Factors affecting female

participation in education in seven

developing countries - Education
Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

Table of Contents

Colin Brock & Nadine Cammish

Universities of Oxford and Hull
1997

(Second Edition)

Serial No. 9
ISBN: 1861920 65 2

Department for International Development

(formerly Overseas Development Administration)

Table of Contents
Department For International Development - Education Papers

An introduction to the second edition

1. Statement

2. Preface

3. Executive Summary
A. Introduction
B. Factors affecting female participation in education

a. Selection
b. Outcomes
c. Matrix Chart

C. Recommendations

a) Preamble
b) List of Major Recommendations

D. Conclusion
E. Matrix chart

4. General Report
A. Introduction and Rationale
B. Methodology

a. Documentary Research and Field Visit Planning (June -

October 1989)
b. Methodology and Operation (June 1989 - October 1990)
c. The Primary Pupil Survey
d. Factors
e. Conclusion

5. Case studies
 5.1 The Case of Bangladesh

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

5.2 The Case of Cameroon

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

5.3 The Case of India

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

5.4 The Case of Jamaica

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

5.5 The Case of Sierra Leone

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

5.6 The Case of Vanuatu

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

Appendix
The Case Of Seychelles
A. Context
B. Factors
Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries -
Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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Department For International

Development - Education Papers
This is one of a series of Education Papers issued from time to time by the Education
Division of the Department for International Development. Each paper represents a
study or piece of commissioned research on some aspect of education and training in
developing countries. Most of the studies were undertaken in order to provide informed
judgements from which policy decisions could be drawn, but in each case it has become
apparent that the material produced would be of interest to a wider audience,
particularly but not exclusively those whose work focuses on developing countries.

Each paper is numbered serially, and further copies can be obtained through the DFID's
Education Division, 94 Victoria Street, London SW1E 5JL, subject to availability. A
full list appears overleaf.

Although these papers are issued by the DFID, the views expressed in them are entirely
those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the DFID's own policies or views.
Any discussion of their content should therefore be addressed to the authors and not to
the DFID.

LIST OF DFID EDUCATION PAPERS AVAILABLE

No. 1 Pennycuick, David. 1993 'SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS IN DEVELOPING

COUNTRIES: A SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH EVIDENCE' ISBN: 0
902500 61 9
No. 2 Hough, J.R. 1993 'EDUCATIONAL COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS' ISBN: 0
902500 62 7
No. 3 Gray, Lynton et al 1993 'REDUCING THE COST OF TECHNICAL AND
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION' ISBN: 0 902500 63 5
No. 4 Williams, E. 1993 'REPORT ON READING ENGLISH IN PRIMARY
SCHOOLS IN MALAWI' ISBN: 0 902500 64 3
No. 5 Williams, E. 1993 'REPORT ON READING ENGLISH IN PRIMARY
SCHOOLS IN ZAMBIA' ISBN: 0 902500 65 1
No. 6 Lewin, Keith. 1993 'EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT: THE ISSUES
AND THE EVIDENCE' ISBN: 0 902500 66 X
No. 7 Penrose, Perran. 1993 'PLANNING AND FINANCING: SUSTAINABLE
EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA' ISBN: 0 902500 67
8
No. 8 (not issued)
No. 10 Rogers, Alan. 1994 'USING LITERACY: A NEW APPROACH TO POST-
LITERACY METHODS' ISBN: 1 861920 70 9
No. 11 McGrath, S. King, K. et al. 1995 'EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR THE
INFORMAL SECTOR' Vol. 1. and Vol. 2 - Case studies. Vol. I ISBN: 0
902500 59 7 Vol. 2 ISBN: 0 902500 60 0
No. 12 Little, Angela. 1995 'MULTI-GRADE TEACHING: A REVIEW OF
RESEARCH AND PRACTICE' ISBN: 0 902500 58 9
No. 13 Bilham, T. Gilmour, R. 1995 'DISTANCE EDUCATION IN ENGINEERING
FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES' ISBN: 0 902500 68 6
No. 14 Barnett, E. de Koning, K. Francis, V. 1995 'HEALTH & HIV/AIDS
EDUCATION IN PRIMARY & SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AFRICA &
ASIA' ISBN: 0 902500 69 4
No. 15 Gray, L. Warrender, A.M. Davies, P. Hurley, G. Manton, C. 1995 'LABOUR
MARKET SIGNALS & INDICATORS' ISBN: 0 902500 70 8
No. 16 Lubben, F. Campbell R. Dlamini B. 1995 'IN-SERVICE SUPPORT FOR A
TECHNOLOGICAL APPROACH TO SCIENCE EDUCATION' ISBN: 0
902500 71 6
No. 17 Archer, D. Cottingham, S 1996 'ACTION RESEARCH REPORT ON
REFLECT' ISBN: 0 902500 72 4
No. 18 Kent, D. Mushi, P. 1996 'THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF
ARTISANS FOR THE INFORMAL SECTOR IN TANZANIA' ISBN: 0
902500 74 0
No. 19 Brock, C. Cammish, N. 1997 'GENDER, EDUCATION AND
DEVELOPMENT - A PARTIALLY ANNOTATED AND SELECTIVE
BIBLIOGRAPHY' ISBN: 0 902500 76 7
No. 20 Taylor, P. Mulhall, A. 1997 'CONTEXTUALISING TEACHING AND
LEARNING IN RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOLS: USING AGRICULTURAL
EXPERIENCE' Vol. I ISBN: I 861920 45 8 Vol. 2 (Case Studies) ISBN: 1
861920 50 4

OTHER DFID EDUCATION STUDIES ALSO AVAILABLE

Threlfall, M. Langley, G. 1992 'CONSTRAINTS ON THE PARTICIPATION OF

WOMEN IN TECHNICAL COOPERATION TRAINING DUE TO LACK OF
ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS'

Swainson, N. 1995 'REDRESSING GENDER INEQUALITIES IN EDUCATION'

Wynd, S. 1995 'FACTORS AFFECTING GIRLS' ACCESS TO SCHOOLING IN

NIGER'

Phillips, D. Arnhold, N. Bekker, J. Kersh, N. McLeish, E. 1996 'EDUCATION FOR

RECONSTRUCTION'

Rosenberg, D. 1996 'AFRICAN JOURNAL DISTRIBUTION PROGRAMME:

EVALUATION OF 1994 PILOT PROJECT'

All available free of charge from DFID Education Division, 94 Victoria Street,
London SW1E 5JL.
A free descriptive catalogue giving further details of each paper is also available.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries -
Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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An introduction to the second

edition
This second edition is not merely an updated version of the first, rather it is an
opportunity to bring our original study to a wider audience - in response to significant
demand since 1991 - and to enlarge the publication in two respects.

First, one of us has had the opportunity to replicate the study in a seventh location: the
Seychelles, this means that the Indian Ocean is represented alongside the Caribbean and
the South Pacific and some additional perspectives are observed. However, since half a
decade had elapsed between the original study and the undertaking of the Seychelles
fieldwork, it would not be proper to interpret this 1996 information within the cross-
cutting thematic discussion that precedes the case studies. We have therefore placed the
Seychelles section as an appendix. We recognise of course that the passage of time may
have rendered certain comments or observations in respect of particular issues in
particular places redundant. In general though we do not feel that a great deal has
changed. The problem of female disadvantage is deeply rooted and still near universal.

Secondly, this edition is being published at the same time as a second volume, a
selective and partially annotated bibliography of near global proportions. Although
extending far beyond the original six countries, this bibliography owes its existence to
the present study and is another response to the demand apparently created by it for
more bibliographical information.

We are greatly encouraged by the interest our work has generated and hope that this
new resource will assist a new generation of researchers in examining an issue that lies
at the very heart of development: as one prominent scholar in this field has it: "without
women - no development."

CB, NKC March 1997.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries -
Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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1. Statement
At the request of the then Overseas Development Administration (now the
Department for International Development), the Department of Education Studies
and Institute of Education of the University of Hull was asked to examine the
social, economic, religious and other factors influencing the degree of female
participation in formal education institutions in six carefully selected developing
countries. The intention behind the study was that it should provide information
that governments and aid donors would be able to take account of in designing
future educational projects, with a view to improving the levels of female
participation in those countries where it lags behind that of males. While the study
would not ignore participation in non-formal education, the main thrust would be
towards broad general education at all levels, with the focus of attention at school
level and an emphasis on the primary sector.

The study was to be undertaken with the agreement of the governments concerned. The
researchers would also seek the cooperation of appropriate local contacts in each
country selected, so that the work was a cooperative effort between the University of
Hull and a number of partners overseas. The researchers would select the countries in
consultation with the Overseas Development Administration and then determine for
themselves the choice of partners. To maintain the comparative element in the study it
would be necessary to establish a standardised methodology common to each country.
The countries selected were Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, India, Jamaica and
Vanuatu.

The General Report would be brief, drawing on and generalising from each of the
country studies, which would follow. Where possible conclusions would be drawn and
recommendations made that would be of use to advisers, planners and decision-makers
associated with the development of educational systems. The nature of the topic
required that such conclusions and recommendations took account of the sensitivities of
overseas governments, especially since it was intended that the outcome should have an
opinion-forming potential.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries -
Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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2. Preface
This project would not have been possible without the assistance of a considerable
number of individuals, agencies and institutions, and we would wish to acknowledge
our debt to each of the groups mentioned below. It is not customary in a report such as
this to name individuals, but any of those who have helped us and who read this
document will know that we are most grateful for the part they played in enabling this
project to be carried through.

First, we would wish to thank the education advisers of ODA (now DFID) for
giving us their support and advice. The opportunity to carry out this work has
been a privilege and we do of course take full responsibility for the outcome as
described below. We would also wish to thank colleagues at the University of Hull
for their help in various ways, not only in the School of Education, but also in the
Department of Politics, Language Centre and Central Administration.

In all the locations involved government officials cooperated most constructively with
our request for interviews, information and visits. The staff and students in all the
primary schools and teachers' colleges were likewise tremendously helpful and
hospitable. We are indeed most grateful to them all, as well as to the professionals and
helpers in non-governmental agencies, universities and research institutes with whom
we had contact. In most of the locations the staff of the British Council and/or British
High Commission were approached for their advice and assistance which always
proved a significant enabling factor, and we thank them too.

We owe a very special debt to those who acted as our local advisers in each of the
locations involved. Without their untiring efforts on our behalf we could not have
carried through the busy survey and interview schedules that provided the valuable and
necessary local input to this project. We are deeply indebted to each and every one of
them.

Finally, there are two individuals we must thank by name in view of their personal
input to the project team. They are Dr. David Smawfield, who compiled the background
bibliography and assisted with one of the field visits and, Mrs. Jenny Webster our
project secretary throughout, and who also typed the final draft report.
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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries -
Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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3. Executive Summary
A. Introduction
B. Factors affecting female participation in education
C. Recommendations
D. Conclusion
E. Matrix chart

A. Introduction
This project was carried out in three phases:

a. documentary research and field visit planning;

b. six field study visits (one in 1989 and five in 1990)

c. analysis of information gathered and compilation of report.

The period involved was from June 1989 to December 1990, inclusive, during which
the researchers were on partial release from their duties at the University of Hull. The
countries, selected jointly by the researchers and by ODA were: Bangladesh,
Cameroon, India, Jamaica, Sierra Leone and Vanuatu, making two each from Africa,
Asia and the Tropical Island Zones. In each location, in addition to interviewing key
personnel and consulting local documentation, the researchers carried out two empirical
surveys: a major exercise with primary school pupils to ascertain some of their
perceptions on gender and education, and a minor exercise with students, mainly those
training to be primary teachers for the same purpose. The outcomes contribute to the
case study sections below (5.1 to 5.6), from which the summaries of factors influencing
female participation in education that appear in the General Report (4D (b) below) and
in this executive summary (3B (b) and (c) below) have been distilled.

B. Factors affecting female participation in

education
 a. Selection
b. Outcomes
c. Matrix Chart

a. Selection

The general level of factor identification was indicated by the ODA brief (e.g. 'social',
'economic', 'religious'). Additions were made both in consultation with ODA during the
planning phase and on the initiative of the researchers, particularly as a result of the
experience of the first field visit. The final list selected was: geographical, socio-
cultural, health, economic, religious, legal, political/administrative, educational and
initiatives. In reality it has to be recognised that there is considerable overlap between
these factors and their influence on the problem in question, and in part for this reason
the order in which the factors are discussed below is not knowingly significant.

b. Outcomes

These are discussed in detail below, as already indicated, but may be briefly
summarised here as follows:

i. Geographical

The considerable spatial disparity, and in some cases incompleteness, of

institutional provision (even at primary level) relates directly to
difficulties of physical access which adversely affect girls more than
boys; there is an overall and profound urban/rural dichotomy which
favours towns and cities, especially in respect of secondary school (and
especially single sex) provision for girls; patterns of transportation and
migration affect educational provision and take up, again normally
disadvantaging females and in some cases extreme physical difficulties,
such as flooding and other hazards act in the same way. The influence of
this factor can only be overcome by more sophisticated and multivariate
spatial analysis of educational needs and the planning and
implementation of integrated development projects as a result.
Educational planning on its own would be futile.

ii. Socio-Cultural

A major deterrent to female take up and follow through of educational

opportunities (even when these are available) is a near universal
fundamental cultural bias in favour of males. The widespread operation
of patriarchal systems of social organisation; of customary early
marriage; of the incidence of early pregnancy (in and out of marriage); of
heavier domestic and subsistence duties of females (especially in rural
areas); a generally lower regard for the value of female life, all combine
though differentially in each case, to adversely affect the participation of
girls and women in formal education. To this list may be added problems
of seclusion and security in some areas. Such long standing constraints
result in a dearth of female role models that could challenge the
traditional one that is clearly acquired by both sexes at a very early age.
The influence of this factor can only be overcome, inter alia by a
profound change of attitude on the part of influential males, and in some
countries of traditionally minded powerful females in key family
positions.

iii. Health

In general the effect of poverty and malnutrition on the health of school

age children falls harder on girls than boys. Boys may get preferential
feeding, while girls (who have a heavier domestic work load) are more
likely to be undernourished. Even if they get to school, this adversely
affects their performance and therefore retention rate. Health problems
associated with pregnancy, especially for adolescent girls, obviously have
a negative effect, as do rising trends of sexual activity in the younger
generations where these occur. Problems associated with family size and
family planning are widespread in relation to possible participation in
education and imply the need for sex/health education at school level. It
is clear that the health factor, though partly hidden and indirect in effect
is a very significant one in respect of the quality of (young) female
participation in education as well as the quantity of it

iv. Economic

Together with the fundamental socio-cultural bias in favour of males, the

economic factor, especially in terms of grinding poverty and hunger, is
probably the most influential in adversely affecting female participation
in education, especially in rural areas. In such harsh economic
circumstances, both direct and hidden costs to a family of sending
daughters to school are perceived by parents to be prohibitive in terms of
the provision of books, paper and uniforms/clothing (important for social
reasons) as well as the loss of vital help at home and on the land. In most
cases the contribution of females is unpaid and they may have little or no
experience of the handling of money which further reduces their status
and power, but increases their vulnerability. Because of the patriarchal
and patrilocal predominance, investment in a girl's schooling is wasteful
since it benefits the family into which a girl marries rather than her own.
In the more privileged classes investment in the education of females
may be an advantage in 'marrying well'. This further increases the
urban/rural gap. Vocational education which might relate to employment
prospects, is everywhere weak and under-valued, but especially so in
respect of the interests of girls. The apparent inability of some countries
to resource their schools and even to pay their teachers regularly leads to
low morale, teacher absenteeism and parental disenchantment.

v. Religious

Although in general acting indirectly, the religious factor is on balance a

positive one, though it is often overcome by the fundamental socio-
cultural bias in favour of males. The fact that most religious practitioners
and leaders are male makes for a powerful image in favour of that sex,
and it would be a very helpful move if religious leaders of all faiths and
denominations were to speak out strongly in support of the female cause.
Christian missions have, in various areas, had a most positive effect on
female education and literacy levels, though some have a legacy of harsh
sanctions in respect of early pregnancy. In Islamic areas the situation is
generally not so supportive but a number of positive trends were
apparent. The religious significance of sons in the Hindu family, while
still operative, no longer seems in itself to disadvantage daughters. Often
in contrast to the state system, and especially- at secondary level,
denominational schools are well organised and resourced, attracting
stable, well qualified staff. This weighs heavily with parents when
deciding whether or not to send their daughters to schools, especially
since boarding facilities tend to be more favourable and secure.

vi. Legal

Again this factor acts mainly indirectly. Most countries have now
legislated for equal status in respect of sex, but this is usually a recent
innovation and traditional sanctions often still operate unchallenged. So
there are still important areas where the law could be reformed further to
encourage compliance and the system of justice strengthened to ensure
that this actually happens. In many rural areas long standing societal rules
constraining females are still operative, as is the case with condoning
early marriage. The acquisition of minimum legal knowledge and support
in such areas as: gaming justice and compensation for assault;
understanding letters and contracts; arguing for educational provision
according to the law, and challenging disadvantageous pressures in
respect of marriage, divorce and inheritance could be very helpful to the
female cause. There must be concern over the legality of the employment
of (young) children, particularly girls, and the dominance of males in the
legal profession. The encouragement and support for more females to
seek and develop careers in various areas of this profession could be a
very significant development in respect of female participation in
education.

vii. Political/Administrative

Although policies exist in most cases for such developments as universal

primary education, equal educational opportunities in terms of gender
and the eradication of gender bias from texts and other materials, the
political will to carry these through seems to be weak in the face of
severe economic constraint. The creation of Ministries or Bureaux of
Womens' Affairs appears to be counter productive, and the poor quality
of local administrative/advisory staff and resources renders such
government initiatives as do occur, relatively ineffective. The record of
NGOs is markedly better, and those governments that enable NGOs to
operate in favour of increased female participation are to be commended.
In some cases where strong political dichotomies or other such disparities
exist even elite females may be disadvantaged by being in the 'wrong'
camp, and their potential contribution to national development and the
role of females in general to that end may be lost. Language policies can
adversely affect female participation in that where vernaculars have no
status, and schooling is either absent or very poor, women and girls
remain 'trapped'. As with the churches, political leaders are almost
always male, and until considerably more women break into the most
influential echelons of power, the question of low female participation in
education and its implications for national development may well remain
on the sidelines.

viii. Educational

This factor itself can be a deterrent to female participation in schooling.

Difficulties of accessibility, lack of resources and low teacher quality and
morale are widespread. In particular the lack of female primary teachers
in rural areas is a real problem. Parents are, in some countries, very
reluctant indeed to send daughters to school if there is no female teacher,
and the facilities for the accommodation and security of such teachers are
usually absent or inadequate. The organisation of schooling in terms of
 the daily and seasonal imperatives of local economies usually renders it
dysfunctional, and the curriculum is often unattractive in instrumental
terms. At secondary level, in addition to the lack of (accessible) places,
problems of cost, direct and hidden are acute, and there is a considerable
need for more single-sex (girls) schools, some with secure boarding
facilities and scholarship schemes to enable participation. Vocational
education is weak and schemes open to girls in this field are particularly
useful. There is still a widespread problem of gender bias in books and
materials.

ix. Initiatives

In all the countries concerned, significant initiatives aiming to address

aspects of the problem of female participation in education were noted.
Some acted directly, others indirectly, but collectively they must be
considered as a factor affecting the issue. This is important, since one
must recognise the considerable efforts made by individuals and
organisations in this regard in recent decades. Some governments have
made substantial efforts to increase female enrolment at primary level in
rural areas by building more (accessible) schools and enacting laws to
encourage the employment of female teachers in such schools (e.g.
Operation Blackboard in India). Some governments have instituted
feeding schemes to alleviate problems of malnutrition. In some cases
governments have been very cooperative in enabling NGOs to operate
substantial schemes of income generation and primary schooling for rural
females (e.g. Bangladesh). Religious and related organisations have
prompted new opportunities for girls in need, such as the YWCA
technical/vocational institute for girls in Jamaica. Agencies have been
developed by individuals and groups to address issues of early pregnancy
and harassment (e.g. the Crisis Centres and the work of Sisteren in
Jamaica), and also to encourage women to become involved in politics by
providing suitable skills training (e.g. The Vanuatu Council of Women).

c. Matrix Chart

In order to see how summaries of each of the factors briefly discussed above can be
compared across the six national cases, a matrix chart may be found at the end of this
executive summary.

C. Recommendations
 a) Preamble
b) List of Major Recommendations

a) Preamble

The following recommendations are not in any order of priority. Each is followed by
the initial capital letter(s) of the names of the countries to which it refers (B:
Bangladesh; C: Cameroon; I: India; J: Jamaica; SL: Sierra Leone, V: Vanuatu). Initially
recommendations arose in relation to each case. Further consideration and comparison
led to the generalisation of a number of recommendations across more than one case.
Recommendations are restated at the end of each of the cases in Section 5 below, (see
also contents page above), sometimes adjusted to the specific case in question.

