and participation in education. In order to ensure gender equality and the full participation of girls in education, it is necessary to not only look at the numbers of pupils enrolled in schools, it is essential that government and society create an educational and social environment that makes it easy for girls to remain in school. In addition to implementing policies and measures that will specifically benefit girls, government has to actively address gender relations that affect girls’ attendance and performance in school. These include traditional practices and attitudes, gender-based violence, girls’ workloads, etc., that have been identified as problematic in Namibia.

The effect of opportunity cost has a powerful impact on girls education. Opportunity cost refers to the ‘services’ that girls (also boys) render in a family. The implication of opportunity costs means that if a girl remains in school, the ‘service’ of that child is lost in the household and the family. Services of girls in particularly rural, but also poor urban households, include fetching water and firewood, care for younger siblings when parents are working, and taking care of the sick. Families and communities, therefore play an important role in girls’ ability to remain in school.

Some recommendations to address gender equality in education are reduction of school fees specifically for girls, making girls enrolment and progression rate part of the school and teachers’ performance criteria, employment of more women teachers in rural areas, tackling gender-based violence and sexual harassment and policy reforms on the admissibility of pregnant girls, in addition to shifts in the practices and attitudes in families that make girls’ education difficult.

It is clear that gender-equality in education is a complex issue that needs broad national and social commitment.

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS