Cape Town - Girls are less likely to be enrolled in school and boys are more likely to leave school early.
This is according to a new report, which also shows that 9 percent of children around the world are out of school.
The Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report commissioned by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation was set to be released on Monday.
In terms of sub-Saharan Africa the report showed that:
- There are 92 girls per 100 boys in primary school in the region.
- There are 16.7 million girls out of school in the region, 9.3 million of which will never set foot in a classroom.
- Gender disparities in secondary education have barely changed since 1999 with only around eight girls for every 10 boys enrolling.
- No country in the region has achieved gender parity in primary and secondary education.
The report also pointed out that early pregnancy remained a barrier to girls’ education and pregnancy was a key driver of dropout and exclusion among female secondary school pupils in sub-Saharan countries, including Cameroon and South Africa.
“Lacking any other way of measuring gender equality, we have focused on getting equal numbers of boys and girls in school.
“But we will never achieve this unless we tackle the roots of imbalance: social barriers and entrenched discriminatory social norms.
“Unless we begin to understand equality as a much broader concept, girls and young women will never be able to reap the full benefits of education,” said Aaron Benavot, director of the EFA Global Monitoring Report.
The report recommended that education should be free.
“School fees should be abolished, and costs covered for textbooks, uniforms and transport.
Hidden, voluntary or school administration charges as well,” it stated.
Other recommendations include that alternative secondary education options should be provided for out of school adolescents and that governments should recruit, train and support teachers effectively to address gender inequality.
Cape Argus