b) List of Major Recommendations

i. that increased support be given to NGOs involved in (non-formal) primary

education projects which positively discriminate in favour of the participation of
girls (B, C, I, SL);
ii. that, wherever possible, schemes for the enhancement of female participation in
schooling, especially in rural areas, be part of an integrated and co-ordinated
development including such other aspects as health, environment and economy
(B, C, I, SL);
iii. that projects be developed and supported that address pre-school child care
needs and adult literacy/skills development needs, in an integrated and co-
ordinate way (B, C, I, SL, V);
iv. that aid be considered for the provision of books, other learning materials,
uniforms (or other necessary clothing) and fees to enable more girls to
participate in schooling at both primary and secondary levels (B, C, I, SL, V);
v. that support be given to the construction of more single-sex schools for girls
with adequate residential facilities for pupils and female teachers in those
locations where this is necessary for either environmental or social or cultural
reasons (B, C, I, SL);
vi. that aid be provided for more scholarships to enable girls from poorer economic
backgrounds to attend secondary school, whether boarding or otherwise (B, C, I,
SL, V);
vii. that research funding be made available to examine the various aspects of gender
and education relating to the all-age and new secondary schools of Jamaica (J);
viii. that positive incentives, such as more secondary scholarships for girls might be
considered to go along with the present expansion of the junior secondary sector
(V);
ix. that NGOs be encouraged to submit schemes for aid approval that would have
the effect of improving the rate of progression of girls from primary to
secondary schooling (B, C, I, SL);
x. that support be given to projects designed to eliminate gender bias from
textbooks and other learning materials especially at primary and secondary level,
but also in respect of teacher education and training (B, C, I, J. SL, V);
xi. the funding be considered for improvements in the provision of teacher
education and training especially for primary school work, that would encourage
greater female participation and include more residential accommodation for
female students (B, I);
xii. that aid should be considered for the upgrading of technical and vocational
education for both sexes, partly (though not exclusively) as a 'second chance'
opportunity of dropouts from the formal system. In some cases this could be part
of a community based skills development programme (B, C, I, J, SL, V);
xiii. that support be considered for the greater participation of anglophone students,
and especially females in higher education in the Cameroons (C);
xiv. that efforts be supported to raise the level of male awareness of the community
and family economic benefits likely to arise from increased participation of
women and girls in educational and income-generating activities (B, C, I, SL,
V);
xv. that aid be considered for credible womens' movements with track records of
support for aspects of education and training, both formal and non-formal (B, C,
I, J, SL, V);
xvi. that support be given to the upgrading of traditional/subsistence agricultural
practices, especially where those involve women and girls to a significant extent
(B, C, I, SL, V);
xvii. that schemes be supported to enhance health and sex education for adolescents
with a view to reducing the occurrence of teenage pregnancies and the incidence
of related medical and health problems (C, J, SL);
xviii. that family planning programmes be supported which include the educational
needs of teenage mothers during and after confinement (C, J, SL);
xix. that support be considered for feeding schemes in primary and secondary
schools where such a facility might encourage and enable the poorest families to
send their boys and girls to school (B, C, I, J. SL)
xx. that aid be provided to improve the level of educational policy implementation at
the local level through the training of significant numbers of personnel in
systems of implementation and delivery. Their role would be a practical one of
animation, advice and support rather than mere administration. The opportunity
should be taken to include a considerable number of women in such programmes
of training and subsequent employment (B, C, I, J, SL);
xxi. that assistance be provided to enable the school day and the school year to be
adjusted to the realities of rural life and the demands of rural economies on child
labour (B, C, I, SL);
xxii. that aid be given for resolving the urgent and particular problem of the security
of female teachers especially in rural areas, by providing adequate
accommodation and protection (B, I);
xxiii. that support be considered for rationalising the provision of schooling in large
cities such as Freetown, Kingston and Yaounde where a combination of rapid
urbanisation, historical locational legacies; severe transport problems and
increasing complexity in patterns of demand are adversely affecting efficient
delivery of schooling and ease of physical access for girls.

D. Conclusion
While acknowledging that our study confirms the near universal, and especially in rural
areas, deeply rooted incidence of female disadvantage in education, the researchers
would also wish to mention the numerous efforts being made in all case countries to
confront the problem. We hope that the recommendations made above will be helpful in
maintaining and increasing the effort to assist increased female participation, especially
at primary and secondary level, and we would like to see more research carried out with
a view to supporting this objective.

E. Matrix chart
Country BANGLADESH CAMEROON INDIA
(with special
reference to
Gujarat and
Orissa)
Factors
Geographical Gross disparities in 'Africa in miniature', from Immense diversity
spatial pattern of desert to rain forest. A even within Gujarat
school provision. mosaic of indigenous and Orissa.
Stark rural/urban cultures overlain by a Massive rural/urban
dichotomy; colonial dichotomy:. dichotomy
secondary single sex anglophone and problems of
in towns. Rainy francophone. Also spatial isolation and
season effects and religious variation in opening up. Access
severe physical and respect of Christian to schooling
economic denominations and Islam. incomplete despite
disruption. overlapping
networks. Distance
to school still a
problem despite
progress made.
Socio-cultural Fundamental Not an extreme case, but Patriarchal system
cultural bias against females still marginalised. prevails in most
females. Patriarchal Girls needed more at areas, which gives
systems operate home; links between bride preference to boys'
against girls' price and schooling. education.
schooling. Means of Growing problems of Generally low
protection against early pregnancy and valuation of female
assault is crucial. delinquency in towns. life. Systems of
Many schools too Promotion limited for caste tribe and class
far from home for professional females. all have influence.
girls. The attitude of Local and rural
fathers is very elites are
significant indeed. significant, often
conservative.
Health The effect of Sexually precocious youth Numerous poverty
widespread poverty culture in towns could related conditions,
in contributing to bring attendant health including
malnutrition is problems, including the blindness, severely
worse for girls, and damaging physical effects constrain schooling
the physical effects of young pregnancies. in rural areas. High
of young female mortality
pregnancies can be still partly due to
severe. Enhanced infanticide and
food programme malnutrition.
would be helpful.
Economic Very low economic Rapidly declining Grinding poverty
profile for the situation, but women and hunger has
majority cannot actively involved in the both rural and
overcome the direct money economy both urban variants and
and hidden coats of urban and rural, which a negative effect on
school. Child labour creates tension between girls' schooling.
is a key element in school and work in Worsening
family survival. adolescence External aid situation for female
Adult males not yet to cash crop sector may work force.
supportive of sometimes undermine the Technical
females gaining new important work of women development aid
skills and status. in the subsistence or may undermine
locally marketed women in that it
agricultural sectors, and tends to be directed
adversely affect their to men, thereby
status. enhancing the male
status and
economic position.
Religious Not a direct factor, Considerably disparity in Indirect effects
but invoked by mission provision; only, and in any
those who oppose Catholic: Protestant has case a multi-
the education and differential effect for religious context.
development of adolescent girls. In theory Religious
females. Religious both Christian and Islamic significance of the
leaders need to movements are supportive son in Hindu
espouse the female of female schooling, but society may
cause for the general in practice development disadvantage girls.
good. has been slower in the
(Islamic) north.
Legal Women are Modern law provides for There are long
statutory minors, equal opportunity, but standing laws
therefore dependent. customary law prevails in against child
Illiteracy leaves favour of males. Early employment, but
females impotent to marriage is illegal but often disregarded.
invoke the laws of accepted if both families In some groups
protection against are agreed. women are
assault, constraint property, and this
and earls marriage. low status severely
Dowry problems. constrains their
Need to strengthen access to education.
legal support. Women need more
legal support.
Political- Apparent lack of Anglophone/Francophone Federal/State/Local
Administrative political will to 'divide' still significant, hierarchy leads to
address the problem, leading to exodus of evaporation of
though general qualified anglophones. political will to deal
policy aims are Secondary sector with female
helpful. The poor incomplete in some rural disadvantage.
and unreliable areas. It is felt that too Power of local
nature of local much aid goes to elders still
administration and (francophone) higher significant, but
support is a education, and perhaps not local educational
crucially weak link. enough to primary. administration is
weak.
Educational The system is Extremely varied Provided by a
incomplete, enrolment and wastage number of systems
therefore difficult of patterns. Very high but provision still
access to girls; and a primary class numbers disparate and
consequent shortage due to high birth rate. incomplete.
of female teachers Long school day at odds Massive urban/rural
in rural areas results. with family work needs. dichotomy. Very
Not such a problem Technical/Vocational high illiteracy rate
in urban areas where sector is very weak. among rural
middle class girls women but urban
are proceeding to middle class girls
university and achieving well in
outscoring men. universities
Initiatives Many good non- Ministry is flexible over Numerous
formal NGO age of female enrolment. initiatives involving
schemes in rural There is a Ministry of NGOs in
areas, especially Women's Affairs, though development work
BRAC. Also good underfunded and weak, for rural women
work at secondary and numerous schemes for and young children.
level for girls by dropout girls. OIC model Also Federal
Asia in Buea (vocational) is Ministry scheme
Foundation/USAID. effective. Operation
Acceptance of Blackboard to
female teacher increase number of
trainees with lower rural primary
grades than men places and female
could be counter- teachers.
productive.
 Country JAMAICA SIERRA LEONE VANUATU
Factors
Geographical Considerable Christian/Moslem Immense diversity
disparity of provision division, also very between and within each
despite small scale, marked urban island. Usual
due to urban/rural rural dichotomy geographical problems of
juxtaposition, lack of with capital city small archipelago states.
catchments and Freetown Some locations face
historical locations of markedly different extreme isolation
prestigious schools. from the rest of urban/rural dichotomy is
Complicated SL. Very poor stark. Core/ periphery
migrations in and out interior road problems for education.
of urban areas, also to network with
sec. schools. incomplete
primary system
difficult of access.
Socio-cultural Matrifocal system Traditional female Many cultures and
favours females. Girls roles still upheld languages plus
have positive role and ceremonially anglophone/francophone
models at home and at legitimised. dichotomy. Females have
school. But there is a Mature rural girls lower status than males in
major problem of obliged to marry. all groups. Low
teenage pregnancies Much early aspirations among rural
and a continued male marriage and girls but some urban
dominance in political teenage professionals. May miss
and business fields. pregnancy. Some out on French/English,
liaisons with older even Bislama, if they do
men to safeguard not attend school.
education and
fund it, mainly
Freetown area.
Health Damaging medical Many health High birth rates and large
effects of early child problems linked families in rural areas
bearing, but female with extreme puts pressure on
life expectancy still poverty and high inadequate health
higher than male. levels of early provision. Female
Possibility of stress sexual activity. mortality is higher than
associated with the Generally low male, which is unusual in
crucial Common levels of under- global terms.
Entrance examination. nourishment
among girls
affects educational
performance
adversely.
Economic Jamaican women are Widespread Girls traditionally work
used to handling poverty creates on the land; 'gardens' are
money and direct and hidden significant to family
controlling family costs which work economies. Hidden costs
budgets. Educated against girls' of education favour the
females, including schooling schooling of boys in the
qualified teachers especially in rural rural societies but in
move into modern regions. Both girls towns girls are educated
sector jobs. Large and boys involved for modern sector jobs.
urban poverty zones. in petty trading.
There are very
few income
generating jobs for
women in rural
areas.
Religious Indirect effect in Not a direct factor Disparate and varied
respect of disparate against female mission legacy, but
mission legacy and education, though generally supportive of
contemporary some girls' schooling.
denominational input. discriminatory Traditional (kastom)
Generally positive for customs are religion not so
girls, though some blamed on religion supportive, and in fact
criticism of male especially Islam. reinforces low female
authority model in In fact both status.
Christian churches. Islamic and
Christian
organisations have
been supportive of
girls' education.
Legal Although schooling Modern laws are Minimum age of
not being compulsory supportive, though marriage law (18)
is not unique to not always sometimes disregarded in
Jamaica, it may well enforced, but rural areas where chiefs
in this case affect the traditional custom maintain traditional laws
poor enrolment and is stronger in rural which favour males.
attendance rates of regions and tends Family Law Bill is under
boys in the lower to act against consideration.
socio-economic female
sectors. educational
opportunity.
Political- Ministry has an Political will is Traditionally females are
Administrative indirect, weak in meeting not permitted to speak in
facilitating/mediating educational needs public but this is
role. Power lies with of the majority; changing. There is said to
School Governing system only partly be regional/island bias in
Bodies who it is operative. appointments but women
claimed favour male Women's position face discrimination
appointments at is weak and The everywhere. Some pro
senior level. Ministry Women's Bureau female pressure groups.
decentralisation may has inadequate
boost community funding. Political
involvement. problems of
indigenous
language status.
Educational There is en Underfunded Primary sector almost
'educational culture', incomplete complete, plus a growing
and strong social class system. Late private nursery feeder
influence. The payment of system, but geographical
Common Entrance teachers adversely factors make secondary
examination selecting affects morale and participation difficult
for high school leads to especially for girls. Also
dominates the system, absenteeism. the element of selection
and for the majority System of in the junior secondary
population, girls gain repeating classes sector is adverse, despite
more places than increases chances the present expansion.
boys. But sex bias in of female dropout.
texts. The curriculum
could be more
relevant.
Initiatives Crisis centres for Large birth control Much private effort to
pregnant teenagers are programme by develop the nursery
effective but need IPPF. Various sector. Vanuatu Council
more support. The NGO activities in of Women is an active
YWCA Vocational support of rural and successful pressure
Education Institute women. New group working for better
excellent as a second Basic Education health, schooling and
chance for drop-out Reform aims to legal support for women
girls. UWI has a provide work- and girls.
'Women in oriented
Development' curriculum.
programme. Several women's
organisations
opening up.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries -
Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

[Previous Page] [Table of Contents] [Next Page]

4. General Report
A. Introduction and Rationale
B. Methodology

The core of the general report comprises a synthesis of the findings in respect of each of
the nine factors selected for study. This derives of course from the comparative study of
the factors as operating in each case and reported country by country in section 5
below. Preceding the discussion of factors are: an introduction to the project; a mention
of methodology and of the primary pupil survey in particular.

