Beijing
Platform of Action
12 critical areas
ASSESSING WOMEN & EDUCATION
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Objectives and measures
2. The framework for the implementation of the platforms
3. Some statistics on girls education in Africa
4. Commitments made by African governments
5. Commitments made by lead organizations
5.1 The United Nations system
5.2. Multilateral development institutions
5.3. Support given by the international communit6.1 National mechanisms
6.2 Subregional and regional mechanisms7. Resource allocation for the implementation of the platforms
8.1 Formulation of national programmes of action
8.2 Identification of education as priority9. Obstacles to the implementation of the platform and programme
10. Case studies11. Situation analysis
Preliminary Remarks
11.1. Assessment of the national follow- up mechanisms
11.2. Assessment of regional follow- up mechanisms12. Conclusions
Weaknesses in the regional follow- up mechanisms
13. Recommendations
Annex: Questionnaire for workshop discussionBoxes
Box 1: Strategies for improving women and girls education and training
Box 2: Examples of strategies to encourage girls to enrol in scientific establishments
Box 3 : Retaining girls in school and improving their success rates
Box 4 : Tunisia has increased girls enrolment in science establishments
Introduction
This report aims to assess the progress made in the implementation of the Dakar Platform for Action and the Beijing Programme of Action with re ard to women s education, five years after the conferences. It deals specifically with women s inadequate access to education, training and science and technolo y in Africa. The workshop discussions on this theme during the sixth African Regional Conference on Women, held from 22 to 26 November 1999 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, made valuable contributions to the subject. That conference assessed the progress achieved in the 12 critical areas of the Platforms, one of which is women s education.
In assessing the achievements, this report takes into consideration the educational objectives of the Platform and the Programme and how they are matched by those of African countries. It relies on statistical data; documents, particularly country reports; and interviews, including with officials of overnments, regional and subregional inter overnmental bodies and non- governmental organizations ( NGOs) . It emphasizes the process, rate and level of implementation of the national plans of action prepared in response to the Dakar and the Beijing recommendations.
1. Objectives and measures
The Dakar and Beijing programs maintain that the right to education is a fundamental human right which has vital implications for the individual and for economic and social development. Acknowledging that education is a key factor in development and in the welfare of society , the Dakar Conference recommended that the education of women and girls should be given priority in order to counter the discrimination and marginalization they suffered in the past. The Conference therefore enjoined overnments and civil society:
( a) To provide an education that meets the needs of women and girls and to eliminate discrimination in national programmes and policies on universal primary, secondary and tertiary education as well as in the promotion of adult literacy;
( b) To ensure ender equality in formal and no formal school attendance, as well as in the quality and results of education by the year 2000; and
( c) To take positive measures to encourage, especially young women, to take interest in science and technolo y as areas offering the best job opportunities and prospects for carrier development;
The recommendations of the Dakar Platform and the Beijing Programme are identical, except for a few differences in the way they are formulated.
In general, their proposals are:
( a) To ive women and girls access equal to men s in education, in order to meet their needs;
( b) To eliminate illiteracy among women; and
( c) To improve their access to professional training, scientific and technical education and continuing education;( d) To establish non- discriminatory systems of education and training;
( e) To allocate adequate resources for educational reforms and to monitor the implementation of these reforms;
( f) To establish both normal and continuing education for girls and women.
2. The framework for the implementation of the platforms
The issues concerning the implementation of the Dakar and Beijing programmes cannot be separated from the global economic context and the political and social situation prevailing in African countries following the fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in September 1995. In the 1990s, three main factors affected the educational systems of African countries: armed conflicts, the economic crisis and increased poverty of people.
2.1 Armed conflicts, economic crisis and increasing poverty
During these years political developments in Africa were marked by countries transition to multi- party democracy and the search for peace as a means of conflict resolution.
Nevertheless, this democratization of the continent was also marked by fratricidal wars which ravaged countries, ruined their economies and displacing thousands of people, mostly women and children. Seventeen out of the 53 countries in Africa have experienced or are experiencing conflicts.
In many countries, political pressure caused mainly by mismana ement, social injustice, the effects of structural adjustment and the existence of ethnocratic regimes, to mention the most obvious, have prevented overnments from paying the required attention to such development issues as education.
The massive destruction of the infrastructure by these conflicts and an almost permanent atmosphere of insecurity have seriously compromised the vague efforts made to save the educational system from complete collapse.
But the picture of Africa is not only one of woes. In fact, one policy document released by the Economic Commission for Africa ( ECA) in 1996, after the Beijing Conference, described Africa s development as a typical lass in which we see of Africa, half empty or half full. Africa is in a development crisis but it is also full of dynamism with enormous potentials . The document, ives for the continent as a whole, such crisis indicators as low economic rowth versus high population rowth rate, falling incomes and investments, declining food production, continuous social upheavals, environmental de radation, mediocre institutions, market deficiencies, reduction in official development assistance, and the external debt burden. It, however, notes that Africa s dynamism, immense diversity and potentials have yet to be exploited, and that many more of its countries are better managed and are yielding improved economic results through reforms. The continent s civil society is developing and women are increasingly being involved in development mana ement.
3. Some statistics on girls education in Africa
According to the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook for 1998, 111 million of the 179 million literate adults above 15 years of a e were women, that is, 66.5 per cent. The same source gives the a e and population pyramid for the 0 - 24 years a e roup, as follows:
For this roup, the ross ratio of school enrolment for girls in 1996 and 1995 was as follows:
The figure declined steadily as the levels increased, as shown by the table below.
Source: UNESCO, 1998
More significant is the fact that these seemingly remarkable data conceal the very low enrolment of girls in schools. Compared with the 1980 statistics, the enrolment of girls has progressed slowly.
Women account for 44 per cent of the teaching staff at the primary school level and 36 per cent at the secondary school level. In 1996, the ross ratios of school enrolment in Africa for both sexes combined stood at 70 per cent at the primary level, 30 per cent at the secondary level and 5 per cent at the higher education level. The ratio of illiteracy among adults above 25 years of a e is still high in the continent. Considerable efforts have been made in functional literacy. Such countries as Sene al, Mali, Nigeria and Rwanda are particularly active in this area. The enrolment ratio in pre- school education is 3 per cent for the whole continent, with a preponderance of private schools - 98 per cent.
In 1995, the distribution of enrolment by type of education was as shown below:
During the same year, the distribution of teaching staff by type of education was: 81.7 per cent for establishments offering eneral education, 3 per cent for those offering specialized education and 15.3 per cent for technical- training establishments. The corresponding figures for 1996 were: 82.1 per cent, 2.9 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.
4. Commitments made by African governments
Acknowledging the importance of women and girls education in development, the Pan- African Conference in cooperation with the United Nations Children s Fund ( UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Or anization ( UNESCO) launched an urgent appeal to African overnments in1993, in Oua adougou, Burkina Faso, to consider the education of girls an absolute priority. The recommendations of that conference were taken largely into consideration in the preparation of the Beijing Conference.
Similar meetings were or anized in various places and at various times in Africa, including the following: Nouakchott ( 1977) ; Addis Ababa ( 1978) ; Rabat ( 1979) ; Lusaka ( 1979) ; and Abuja ( 1989) . Two excerpts from the reports of these meetings are included in the La os Plan of Action ( 1980) ; the Kilimanjaro Programme of Action on Population in Africa and Self- reliant Development ( 1984) ; the African Charter for Popular Participation in Development and Transformation ( 1990) ; the Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community ( 1991) ; the Dakar/ NGOs Declaration on Population, Family and Sustainable Development ( 1992) ; the Oua adougou Declaration on the education of girls ( 1993) ; and the Kampala Plan of Action on Women and Peace ( 1993) adopted in 1994 by the OAU Council of Ministers and UNDP.
These fora acknowledged that the participation of women is a precondition for the economic and social development of Africa.
More specifically, the African Heads of State and Government, at the thirty- first ordinary session of the Or anization of African Unity held from 26 to 28 June 1995, in Addis Ababa, endorsed the Dakar Platform on women with a Declaration requesting an immediate review of the critical areas contained in the document, especially:
( a) Women s inadequate access to education, training as well as science and technolo y; and
( b) Improvement of women s health, including family planning and people- oriented programmes.
Through this Declaration, member States reiterated their concern for African women s access to education, primary health care services and family planning. They requested their dele ates in Beijing to pay particular attention to these issues and propose appropriate recommendations and action programmes which should be used as reference in all activities aimed at establishing gender equality.
The Conference of OAU Heads of State and Government, held in Yaounde, Cameroon, the following year, adopted a resolution proclaiming 1997- 2006, the Education Decade in Africa. Consequently, the Heads of State and Government committed themselves to implementing universal education and to working for the elimination of ender- based discrimination. In conformity with this resolution, the Conference of African Ministers of Education ( COMEDAF 1) adopted a programme of action in Harare in 1999.
In addition to increasing women s access education and reducing disparities of all sorts, including ender- based inequalities, the programme of action also sought to remove disparities between rural and urban areas. Moreover, during the Conference or anized jointly by OAU and Uganda in Kampala, in September 1996, African countries reviewed their strategies for girls education and capacity building for women through functional literacy.
The seventh Conference of African Ministers of Education or anized in April 1998 by UNESCO in cooperation with OAU and ECA in Durban, South Africa, placed the issue of ender disparity on its a enda. The Ministers noted that the gap was a major obstacle and committed themselves to doing everything possible to protect girls in schools and to provide them adequate education and teaching materials. The African Forum on girl s access to science and technolo y held in Oua adougou, Burkina Faso, in January 1999, made a Declaration and drew up a Regional Plan of Action.
The plan of action underscored the need for the advancement of girls in scientific fields and in terms of science and technical education by providing the necessary support mechanisms. It also stressed the need to improve girls access to quality basic education and to conduct a systematic review of textbooks with a view to removing concepts that may be de rading to women.
5. Commitments made by lead organizations
5.1 The United Nations system
According to the Beijing Conference, the United Nations has a key role to play in the implementation of the programme of action at the highest level. This it could do by integrating the ender approach in its policies and programmes.
To enable institutions of the United Nations system to effectively assist in ensuring quality education for women, to reinforce their action at the national level and to increase their capacity to attain the objectives of the Action Programme, the Conference proposed that some of the or anization s bodies should be renewed, reformed and revitalized and the strategies and methods of its various mechanisms should be reviewed coordinated and strengthened. Among these mechanisms and structures are:
The International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women ( INSTRAW) , the United Nations Development Fund for Women ( UNIFEM) , the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women ( DAW) ; the Commission on the Status of Women ( CSW) and the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
On the contribution of the Economic and Social Council ( ECOSOC) , the Conference recommended that: in accordance with its role under the Charter of the United Nations, ECOSOC should supervise the coordination and implementation of the Action Programme on a system- wide basis and should make relevant recommendations. The Council should be requested to examine the implementation of the Programme, duly taking into account the report of CSW.
Moreover, the Council was requested to inte rate the issues on women in its discussions on general policy issues taking into consideration the recommendations put forward by the Commission and to envisage by the year 2000 to devote at least a major part of its activities on issues related to the advancement of women and the implementation of an Action Programme with the active participation especially of specialised institutions, including the World Bank and the IMF .
Finally, the Conference recommended that: The Administrative Coordination Council should examine how best to maximize the coordination of activities within the Divisions under it, especially through the present procedures, at the inter- institutional level to ensure coordination at the system- wide level for the attainment of the objectives contained in the Action Programme and to contribute to the follow- up action .
Within their respective mandates and current activities, the regional Commissions of the United Nations were urged to ensure the inte ration of women s issues and ender equality in their daily concerns and to plan to be provided with the required mechanisms and arrangements for the implementation and the monitoring of the Action Programme as well as the regional plans and programmes.
The national offices of the specialized institutions of the United Nations system were requested to formulate and disseminate an implementation plan for the Action Programme notably by outlining a schedule to be followed and the necessary resources. A similar mandate was given to the African Centre for Women ( ACW) of ECA by the United Nations General Assembly, and the Centre is working along those lines.
On education specifically, international organizations, especially UNESCO and inter overnmental or anizations pledged:
( a) To assist in the assessment of pro ress made, using indicators developed by national, regional and international organizations; and to encourage overnments to eliminate ender disparities, including those in boys and girls access to all fields of education, training and the results obtained, particularly in primary education and literacy programmes.
( b) To assist requesting developing countries in building their capacity for monitoring progress in their activities aimed to establish ender equality in education, training and research, particularly primary education and literacy programmes;
( c) To or anize an international campaign to promote women and girls right to education;
( d) To allocate a substantial part of their resources to primary education for women and girls.
5.2. Multilateral development institutions
The institutions in this cate ory include the World Bank, regional development banks, bilateral donors and foundations. These pledged:
( a) To increase resources allocated to education and the training of girls and women by prioritizing this sector in their development assistance programme;
( b) To cooperate with beneficiary overnments to ensure that the educational plans made for women in the structural adjustment and economic recovery programmes, including loans and stabilization programmes, are maintained or improved.
5.3. Support given by the international community
In fulfillment of their commitments, United Nations a encies and donors assisted in the implementation of several projects aimed at improving the education of women and their access to science and technolo y in Africa.
5.3.1 UNESCO
UNESCO held its General Conference in November 1995 shortly after the Beijing Conference and adopted a medium- term strate y for the period 1996- 2001. The strate y identified target priority roups and the necessary activities ( on the Least Developed Countries, Africa and Women) to be carried out during this period and decided to provide substantial human and material resources.
In February 1995, following the Africa Hearings, held in preparation for the World Social Summit in Copenhagen, UNESCO as lead a ency for the United Nations Human Resources Development Plan and Capacity- Building for Africa, formulated a strate y giving Africa prominence in its priorities. This strategy was particularly aimed at encouraging the reform and restructuring of educational systems and improving their internal efficiency, as well as at promoting basic education for all by iving priority to women, young girls, rural dwellers and the urban poor.
Moreover, UNESCO established a caucus of three African personalities responsible for making recommendations to the Director- General as a means of effectively monitoring the Beijing Platform in Africa and of coordinating its implementation in cooperation with the UNESCO secretariat and the International Committee set up to follow- up on the Africa Hearings. Combining the priorities mentioned above, UNESCO launched its women priority project for the period 1996- 1997. This project s main objectives are:
( a) To develop the education of young girls and women in Africa through literacy campaigns in the countries of the Sahel; with a budget of $ US 490,000;
( b) To encourage scientific, technical and professional training for young girls in Africa, particularly sub- Saharan Africa; with a budget of $ US 250,000. This special project is carried out in partnership with various overnmental institutions and such NGOS as the Forum for African Women Educators ( FAWE) ;
( c) To promote the women, tertiary education and development project. This project which is based in various regions of the world gives priority to Africa and countries in transition. It has a budget of $ US 400,000;
( d) To promote handicrafts training for women in Africa and Central America. The project which has a budget of $ US 100,000 aims to improve the technical capabilities and skills of women artisans. The Sahelian countries are the main targets in Africa.
Finally UNESCO participated in the project on the teaching of mathematics and science ( TMS) funded by Norway, the Rockefeller Foundation and other funding a encies. This project covers 12 countries. Such other a encies as UNICEF, the World Bank, the International Labour Or anization ( ILO) , the Food and A ricultural Or anization of the United Nations ( FAO) , World Health Or anization ( WHO) , the United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA) , the World Food Programme ( WFP) , the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP) have made considerable financial and technical contributions to the education and training of girls and women.
5.3.2. The European Union
The European Union s contribution, through its bilateral cooperation programme, has been focused more on the construction of educational infrastructure than on course content and educational materials.
5.3.3. Other donors
The United States A ency for International Development ( USAID) and the Canadian International Development Agency ( CIDA) have provided considerable support for young girls access to technical and scientific education as well as for capacity building for women in the area of management. The Nordic countries ( Norway, Sweden and Holland) have supported non- formal core initiatives in education. Japan which is very active in decentralized cooperation has provided support and increased educational services with the construction of new infrastructure.
6. Follow- up mechanisms
6.1 National mechanismsThe Beijing Conference underscored the responsibility of overnments in leading the implementation of the Programme which requires the highest political commitment. Governments are therefore to coordinate, supervise and assess the Programme s implementation.
With the technical and financial assistance of regional and international or anizations, overnments have improved the efficiency of national mechanisms for the advancement of women at the highest political ( ministerial and interministerial) levels. The efficiency of other a encies with competencies in specific areas of women s education have been enabled to increase women s participation and to inte rate the ender approach in policies and programmes.
The resident coordinators of the United Nations have been playing a key role in supporting the efforts of overnments.