A. Introduction and Rationale

The idea of this project arose within the Overseas Development Administration (ODA)
and a brief description for tender was issued to a number of institutions. The
researchers responded to the general terms of the tender and having been selected have
endeavoured to work within those terms. A Steering Committee was set up comprising
both the researchers and ODA education advisers, and this has met at key stages in the
schedule outlined below.

A number of matters of policy arose from the terms of reference and the Steering
Committee discussions, notably:

a. as the project title implied, the focus of the study was to be on factors
affecting female participation in education and not, except as a bi-
product, on the accumulation of further data on the near universal and
well documented phenomenon of female disadvantage in respect of
education;

b. except in the initial phase of documentary search to aid the selection of

factors and provide a general context, the project was to be limited to the
six cases studies

the project was to have comparative dimension to the extent that it would
 be possible to:

i. synthesise the outcomes under the same factor headings

(as in sub-section 4D below);

ii. present the major outcomes in a form that would enable

comparison to be facilitated (see matrix chart - sub-section
3B(c) above);

iii. identify certain recommendations that could be relevant

at least across the group of six countries, but also perhaps
beyond to comparable states and regions (see 3B (b)
above), though inevitably some recommendations would
be country specific.

d. the main purpose of the project was to be of assistance to decision-

makers both political and professional, who are involved in the direct
task of confronting the problem of female participation in education,
whether:

i. within developing country systems;

ii. in aid agencies;

iii. in NGOs;

iv. as consultants.

e. in consequence of (d) above the report was to be presented in a clear

and simple way and not as an academic thesis (hence the virtual absence
of footnotes, references and statistical tables).

B. Methodology
a. Documentary Research and Field Visit Planning (June - October 1989)
b. Methodology and Operation (June 1989 - October 1990)
c. The Primary Pupil Survey
d. Factors
e. Conclusion
It was agreed by the Steering Committee that the project be carried out in three phases:
documentary research and field visit planning; six field study visits; analysis of
information gathered, and compilation of report.

a. Documentary Research and Field Visit Planning (June -

October 1989)

i. This being essentially a case study and comparative exercise, involving

a relatively small number of countries, the first task of the Steering
Committee was to select the cases to be included. A number of broad
criteria were employed, notably: that the project should include examples
from sub-Saharan Africa, from South and/or South-East Asia, and from
the tropical island zones; that within the group of six nations a significant
range of profiles existed in respect of the incidence of female
participation in education. The outcome was that the following nations
were to be included: Bangladesh, Cameroon, India, Jamaica, Sierra
Leone and Vanuatu. The practical inclusion of each was effected through
the good offices of variety of agencies to whom the grateful
acknowledgement of the researchers has been expressed in the Preface to
this report.

ii. Although documentary research of various kinds occurred throughout

the project, a major exercise was necessary in the first phase in order to
inform the thinking of researchers on the final selection of factors to be
included. As a result of a computer search and follow up, a bibliography
of some 700 items was compiled in July/August 1989. A copy of this is
being made available to ODA and it is also being held on disc. Part of the
follow up to this project will be to update this bibliography and publish it.

iii. The six field visits were planned to take place within the period of
November 1989 to September 1990 and this was duly carried out.
Constraints of finance and ongoing commitments of the researchers at the
University of. Hull plus the operational schedules of the systems of the
countries involved lead to the selection of 3 weeks as the target period for
each field visit. They duly took place in the following order: Sierra Leone
(November/December 1989); India (January/February 1990); Bangladesh
(February/March 1990); Cameroon (April/May 1990); Jamaica
(June/July 1990); Vanuatu (September/October 1990).

b. Methodology and Operation (June 1989 - October

1990)
i. Introduction and Medium

In order to maximise the comparative potential, as required by the brief,

the same field strategies, exercises and instruments were designed and
used for each country. In the case of India two locations (based on
Baroda in Gujarat and Bhubaneswar in Orissa) were selected in view of
the obvious variety of cultures and socio-economic circumstances in that
country. As a result of this and of the anglophone/francophone
dichotomies of Cameroon and Vanuatu, and the official medium in
Bangladesh, several of the instruments were employed in translation from
the original, so that in all the following languages were involved:
English, French, Bangla, Gujarati and Oriya. In certain rural locations it
was also necessary to engage in oral translation from vernaculars. In each
of the countries visited the researchers acted through and with the
cooperation of local advisers. In respect of gender, the cohort of local
advisers comprised six females and six males.

ii. Information Gathering

In each of the seven cases the following exercises were carried through in
order to obtain primary information:

• reading and, wherever possible, collection of

documentary sources of relevant information locally
generated and/or locally available: overall 163 such items
were consulted.

• interviews with senior professionals such as education

officials, employees of NGOs, university researchers and
tutors, teacher trainers and head-teachers. Attempts were
made to ensure significant representation of both sexes, but
the outcome was determined by the gender of office
holders and availability at the time. The balance of senior
professionals in the various cases was as follows:

Country Females Males

Bangladesh 6 10
Cameroon 7 15
India
a. Delhi 6 3
 b. Gujarat 4 9
c. Orissa 4 8
Jamaica 22 7
Sierra Leone 17 16
Vanuatu 12 8

• interviews with parents of children in the primary schools

visited. This proved the most problematical of surveys,
parents in some locations being unavailable due to their
working commitments or unwilling to participate for
reasons of understandable caution or customary constraints
of other kinds. Consequently in some places it was not
possible to take account of information, attitudes or views
from this source, but in other places these inputs were
available and contributed to the general picture the
researchers were able to form.

• surveys with students took place in every country, but in

one place in Jamaica, for reasons of examinations
proceeding a group interview was held instead. In every
other location two exercises were operated, usually with
students training to be primary teachers, but in one place a
group of social science undergraduates was also included
(NISWASS, Bhubaneswar). The exercise which has been
used here to contribute towards our findings was a simple
assignment of numerical ranking to a series of statements
offering reasons as to whether or not there was female
disadvantage, and if so (which was usually the majority
view), then what was the relative significance of different
factors at work. A copy of the survey form is shown below.
This form also formed part of the interview with some of
the senior professionals. The breakdown of students by
gender in the various locations was as indicated below. The
other exercise conducted with the students used a repertory
grid technique. The findings are being made available to
ODA and will be used in follow-up work to the present
project.

Country Females Males

Bangladesh 7 5
 Cameroon 40 32
India
a. Gujarat 27 0
b. Bhubaneswar 50 19
Jamaica 39 9
Sierra Leone 37 39
Vanuatu 31 23

• Surveys with primary pupils constituted our major

empirical exercise, and were seen by the researchers as a
very important aspect of the field visits in view of our brief
to focus as far as possible on the primary sector. This
survey involved large enough numbers to be capable of
computer analysis, and is therefore also given a separate
identity in this report (see sub-section C immediately
following and sub sections Ac) of each of the case study
reports in section 5 below.

c. The Primary Pupil Survey

The Primary School survey instrument (see copy below) was a

questionnaire designed for upper primary pupils (classes 5, 6 or 7)
depending on the length of the primary cycle in each country and was
administered to the oldest class in each school. It was prepared in English
and French for the anglophone and francophone countries and special
editions were printed in Gujarati, Oriya and Bangla for use in India and
Bangladesh. A blank copy of the survey form is found at the end of this
section.

In all, 1225 children did the questionnaire and 1193 copies were
sufficiently complete to be analysed by the SSPS-X computer
programme. The sample consists of 606 boys (50.8%) and 587 girls
(49.2%). The age range includes children as young as eight and as old as
eighteen: 9.5% were between 8 - 10 years old; 78.4% between 11-13
years old; 12.1 % were between 14-18 years old.

The pupils were classified as attending rural schools (39%) semi-urban

schools (18%) and urban schools (43%). It was hoped to obtain some
indications of the significance of various factors in respect of school
enrolment and wastage, such as: transport/distance to school; family size;
parental occupation; parental literacy; the degree to which children help
at home and on the land; reasons for absence from school; and the
attitude of mothers, fathers and the children themselves to their
schooling. To some extent the children to whom we ought to have been
putting the questions were those who were not at school but the results
from asking those who do attend school have been sufficiently interesting
to justify the exercise. Some such results of the analysis by country are
indicated in each case-study but there are certain general overall
outcomes which are pertinent to the question of participation in
education.

Both boys and girls help at home and on the land a great deal in all six
countries. Fetching water, working with the crops, sweeping and looking
after siblings score high for both sexes. Girls are involved to a
statistically significant degree more than boys in the home-based tasks of
laundry, sweeping and food-preparation. Boys have statistically
significant scores for working in the fields and for going to the market, a
reflection of the socio-cultural attitudes in several of the countries where
girls are kept within the home as much as possible. Absence from school
was not significant by sex, although head-teachers often said they though
girls were better attenders. It is alarming to note however that 27% of the
pupils surveyed had been absent sometime in the week preceding the date
of the survey. Indeed 45 per cent stated that they sometimes could not
come to school because of jobs they had to do for their mother or father.
This seemed to affect boys more than girls (50%: 40%). Family size and
father's occupation correlate strongly with the amount of help contributed
by the children: pupils from larger and poorer families have more
responsibilities at home. Both boys and girls agree however that it is girls
who help most.

These children, who are attending school, feel that both mother and
father want them to do so, whether they are boys or girls, but over 50%
have the impression that boys stay on at school longer than girls. Again,
23% think girls don't need to go to school as much as boys and 24% think
girls do not really need to go to school at all. These figures, coming from
children who are relatively advantaged, are alarming, especially when
one realises that although statistically significant by sex (i.e. there are
more boys rejecting the need for education for girls), over 100 of the 600
girls actually in school seemed to feel girls had no need, or perhaps no
right to be there. Negative attitudes towards girls' education, awareness of
cost of schooling, parents' level of literacy and pupils' hopes and
intentions about continuing their education all correlate with family size,
father's occupation and rural/urban location.