6.2 Subregional and regional mechanisms
The Dakar Conference on women ave a pivotal role to subregional institutions in the monitoring of the Platform s implementation. In this connection, the African Regional Coordinating Committee ( ARCC) , now Committee on Women and Development ( CWD) , was mandated to work in close cooperation with such inter overnmental or anizations as the Preferential Trade area for Eastern and Southern Africa ( PTA) , the Southern African Development Community ( SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS) as well as the joint OAU/ ECA/ ADB secretariat and such United Nations a encies as UNIFEM.
These bodies are to meet annually and present reports to the ECA Conference of Ministers and the Conference of OAU Heads of State and Government every two years. The Dakar Conference also recommended reviewing the implementation of donor programmes on women and development.
ACW or anized an international conference, four subregional conferences and two preparatory meetings for the sixth African Regional Conference on Women. The international conference on African Women and Economic Development: Investing in our Future provided an opportunity for a dialogue to be established between women and policy makers on ways of speeding up the advancement of women in conformity with the provisions of the Platform. To this end, the Conference recommended that steps should be taken:
( a) To formulate policies to provide specific training for women and young girls on new information and communication technologies as well as to build their capacities;
( b) To regularly or anize national meetings to create synergies between representatives of the various social sectors, including health, education, social development, and women s advancement; and
( c) To reinvest the dividends of economic rowth in activities such as poverty alleviation, development of educational systems with special emphasis on the education of girls, literacy programmes and women s health;
6.2.1. Subregional meetings
The four subregional meetings or anized by ACW were held in November 1997 in Dakar for West Africa, June 1998 in Bangui for Central Africa, October 1999 in Rabat for North Africa, and February 1999 in Seychelles for Eastern and Southern Africa.
The meetings focused on progress made in the implementation of the Dakar Platform and the Beijing Programme through national plans of action, stressing the need for monitoring indicators and for national reports to assess the implementation.
Other meetings, seminars and conferences have been or anized in Africa by OAU, ECA and other United Nations institutions and inter overnmental or anizations to monitor the Dakar and Beijing programmes and those of other world conferences which also recommended the education of women. The Cairo International Conference on Population and Development ( ICPD) and the Copenha en Social Development Summit are examples.
The recommendations of these conferences led to the establishment of specific programmes by ILO, UNESCO, UNFPA, WHO, UNDP, SADC and ECOWAS.
The conferences also acknowledged the need to launch new initiatives for women, to ensure that the ender approach is used in defining and implementing policies and programmes, and to sensitize public opinion in each country to the need to establish a non- discriminatory society by the year 2000.
7. Resource allocation for the implementation of the platforms
The research undertaken could not fully assess the resources allocated to the implementation of the Platform and Programme for two main reasons. The first is that reports merely stated that the national budget allocations to education have been increased but did not specify the actual the amounts expended. The second is that bilateral and multilateral international development cooperation institutions do not have specific educational programmes for women and girls or do not wish to communicate the sums provided for these programmes.
8. Progress achieved
The Beijing Conference was a reat forum for sensitization on the ur ent need for Africa to take into account women s contribution in sustainable development. It was the first time that international, regional and subregional institutions and overnments committed themselves fully to formulating clear and precise plans of action in this re ard. An analysis of the country reports submitted showed that progress has been made in education, though in varying de rees. The progress made in access to primary education appears considerable in quantitative terms. The levels attained vary, depending on the conditions that had prevailed earlier on and the efforts made thereafter. On the whole, school attendance has increased. It should, however, be pointed out that lar e scale reform pro rammes had been initiated before the Beijing Conference. The priority given to enrolment in the primary schools ( which employ 80 per cent of teachers) can be attributed to the decisions of the Jomtien Declaration.
Although the Beijing Conference cannot be considered as the first effort in favour of women and girl s education, it was the source of a new vision and constituted a new reference framework in this regard. The Conference led to the progress stated in the following paragaphs.
8.1 Formulation of national programmes of action
Out of the 51 countries that took part in the world conference on women 47 countries, about 88.6 per cent, said that they had formulated and adopted national plans of action to implement the commitments made in Beijing on education. Of these countries, 39 have identified education as a priority.
8.2 Identification of education as priority
Forty- one African countries have included the education of women and girls in their national priorities for the next four to ten years. The plan varies from country to country and concerns the development of pre- school education, the education of girls throughout the school system, the education of young girls, the functional literacy of adult women and the development of science and technolo y for increased productivity.