Career choices by boys and girls were strongly influenced by location

and by sex. Rural children, with more limited experience and fewer role
models, operated within a far smaller range of choices than did urban
children and this was particularly noticeable in the case of girls where
sometimes only 'teacher' end 'purse' represented the aspirations of a
whole class. Overall there were 93 different choices made by boys and 65
made by girls. The boys' choices are more imaginative, varied and
ambitious, the most popular being doctor (134), teacher (68), engineer
(42), farmer (31), pilot (29), soldier (26), mechanic (27), policeman (24),
driver (15) and bank clerk (13). The girls' list is limited and equally sex-
stereotyped - doctor (137), teacher (156), nurse (82), typist (21), etc. As
regards marriage, in most countries 80 - 90% of the pupils surveyed
expected to marry and to have children. It is interesting however that a
statistically significant higher proportion of boys expect to marry and
also propose to have more children and particularly more male children
than do girls. In general the boys' views on marriage and parenthood are
more traditional than those of their sisters.

Career and marriage plans at 12 or 13 years of age are not always very
realistic but it is nevertheless revealing when boys opt to be President, a
ship's captain or to work at NASA, while girls plan to be nurses, hair-
dressers or dress-makers, even in a country like Jamaica where girls'
secondary school selection results are superior to those of the boys.

PRIMARY PUPIL SURVEY

A B C D E SCHOOL: ______________________________

PRIMARY SCHOOL SCHEDULE: PUPILS' QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Name: ______________________________ BOY ? GIRL ?

2. Age 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
3. Class 1 2 3 4 6 7

4. How do you usually come to school?

Walk bus
bicycle car
 lorry another way (...................................)
5. Your Family
a. How many brothers do you 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
have?
b. How many sisters do you 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
have?

c. Show your brothers ( ) and sisters ( ) in order from the oldest to

the youngest. Which are you?

d. Write the age of each brother or sister underneath their pictures. How
old do you think they are?
e. Your parents
Where does your father work?
Where does your mother work?
Who looks after you most at home?
mother
father auntie
grandmother someone else
older sister I look after
myself

6. WHAT DO YOU DO TO HELP YOUR MOTHER OR FATHER?

Every Day Sometimes Never

Work in field with crops
Fetch water
Look after little brothers and sisters
Prepare food
Make things
Sweeping
Shopping/Going to Market
Washing/Laundry
Anything else
7. HAVE YOU BEEN ABSENT (AWAY) FROM SCHOOL THIS
WEEK OR LAST WEEK?

Yes No
If "Yes", why were you absent (away)?
You can tick one, two or even more reasons.
You were ill.
You went to the market.
You went on a visit.
Visitors came to your home.
It was too hot.
It rained.
You were looking after little brothers and sisters.
There was no money for school.
You were (How? ________________________________)
helping mother.
You were (How? ________________________________)
helping father.
You went to hospital/clinic.
You played instead.
Anything else? (_____________________________________)
8. SAY WHETHER YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH THESE
SENTENCES:
AGREE (Yes!)
DISAGREE (No!)
1. Girls help at home more
than boys.
2. Boys usually stay at
school for more years than
girls.
3. Girls need to go to school
as much as boys.
4. Girls are usually younger
than boys when they stop
going to school.
5. My mother wants me to
come to school very much.
6. Girls don't really need to
go to school.
7. Sometimes I can't come to
school because there are
jobs I must do for my
mother or my father.
8. It costs a lot of money to
go to school.
9. I wish school was nearer
to my house.
10. My father wants me to
come to school very much.
11. I think my mother is
good at reading and writing.
12. I think my father is good
at reading and writing.
13. I think I shall be leaving
school at the end of this
year.
14. I would like to go to
school next year.
15. It is difficult to come to
school every day.
16. I would like to go to
secondary school.
17. I like school.

9. WHEN I GROW UP

When I grow up, the work I'd like to do is

I should like to get married YES NO
I should like to have children YES NO
I should like to have girls and boys

STUDENT SURVEY

FACTORS AFFECTING FEMALE PARTICIPATION

1. CONTEXT
1.1 Is there a problem of female YES/NO
participation in education at any level?
1.2 If "No", then please proceed to item E3 below.
1.3 If "Yes", then please circle the stage Higher Education
at which you consider the problem to be Secondary Education
most significant. Primary Education
1.4 If "Yes" then is this mainly a rural YES/NO
problem?
2. CAUSES OF LACK OF FEMALE PARTICIPATION AT
PRIMARY LEVEL
(In each of the boxes in this section please insert a score from 1 through
5 to indicate the strength of the factors concerned where: 1 =
unimportant 2 = of little importance 3 = significant 4 = very important 5
= crucial).
Factor Score
2.1 Education is not compulsory.
2.2 There are not enough schools/places.
2.3 Distances from home to school are
too great.
2.4 Education is not free and boys gain
preference in parental decision.
2.5 The traditional female role model is
too strong.
2.6 Enrolment procedures are weak.
2.7 There is no pre-school nursery
education.
2.8 Fathers are not keen on girls'
education.
2.9 Domestic duties are greater for girls
than for boys.
2.10 Girls are needed on the land more
than boys are.
2.11 The range of paid occupations open
to girls is perceived to be limited.
2.12 Young boys discourage young girls
by their attitude to them.
2.13 The age of marriage is relatively
young.
2.14 Religious factors favour the
education of boys.
2.15 The linguistic development of girls
is impeded by their role at home/in the
community.
2.16 The curriculum content affects girls
adversely.
2.17 The family arrangement is
patrilocal.
2.18 Other Factors please state and
score)
a)
b)
c)
3. CAUSES OF STRONG FEMALE PARTICIPATION AT
PRIMARY LEVEL
(In each of the boxes in this section please insert a score from 1 through
5 to indicate the strength of the factors concerned where: 1 =
unimportant 2 = of little importance 3 = significant 4 = very important 5
= crucial).
3.1 There are school places available for
all girls.
3.2 Enrolment and attendance procedures
are strong.
3.3 There is no problem of travelling to
school.
3.4 Education is free.
3.5 The influence of males is not
discouraging.
3.6 The history of the society has placed
females in a commanding role at family
level.
3.7 The family arrangement is matrilocal.
3.8 Pre-school provision has been made
available.
3.9 The curriculum content is sensitive to
the interests of both sexes.
3.10 Once in school young girls do better
than boys.
3.11 Women (other than teachers) are
seen in authority positions.
3.12 Religious factors are equally
favourable to both sexes.
3.13 The range of paid occupations for
women is wide.
3.14 There are no marriage pressures at
this stage.
3.15 Modern media (e.g. TV) have
enhanced linguistic development for all
young children.
3.16 Women's movements have fought
successfully for equal opportunities.
3.17 Other Factors (please state and
score)
a)
b)
c)

d. Factors

A. Preamble

As mentioned above, the factors selected for inclusion emerged partly as

a result of our brief and partly from observations in the course of the
study. Although they are listed separately, in reality they inter-relate,
overlap and even integrate in their influence on the participation of
females in education in the countries included in this study, as elsewhere.

Overarching themes such as urban/rural dichotomy, and the fundamental

significance of widespread poverty recur, and transcend the divisions of
convenience which enable individual factors to be independently
considered.

It has also to be recognised that each of the factors discussed below acts
both directly and indirectly on the issue in question.

B. List

The order in which the factors are listed does not imply any priority in
terms of relative significance.

i. Geographical

This factor has to do with various types of spatial disparity

within a system of educational provision. In these cases we
are dealing with systems of provision within national
parameters or terms of reference, and the first point of note
is that some are incomplete even at primary level, as for
example in Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. In India,
regulations have been passed to ensure a primary school
facility within a few kilometres of every child, but the
massive scale of population increase and movement almost
certainly means that here too there are communities
without primary schools. Even where systems are officially
complete at this level there is often a problem of
accessibility due to irregular patterns of school location
caused by a combination of physical difficulties and
historical legacies. Most patterns of schooling have grown
piecemeal by accretion and with a number of providers
involved at different times. The effect of incompleteness
and/or irregularity of primary provision in spatial terms is
to create problems of distance between home and school. If
such distance is perceived by parents to be manageable but
problematical then in general it is more likely that the
enrolment and attendance of girls will be adversely
affected rather than boys. For obvious reasons, and even in
urban areas, distance between home and secondary school
is normally greater than for primary. Furthermore the
secondary sector is even more likely to be incomplete,
making physical access for those girls who qualify
particularly difficult, or even impossible.

The fundamental urban/rural dichotomy that exists in all

cases, but to different degrees, relates directly to the
political geography of educational provision. There tends
to be a centralisation of administration and provision that
works in favour of the urban sector and especially of the
primate city. This produces core-periphery imbalances at
various scales from national to local and affecting
qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of provision. For
the education of girls this is perhaps most influential at
secondary level where there is often a disproportionate
concentration of provision in urban areas and especially of
such single sex schools as may exist. This is very
significant for girls in that their educational performance
tends to be enhanced by the environment of such schools.

Urban/rural dichotomy relates also to differential

concentrations of wealth and influence. Complicated
patterns exist in both sectors but in general the
concentration of the higher socio-economic classes in the
major urban centres means that the higher level of
educational provision and take-up in respect of females
relates to these classes. Nonetheless the increasing
participation and success of elite females in the tertiary
sector may lead to greater influence of women in high level
decision-making and also greater visibility of successful
females in so-called male fields/ occupations, for example
in science, technology and engineering.

The direct relationship between political geography and

educational organisation and administration is discussed
below but mention should be made here of the 'unofficial'
effect of political influence acting in geographical terms,
such as the dominance of particular cultural, ethnic or class
groups acting spatially, and directly or indirectly affecting
the participation of females in education. The progressive
pressures of the more developed plains communities on the
hill tribes of Orissa, partly through the manipulation of
educational influence is a case in point. The differential
effect of religious organisations and their networks of
education provision is also mentioned below.

Human migration is profoundly geographical and can

relate directly to the issue of female participation in
education at various temporal and spatial scales. Problems
of distance and daily journey to school have been noted,
though they are not confined to rural areas, but there is also
the question of gender and urbanisation. For example, it
has long been the case in Jamaica that females migrate in
larger numbers to major urban centres within and beyond
the island, while in Bangladesh, it is the males who are the
prime movers with most females remaining very restricted
in this sense. The relationship between education and
migration can have both causal and consequential
dimensions, but either tends to enhance gender divergence.
If, as has generally been the case, males migrate to towns
and cities, the gender divergence in terms of education may
widen, but if whole families move then it may be more
likely that girls as well as boys can benefit from
accessibility to urban schooling.

Clearly the form and operation of transportation networks

is influential, not only in respect of migration per se, but
also in respect of modifying population distribution and
settlement patterns. As well as the pressures on females in
respect of travelling to school in terms of harassment and
discrimination, there is the tendency for settlements and
therefore often schools to locate or relocate in relation to a
new or enhanced routeway such as the new highway
through Orissa, and the major axis between Bamenda and
Buea in Cameroon.

As affecting matters of educational provision and

accessibility, the geographical factor operates mainly on
the human and social side, but there can also be physical
difficulties. For example the widespread seasonal flooding
in Bangladesh renders whole communities inoperative and
includes the destruction of schools. Although
transportation by water may be available to alternative
locations this is costly, and where choices have to be made,
they fall in favour of males. In some remote rural areas, for
example in Orissa, there can be danger from wild animals,
which again tends to restrict the possibilities of girls
attending school.

It is clear that the types of influence brought to bear on the

problem of female participation by geographical factors are
generally of the type that can only be addressed through
well planned integrated schemes of (rural) development,
and we are keen to stress the significance of such an
approach where educational development is part of such
coordinated efforts. However there are some more
specifically educational areas where geographical skills
may be helpful, such as in the more expert locating and
mapping of schools in the rural sector and the reform of
catchments and flows of pupils in large urban centres
which could enhance the participation of girls in primary
and secondary schooling.

ii. Socio-Cultural

In almost all countries and communities there is a

fundamental cultural bias in favour of males. In those cases
in this study where female participation in education was
found to be very limited, this factor operated very strongly
through decisions about child care, nutrition, physical
work, freedom of movement and marriage. Almost all the
societies visited were patriarchal, with the status, power
and particularly attitude of fathers being a key factor in
encouraging or restricting the schooling of their daughters.
Even in Jamaica, where matriarchal patterns are almost
universal, the exercise of male control over the career
prospects of often better educated and qualified women
was evident. Consequently for all of the cases we see the
need to engender greater male awareness of the
disadvantages faced by females in respect of education,
and greater willingness on the part of influential males,
such as religious and political leaders to provide a strong
advocacy of the female cause in this regard. In trying to
encourage the education of girls in developing countries
one is confronted not only by widespread poverty, but also
deeply rooted social and cultural attitudes which fail to
perceive the crucial significance of involving the talents of
females in the process of development. Consequently if a
girl is to be educated, there are often severe cultural costs
to be met; a price to pay for going against established
social norms and, in particular, challenging the traditional
authority of males. Such problems tend to be more severe
in rural areas, but even in towns and cities where prospects
of paid employment for educated girls may exist, many
parents still fear the possibility of their daughters being
alienated from traditional life-styles by contact with
essentially 'western' education with its associated values.
The demand for girls' education has to come from the
family itself, and in order to overcome traditional attitudes
there have to be clearly discernable advantages to the
family if parents are to invest in schooling for their
daughters. The traditional female role is learned by girls
from a very early age, and the work they do in the
household, and often also on the land, is often crucial to
their mothers who themselves have extremely heavy work
burdens and long child-bearing cycles. Early marriage is
common in most of the cases studied, and this normally
leads to early pregnancy. In some cases there is a high
incidence of early pregnancy outside marriage. Either way,
early pregnancy has a strong cultural dimension that would
need to be contested through some form of education if the
negative effects (including educational) are to be
overcome. Early marriage inevitably shortens girls'
schooling. Those who commence school late and repeat
one or two classes may well reach the traditional age of
marriage before they reach the end of the primary cycle.

Systems of dowry and bride-price may also have a negative

effect on the participation of girls in schooling. The
necessity of paying a dowry may make a girl a burden to
her parents, which together with any investment that may
be made in her education is often seen as a waste of scarce
resources. Patrilocal and exogenous marriage customs tend
to encourage this attitude. Bride-price customs encourage
early marriage, sometimes to gain money needed to find a
bride for a son.

For many girls in developing countries, and especially in

the rural sector, there is a dearth of alternative role models
and even where there is access to modern media,
traditional roles are often portrayed for females. This is
even the case with school texts at both primary and
secondary level. In urban areas, and especially cities,
different role models are evident, often within the family in
the various elites, and there are clear trends of increased
participation and success on the part of females in
secondary and higher education. Nonetheless there still
appear to be constraints placed upon the employment and
promotion prospects of educated females which help to
reinforce a 'culture of lower aspirations'. Successful and/or
powerful women within such families and outside are not
necessarily supportive of the more modern and mobile
potential of younger educated females. In some cases
problems of physical security and seclusion lead to severe
limitations on female participation in schooling.

It is perhaps this socio-cultural factor of attitudes towards

girls which, especially when combined with economic
constraint, most seriously impedes advance in the
development of female participation in education. In fact,
in Jamaica which has an impressive record in girls'
enrolment, retention and achievement in school, the
positive attitudes towards girls' education seem to override
even the negative effect of the economic factor.

iii. Health

Socio-cultural attitudes towards girls and women affect

their access to education as we have seen, but even more
importantly may affect their very survival. Globally, the
mortality rate for females is generally lower than that for
men but in three of the countries surveyed it is higher. Not
only is this symptomatic of the lower Value placed on
female life, but it suggests that in terms of work-burden,
malnutrition and lengthy child-bearing cycles, many of the
women in these regions have so much to contend with that
education for themselves or their daughters cannot be in
the forefront of their minds. Successful schemes of non
formal education recognise this.

Poverty and malnutrition affect the access to school of both

boys and girls and the benefit they can derive from their
education if they do manage to go to school. However,
because of their more favoured status, boys often tend to be
better nourished and to receive treatment more quickly
when they are ill. Schemes to promote girls' education in
poorer areas need to address problems of health and
nutrition if they are to be successful.

The onset of puberty is an important factor in its effect on

girls' education. We have seen that it increases
vulnerability and may therefore make parents decide to
withdraw their daughters from school. Distance to school,
the lack of female teachers, poor or non-existent toilet
facilities and the necessity to board away from home can
all be factors contributing to such a decision at this age.

In some of the countries studied puberty marked the point

when girls were likely to be withdrawn from school to
marry, especially in rural areas. Early marriage is usually
followed by early pregnancy. Health-workers voiced their
concern over the possible deleterious effects of early
pregnancy on young bodies. In two of the countries
surveyed there were problems of teenage pregnancy at
secondary school level with drop-out occurring particularly
in Forms 3 and 4. The loss of unmarried girls who have
managed to get as far as this is particularly sad and
schemes to keep them in the education system by
providing health care, among other things, are very much
to be welcomed. In some countries where teenage
pregnancies are a problem, there was concern expressed
about the scale of sexual activity in the younger
generations. Some informants would see the constraint of
such customary behaviour as being highly desirable, and
presumably this would include some form of health/sex
education.

Family size correlated strongly in our survey with the

amount of help children had to give at home, with parental
attitudes towards schooling, with pupils' hopes and
intentions about continuing their education, and with
awareness of cost. Family planning is obviously an
important factor in increasing the educational chances of
both boys and girls, but girls in particular.

iv. Economic

The economic factor, especially in terms of poverty and

hunger was found to be the major underlying influence
acting against the participation of girls in formal education,
in both direct and indirect ways. At a macro level the
general economic status of each national case is mentioned
below, but masks considerable disparities including that
between the traditional and modern sectors which relates
closely to rural/urban dichotomies of different kinds, scales
and degrees in educational terms. Several of the countries
concerned rank among the poorest in the world by standard
indices, especially Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and India, and
this alone makes it extremely difficult for them to provide
even the most basic educational facilities for their rural
populations, to say nothing of the increasing ranks of the
urban poor.

Clearly women and girls are more disadvantaged in the

traditional rural sectors where the majority of the
population of all but one (Jamaica) of the cases resides.
Inability to meet or cope with both the direct and hidden
costs of female participation in schooling was seen to be a
prime cause of low levels of involvement and high levels
of wastage. In direct terms the cost of such items as
exercise books, paper, writing materials, textbooks and
sometimes uniforms is prohibitive and a family will have
to choose which, if any, of their children will be supported
to attend school. In such a situation girls tend to be
excluded for a variety of reasons that relate more to hidden
costs and above mentioned social and cultural factors. The
hidden costs include the loss of assistance to parents in the
home and on the land, both areas where in general females
make a more profound or basic contribution than males on
which the sheer survival of many communities depends,
often in terms of subsistence agriculture. This is even more
crucial when males have migrated elsewhere in search of
paid work and may very well have been unsuccessful but
are still absent.

The contribution of women and girls tends to be unpaid

and so rural women may have little traditional role or
experience in respect of the handling of money. This
directly and often severely constrains their status and
influence. In societies where women engage in marketing
and even petty trading, the situation is obviously different.
Partly due to the increased income, there may be the
capacity to absorb the cost of female attendance at primary
school, but the very expectation of trading may, together
with other factors operating in adolescence, be acting
against enrolment or retention in secondary schooling. In
situations where poverty is deepening there is a tendency
for males to move into the marketing and petty trading
areas traditionally occupied by females.

It is clear that the cultural costs of education in traditional

societies recognised by some commentators do exist in
some of the cases included here, and may take both 'pure'
and 'applied' forms. The former refers to the sanctions that
may operate against an individual for going against the
norms of the society, and females are certainly subject to
such pressures. The latter is concerned with the wider
meaning of the term 'culture' to encompass the whole way
of life, including the economic dimension, of a human
group. Regular and sustained involvement in the type of
formal schooling normally operated may well render the
students unable to make a helpful contribution to the
traditional means of survival on which their family and
community is increasingly dependent as prospects of
economic development disappear.

It is for the types of reasons outlined above that education

is becoming increasingly questioned by poor rural and
even urban societies in terms of its value as an investment
in the future of the family/community. Even in relatively
good times, investment in the education of daughters was
often seen as a waste in that the potential benefit would
accrue to the family of the future husband. Directly
economic features such as bride price and dowry practices
in traditional societies are interwoven with patterns of
kinship and marriage already discussed and although not
always operating against the schooling of girls, tend
usually to do so in the mass of the poorer socio-economic
groups who constitute the majority of the population in
developing countries.

Relationship between curriculum and economy is also

significant, and has been touched upon in relation to the
potential alienation of educated young people from the
harsh survival imperatives of their traditional communities.
Conventional formal schooling develops skills that are
most marketable in the modern sector of a diversified
economy. In developing countries this strongly favours
urban areas where the operation of females in this sector,
with its implications for upward mobility is generally
accepted, as for example in Jamaica. Elsewhere this can be
problematical, even counter productive, except for
daughters of the elite groups and the emerging middle
classes where they exist. As in developed countries, the
apparently dysfunctional nature of most schooling in
economic terms acts against the employability of young
people and perhaps also against their capacity for self-
employment whether in urban or rural settings. This
concern overlaps with the educational factor and is
discussed further below in relation to the need for suitable
forms of vocational and technical education to be
encouraged, especially for girls.

v. Religious

Historically there are of course close links between religion

and the development of education: the emergence of major
creeds such as Hinduism, Christianity and Islam led first to
the study of religious texts and the teaching of literacy and
ultimately in each case to the development of wider
systems of schooling and scholarship. In most of the
countries with which we are concerned here, one or more
of these creeds have been established by mission,
infiltration or conquest over an underlying tradition of
indigenous custom and religion, the schooling associated
with each system of belief has followed. In the context of
Africa, the Koranic school in Camara Laye's L'enfant noir
and the Catholic mission school in Oyono's Une vie de boy
illustrate this development.

Access to formal schooling for both boys and girls then has
been influenced in many developing countries, both
historically and geographically by the spread of religious
movements and missions. Sierra Leone and Cameroon
have similar patterns of Islamic influence in the north and
the penetration of Christian missions inland from the coast
in the west. Jamaica and Vanuatu both experienced the
impact of rival Christian denominations establishing
churches and schools ad hoc and leaving the legacy of an
irregular spread of school provision for the State to
rationalise in later years.