Generally, the critical areas of the Beijing Programme include a chapter on training, considered vital for attaining the objectives in each of the critical areas. This has led to various forms of women s training, including: training of women in decision- making positions to enable them not only to retain their posts, but also to rise to other positions of responsibility; training of women in the mana ement of lucrative activities; and training for women s organizations in communication, advocacy and ne otiation techniques.
Governments democratization of the educational system has, in particular, led to reforms strengthening the link between the learning content and the final objectives of tolerance, mutual understanding and solidarity and the development of the human sciences. The overnment reforms are also aimed at developing inter- school contacts at the national and continental levels.
Developing and implementing the education for all policy will help to remove the obstacles which prevent women from participating fully in public life. This policy will be more effective when implemented in conjunction with other activities specified for women as it cannot stand alone. National action plans are very useful for reassessing strengths and weaknesses, for identifying new tar ets and partners in civil society and for redirecting efforts towards making women self- sufficient.
Most countries have affirmed their cooperation with and involvement of NGOs and other actors in the definition of national priorities and formulation of action plans. By participating in overnment policy debates, NGOs are able to work with and assess national plans while reminding overnments that they are primarily responsible for the implementation of the Beijing Proramme. Moreover, overnment- NGO cooperation in the formulation of national action plans sustains political commitment at the highest level.
The data available are insufficient to assess the efforts made by countries to improve women and girls access to science and technology. However, the main thrust of the plan is to increase women s involvement in science and technolo y research and in issues concerning them. Generally, with the exception of Rwanda, Guinea, E ypt, Ghana, Sene al and Nigeria, which have specific projects, country reports have not shown girls as being active in science establishments and new technologies.
Box 1: Strategies for improving women and girls education and training
Various strategies and programmes are implemented in Africa to improve women and girls training and education. . They include the following major ones:( a) Adoption of new education and training policies and ideas on girls education and granting them top priority;
( b) Establishment of universal free primary education in some countries; it has also been made somehow compulsory in some;
( c) Systematic recruitment of teachers for rural and urban areas;
(d) Implementation of flexible programmes in rural areas to encourage the education of girls and keep them in school;
( e) Establishment of rural schools closer to communities;
( f) Provision of incentives and facilities, such as scholarships, free transport, uniforms, meals, reduced school fees and special scholarships for girls;( g) Revision of school programmes and teaching materials to remove gender- based discriminations and to sensitize pupils to positive gender relations;
( h) Decentralization for schools, with the participation of local councils, as a means of improving efficiency and ensuring that greater account is taken of the interests and needs of communi- ties;
( i) Establishment of more dynamic partnerships among governments, NGOs, local communities including parents and donors. This approach has made it easier to include women s issues in education;
( j) Strengthening the school system as a community establishment; ( k) Giving dispensation to adolescent mothers and pregnant girls to enable them to continue their education.
9. Obstacles to the implementation of the platform and programme
Impediments to the implementation of the Platform and Programme recommendations vary from country to country. They are as follows:
( a) The ap between policies implemented and the needs of communities;
( b) Socio- cultural constraints in the form of giving priority to the education of boys to the detriment of girls;
( c) Lack of human and financial resources, infrastructure and equipment;
( d) Lack of qualified science teachers in some countries;
( e) Difficulty of recruiting teachers for rural areas;
( f) The high rate of girls dropping out of school for such reasons as pregnancy, early marria e and domestic workload;( g) Poverty and its limitation of women and girls involvement in education and literacy programmes;
Generally, the obstacles to the implementation of the recommendations concerning science and technolo y are:( a) Lack of human and financial resources, infrastructure and equipment;
( b) Nonexistence of teaching methods with ender sensitization and specifics a situation which does not encourage girls to opt for scientific careers;
( c) The length of the learning period for girls and the absence of employment guarantee after training;
( d) The perception in many communities that science is an area reserved for boys.
Box 2: Examples of strategies to encourage girls to enrol in scientific establishments
Several African countries have acknowledged that women s access to and participation in science and technology remain marginal. These countries are focusing more on policies and programmes for teaching science and technol- ogy in schools. In some of these countries, girls enrolment in science establishments has increased as a result of:
( a) The establishment of school guidance and counselling services and the encouragement of girls to enrol in science establishments;
( b) The establishment of a system of accommodation for girls pursuing science studies in universities;
( c) The establishment of women s science associations and strengthening cooperation among these associations;
( d) The training of women in the sciences.
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