Despite their male authority figures, the Christian churches

have been largely supportive of education for girls, even
though initially it usually took second place to that of boys.
This influence is partly responsible for the good record in
girls' education in such places as Kerala in Southern India
for example. Christian sects recognise the importance of
the education of girls because they know they are
educating the mothers who will teach and train the next
generation of Christian children. This reason for Christian
concern about female education may not have a great deal
to do with notions of equality of opportunity or
employment prospects, but the promotion of girls'
education seems to have made the idea of schooling for
girls more acceptable in areas influenced by Christian
missions and at an earlier date than elsewhere.

Where Church schools have been nationalised and/or

secularised and where state systems have grown up in
symbiosis with mission schools, the general approach to
girls' education has remained supportive. Despite this
however, the strength of factors such as poverty, and older
traditions, especially in rural areas, may still effect
enrolment and retention figures for boys superior to those
for girls.

The low enrolment figures for girls and the relatively

negative attitudes to girls' education in Northern Sierra
Leone, Northern Cameroon and rural Bangladesh were
often explained to us simply in terms of the religious
factor: they are all largely Muslim areas. They are also
however areas which are traditional, rural and poor, and
these factors as we have seen certainly contribute towards
the problem. The daughters of elite Muslim families in
Dhaka are participating successfully at all levels of the
educational system but they have parents who are urban,
relatively wealthy and themselves educated. In traditional
villages Muslim fathers may religiously legitimise attitudes
which are customary rather than matters of belief.
Certainly the Koran does not discourage the education of
girls. More overt support from local religious leaders
would help to persuade parents to send their daughters to
school. In addition, more female teachers, single-sex
schools and secure accommodation where boarding is
necessary might calm parental fears about the vulnerability
of girls outside the home. Although parents everywhere are
concerned about their daughters' safety, the degree of
concern is very marked among many Muslim and Hindu,
parents in the regions studied, within the subcontinent.

Cultural and religious attitudes about the upbringing of

girls may make the risk of physical and moral danger a
particularly important factor in parental decisions not to
allow girls past the age of puberty to go to school.

Another factor in the attraction of religiously based

schools, especially for parents of girls, is the stability of
such institutions and of their teaching staff. Good teachers
are attracted by the prospect of better conditions of work
and reliability of remuneration. Certainly both Christian
and Islamic authorities have been instrumental in
establishing secondary boarding schools for girls as well as
for boys.

vi. Legal

The significance of the legal factor is mainly indirect but

nonetheless real. This is because in terms of modern
statutes equal status between the sexes normally obtains,
legislation having been passed in accordance with
international trends. In practice, however, there are still
important areas where the law could be reformed further to
encourage compliance and in some places women are still
statutory minors! So in general there. is a widespread need
for strengthened legal support for females. In many
traditional societies situations exist where disregard of the
law is commonplace in ways that adversely affect
opportunities for women and girls to participate in
educational opportunities. Much of this type of problem
results from continued adherence to traditional custom
which normally favours males. Long standing societal
rules forbidding female activity or constraining it are
difficult to change, especially in rural communities
dominated by men. There are also cases where discretion is
applied in the enforcement of modern law, for example in
respect of the age of marriage when all parties are in
agreement.
Other areas where legal dimensions to the problem of
modest female participation in formal education exist are,
for example:

• in gaining justice and compensation for

physical attack;

• in gaining support for coping with

contracts in connection with paid
employment and the ownership of property
and/or land;

• in bringing pressure to bear on the

authorities for the provision of full
educational facilities in accordance with
regulations;

• in gaining support for modern legal

operations in respect of marriage, divorce
and inheritance.

At present, illiteracy severely constrains the proper use of

the law by women for their own best interests, and it might
help to resolve the situation by developing more literacy
schemes with associated legal dimensions for rural women.
This might be further integrated with community
development projects.

The issue of the employment of (young) children and

especially girls should be reviewed in terms of current law
and action taken where necessary.

The significance of the legal factor can be well illustrated

by that strand of the work of the Bangladesh Rural
Advancement Committee (BRAC) that seeks to uphold the
legal position of women in the context of the family, the
world of work and physical security. Action taken by
BRAC in this regard has significantly enhanced the status
and strength of its educational initiatives on behalf of
women and girls. This is an effort that could be made on
behalf of many traditional communities elsewhere.
Support for the training of more women for the legal
profession would probably encourage more rural women to
challenge customary restrictions place upon them.

In general it is clear that failure to implement or enforce

existing legislation continues to disadvantage females in
many countries, including the cases represented here, and
that the education system is itself part of the system of
social regulation and control that often continues to permit
a situation of gender bias.

vii. Political Administrative

This factor relates closely to some aspects of the

geographical and legal factors. For example, the provision
of education may be operated by a variety of political
offices with different spatial and legal identities. In the
Cameroons the macro division between the anglophone
and francophone sectors results in two distinctive national
systems of primary and secondary provision. Their relative
influence, especially in relation to the political realities of
higher education appears to have a marked effect on certain
patterns of educational emigration. There is a long tradition
of female exodus from the western provinces to colleges
and universities in anglophone West Africa.

In federal states such as India, where there are also

numerous other providers of education such as municipal
councils in major cities, private trusts and religious
organisations, competing rules and regulations overlap
creating innumerable disparities, some of which have
significance for the opportunities of girls. Such a situation
makes coordination in order to deliver federal policy in
respect of gender and education extremely difficult. In
larger countries especially, there may be a reluctance to
commit funds for initiatives to state or local bodies for fear
of maladministration, even corruption. In many of the
locations visited NGOs are being identified as the most
appropriate vehicles for both internal and external aid to
enhance female participation in education.

Even where suitable regulations exist there seems to be a

widespread problem in respect of the quality of local
administration in the educational services of most of the
cases studied. It is not just the efficiency of dealing with
routine administration, but the nature of the role of local
officials that is constraining educational opportunities for
both sexes, but especially for females in rural areas. If such
officials are appropriately trained to act more as
facilitators/animateurs, giving support to teachers and
communities at the point of delivery, and if more women
were trained for this type of work then more parents might
be encouraged to permit their daughters to attend primary
and secondary schools. This is not just a question of
decentralisation, but of qualitative reform in local
educational administration whether the locus of power in
the system be federal, regional, municipal or at community
level.

The supply and quality of teachers is obviously very

important, and in areas where the enrolment and attendance
of girls is deterred by the lack of female teachers, strong
initiatives have to be adopted to attract them if a
breakthrough is to be achieved. The policy of admitting
females to teacher training courses with inferior entry
qualifications as compared with their male colleagues
could be counter productive, perhaps lowering the quality
of the teaching force and antagonising male teachers at the
same time. The morale and commitment of teachers,
especially primary teachers in rural areas is even further
reduced by lengthy delays in payment of salaries.
Absenteeism becomes common in such circumstances and
parents withdraw their support as they lose confidence in
the utility and reliability of schooling.

Despite the widespread adoption of equal opportunity

regulations and accompanying rhetoric, it would appear
that in most of the cases there is a significant lack of real
political will at the centres of power to adopt radical
programmes designed to redress the gender imbalance. The
creation of 'Womens' Ministries' does not seem to be the
answer. They tend to be poorly funded and have low status
in the hierarchy of real power. It would greatly enhance
prospects of radical reorientation and extension if more
women were enabled to play political roles. In some of the
countries there is evidence of the beginning of such a trend,
and in one (Vanuatu) there is a project designed to
engender greater female participation in public life. This in
turn would provide more visible role models for girls to
emulate.

On the question of language policy - in many rural areas of

developing countries, the local language will have little or
no status, but is the only language of most mothers and
their young children. If this is the case and the educational
level of females is low then they are trapped. The
resolution of such issues requires the application of real
political will on the part of influential males in favour of
their disadvantaged women. In general this is lacking.

viii. Educational

The educational factor is complex as it is in itself a product

of the interaction of all the others. Consequently what is
causal and what is consequential in educational terms in
relation to female participation is difficult to distinguish.

In those countries where girls' enrolment is low, the

literacy levels of mothers are also low. This low
educational base among females diminishes the likelihood
of daughters going to school and if they do, of being
retained within the school system long enough to make it
worthwhile.

In the primary sector despite schemes such as infant-level

feeder schools and boarding facilities for upper primary
classes, access still remains difficult for many children and
as we have seen elsewhere, is more difficult for girls than
for boys. The problem of female drop-out at primary level
is not helped by the lack of female teachers (especially in
rural areas) in countries such as India and Bangladesh. The
absence of basic toilet facilities is also more serious for
girls than for boys. Gender stereotyping in textbooks and
readers reinforces the self-image girls acquire from the
traditional attitudes of their communities. The system of
repeating classes may also militate against girls in that
parents may well think it worthwhile to support a boy
repeating a year but will withdraw a girl. Where poor
resources and teacher absenteeism (due to non-payment of
salaries for months on end) make schooling a questionable
investment for all children, it is girls whom parents seem
most likely to withdraw. This is particularly because they
are so useful at home, especially where the school-day and
the school-year are unrelated to the realities of everyday
life and to the agricultural cycle. The apparent irrelevance
of the primary curriculum to the traditional role of the
female is another factor which persuades parents to keep
girls at home where they can acquire through informal
education the traditional skills perceived as the only ones
they will need as wives and mothers at home and in the
village.

At the secondary level the problems for girls are even more
severe. Incomplete systems, especially in rural areas, make
access to school more difficult than at primary level.
Distance to school has more implications for girls than for
boys as we have seen above. The lack of female teachers
and/or single-sex schooling becomes even more important
for parents once girls have reached puberty and in some
parts of Bangladesh for instance, girls have to attend boys'
secondary schools. Teenage pregnancy and early marriage
obviously affect drop-out at this age, but so do factors
more intrinsic to the system such as availability of places,
the lack of facilities and the costs of fees, uniforms,
textbooks and transport. The stereo-typing of options at
secondary and vocational schools also reinforces
traditional views about girls' education. As one writer puts
it: "the path to school for many girls is only a detour which
leads them back to their traditional tasks in the home".

Where secondary schools offer only an academic type of

course, and technical/vocational training opportunities
elsewhere are scarce and often sex-stereotyped, there are
few options for girls who are not academic high-flyers. The
success and over-subscription of small-scale private and
NGO ventures in providing technical and vocational
training for girls in Sierra Leone, Jamaica and Cameroon,
clearly indicate a need that should attract external support.

At university level, with the exception of Jamaica, where

women students are beginning to outnumber men, female
participation becomes even lower. Urban and middle-class
females, however, are beginning to compete well with
males and over a wide range of subjects, including science,
technology and engineering. The need for secure
residential accommodation for females coming from
distant or rural areas to university centres was stressed in
both Cameroon and Bangladesh. The lack of female
teachers in rural areas makes provision of this sort
particularly important in initial teacher-training if rural
women are to be encouraged to train to teach and return to
their home areas. It is unfortunate that marriage to males in
government service may keep trained women-teachers in
the large conurbations when they are needed back in the
provinces. This was particularly noticeable in Yaoundé and
Dhaka.

The education systems and institutions of countries with

low female participation can certainly do many things to
encourage girls to enrol and to stay on at school, and not
least they can influence the attitudes of the next generation
of parents to their daughters. Our primary survey revealed
that negative attitudes towards the education of girls are
often well-established in 11 and 12-year-old children.
Schools must ask themselves to what extent their ethos,
teachers, textbooks and curriculum are sub-consciously
reinforcing these attitudes.

ix. Initiatives

The problems facing females in respect of being able to

participate in such educational opportunities are
widespread and severe. Nonetheless, it would be wrong in
a report such as this to overlook the considerable efforts
that are being made in all countries visited, and in different
ways, to confront various aspects of this problem. Some
particular initiatives, specific to countries, are mentioned in
the case studies below, but a few more general points about
relevant initiatives here will serve to illustrate that there are
positive factors at work too.

All the governments recognise that the problems of female

participation in education at various levels are significant,
and most have policy commitments to attempt resolutions.
Unfortunately a combination of: pressure on priorities, a
general lack of political will (most of the politicians are of
course male), severe shortage of funds, and poor levels of
staff and resources for the implementation of initiatives,
acts to make for very slow progress. Nonetheless, one may
mention any number of serious initiatives from
governments that have the potential to improve the
situation to some extent. For example, in India the Federal
Government has launched Operation Blackboard in an
attempt not only to bring primary schooling within the
reach of all, but also to specifically target the female
dimension by making regulations for the imperative of a
female teacher alongside a male teacher in every rural
location. Recognition of the need to attract and train more
female primary teachers has led to initiatives by some
governments to allow such trainees to enter the course with
lower qualifications than males. A case can be made for
this, but there are strong arguments against, including the
potentially damaging effect on the status of women. Some
governments, notably in India, have established projects to
free school texts of gender bias.

Some governments operate feeding schemes to help

overcome problems of malnutrition and to attract increased
enrolment at primary level. Where Women's
Ministries/Bureaux have been established, they do increase
the visibility of the issue and provide new role models, but
in practice are often underfunded in comparison with other
Ministries and have little real power. There is also a danger
of any problems associated with females being directed
towards this Ministry, which can be extremely
counterproductive in terms of the vital interests of in effect
at least 50 per cent of the population.

Because of the problems faced by governments in

addressing this issue, most of the effective initiatives are
being carried out by NGOs with external funding. One
such initiative, the primary schools of the Bangladesh
Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) provides an
excellent model that could be replicated almost anywhere
in the rural sector of developing countries. The strength of
this scheme is that it works from within each village
community and recognises the particular needs and
problems of that community. It is realistic and successful.
Other NGOs have similar schemes both in Bangladesh and
elsewhere, and the more successful have, like BRAC,
associated their primary education initiatives with ongoing
community development schemes which include the
enhancement of literacy levels and income generation
prospects for rural women.

NGOs are also involved in addressing the crucial problem

of enabling girls, especially in rural areas, to progress to
the secondary sector, which often involves the construction
of new facilities sometimes with a boarding component, as
well as providing scholarships to cover fees, uniforms,
books and other necessary expenses. Initiatives by
religious bodies are also significant at this level.

The field of technical/vocational education for adolescents

and young adults is clearly becoming increasingly
significant in all countries and although few initiatives
were evident, the excellent work of OIC in Buea,
Cameroon and of the YWCA in Jamaica provide workable
models worthy of consideration elsewhere.

Early pregnancy is a widespread problem, often

terminating a promising educational career. Initiatives to
assist teenage girls to cope both with their baby and with
the continuation of their schooling, such as the Crisis
Centres in Jamaica, are to be commended.

Problems facing Ministries or other Government

Departments set up to look after the problems of women
and girls have been noted. But there are also unofficial
though recognised agencies that have been set up in all the
countries concerned to assist women in need. Sisteren in
Jamaica is a good example. Although not an educational
movement in the formal and limited sense, it does employ
imaginative learning techniques through art and drama that
successfully reach the grass roots, providing ideas, support
and information to females of all ages.

It will be noted that several worthwhile initiatives selected

 for special mention came from Jamaica, where, despite the
matriarchal system and the strong educational profile of
girls, there are still some severe problems for certain
female groups. But at least the position of women in
general there provides a degree of experience and
confidence much needed by their counterparts elsewhere.
Yet even in Jamaica the problem of male hegemony still
obtains, though the vital significance of education in
supporting women's development, especially in the modern
sector, is recognised. So there is still a need for more
women to become active politically, which is where the
final initiative selected comes in. The Vanuatu Council of
Women has developed programmes to impart basic
political skills and confidence to women to enable them to
participate successfully in running meetings and
committees at local level.

e. Conclusion

In the general report section of this document an attempt has been made
to synthesise the influence of the various factors with which the project is
concerned, to outline the scope of the exercise and the methodology
involved. In general the policy has been not to highlight particular cases
because such information is laid out in the case-study section below.
Neither have we given many recommendations in this section, because
they are listed both in the executive summary above and in the cases
below.

Much of what we have found reinforces the knowledge that the problem
of relative lack of female participation in education in developing
countries is vast, almost universal, but we have also found that it is not
intractable and that significant and progressive movement has occurred in
many areas for at least a decade or two. Such momentum should be
maintained, and we hope that the recommendations we have made as a
result of the privilege of making this study will commend themselves to
those with powers of decision-making and funding both in developing
countries and in aid agencies.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries -
Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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5.1 The Case of Bangladesh

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

A. Context
a. General

Bangladesh is a republic formed in 1972, following a war of independence with

Pakistan, of which it had formed the eastern component since the foundation of that
country in 1947. During the period of British colonial control this area was known as
East Bengal and there is some ethnic and linguistic affinity with West Bengal, the
neighbouring State of the Indian Federation.

Much of Bangladesh comprises part of the Ganges/Brahmaputra lower plains and delta
and is subject to severe annual flooding caused by both Himalayan thaw and monsoon
cyclones. Coincidence with high tides in the Bay of Bengal causes massive devastation
and disaster for scores of millions of rural Bangladeshis, including the demolition of
any schools they may have. Around the periphery of the country is a broken zone of
higher ground which becomes the normal environment for the south-east sector which
around Chittagong experiences some of the highest precipitation of rainfall in the
world. The vast majority of the population (about 80 per cent) is Islamic and Bangla
speaking, but there is a significant Hindu minority (about 10 per cent) and also tribal
groups in the hill regions. The capital, Dhaka, is very much the primate city and the
focus of the modest secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy, the majority of
which consists of subsistence agriculture. The overall population density is well over
500 per square kilometre, with about 90 per cent being rural.

Bangladesh is placed in the lowest category of countries by international economic

classification, with a per capita income of less that $US200 pa and could well be the
poorest country in the world. Consequently its economic survival depends absolutely on
international aid, and this includes such capacity as exists to provide education from
public funds.
The linguistic dimension and its educational considerations has had considerable
influence on political developments. During the British colonial period, English was
strongly acquired by the elite which favoured that medium and utilised private and
international avenues of educational advancement that still operate today. Under
Pakistan rule there was an attempt to impose Urdu in schools which was vigorously
opposed by the indigenous population and was a key issue in the thrust for an
independent state. Having gained that independence in 1972, there was a strong Bangla
policy in respect of schooling which led to the decline of English, though in recent
years this has been relaxed. However, the majority of the population and especially of
the females remain illiterate in either medium.

b. Education

The diagram below (Cowen and McLean 1984, p 80) illustrates the educational system
of Bangladesh. The pupils surveyed were in the top class of the primary cycle with the
exception of the children at the BRAC school, which offered two years of basic
education to pupils who tended to be older than those in the government schools.

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF BANGLADESH

Table 1 below gives an indication of the percentages of boys and girls enrolled in
primary schools over the period 1951 - 1985. There has been much improvement but
the percentage of girls out of school was still 62% in 1985.

Table 1: Age Group Population and Participation Rate at the Primary Level in
Bangladesh

Year Sex Age-group population Enrolment % Out of school population %

1951 Male 4,102,326 1,964,414 48 2,137,912 52
Female 3,799,003 485,022 13 3,314,001 87
1961 Male 4,868,687 2,568,278 53 2,300,403 47
Female 4,660,743 958,451 21 3,702,298 73
1975 Male 7,140,328 4,714,000 66 2,897,829 34
Female 6,901,046 2,739,000 40 4,441,745 60
1985 Male 9,217,860 6,714,000 73 2,686,760 27
Female 8,905,550 3,415,000 38 3,743,650 62
(Source: S. Islam Women's education in Bangladesh: needs and issues, FREPD, Dhaka
1982, p. 50)

A similar comparison at secondary level (Table 2) reveals an even wider gap between
girls' and boys' enrolment figures.

Table 2: Age-group Population and Participation at the Secondary Level in

Bangladesh

Year Sex Age-group population Enrolment % Out of school %

population
1951 Male 2,174,013 259,216 12 1,914,737 88
Female 1,663,564 9,009 0.5 1,654,555 99.5
1961 Male 2,610,351 433,079 17 2,176,672 83
Female 2,036,533 39,826 2 1,996,707 98
1975 Male 4,986,950 1,505,010 30 3,481,940 70
Female 4,723,450 457,450 10 4,266,000 90
1985 Male 6,435,467 2,723,100 42 3,712,367 58
Female 6,084,766 1,170,000 19 4,924,766 81

(Source: S. Islam, ibid, p75)

The latest figures available at the time of our visit were those for 1988 (Table 3) and
show a primary school teaching force of 33,774 females and 153,098 males. Pupils
number 11,285,445 but there are only 4,943,119 girls to 6,342,326 boys. Girls'
enrolment drops from one and a half million in Class 1 to 590,000 in Class 5.

Table 3: Number of Primary Schools, Teachers and Students by Management and

Sex, 1988

Management Number of Number of Teachers Number of Students

Institutions Total Female Total Female
Government 37,681 157,663 28,294 9,750,581 4,281,615
Non-Government 7,765* 29,209 5,480 1,534,864 661,504
Total: 45,383 186,872 33,774 11,285,445 4,943,119

*Of these only 4,414 schools are registered.

(Source: Ministry of Education Handbook on Educational Statistics of Bangladesh,
BANBEIS, Dhaka 1989, p 13)

Secondary school enrolment follows a similar pattern as can be seen in Table 4.

Table 4: Secondary Schools Enrolment by Grade and Sex, 1988

Year/Grade Sex VI VII VIII IX X Total

1988 Total 729962 673811 589589 449207 364978 2,807547
Girls 269161 232036 194910 129940 102096 928143

(Source: Ministry of Education, ibid, p 6)

c. Primary Perceptions

In Bangladesh the number of pupils surveyed was curtailed by the incidence of public
holidays and a strike, but the schools visited provided a useful range. They included a
rural school established by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), a
Government semi-rural primary school, and an urban one where the shifts were
arranged by sex and we worked with a class of girls. Our 100 respondents then were
mainly female, although there were some boys at the rural schools visited. The age
range in the classes included in the survey was 8-15 years, but all the older children
were in the rural schools.

Among rural pupils, all the boys were involved in helping in the fields, but very few of
the girls. Sweeping, fetching water and preparing food were however very much girls'
tasks. The care of siblings seemed to be one for either sex. As might be expected from
the traditions of the country, it is the boys who go to the market, rarely girls. Among the
urban elite girls, 70 per cent never go to the store or market. There was a high degree of
consensus that girls help at home more than boys. but among both girls and boys in
rural areas an alarming 92 per cent said that they sometimes miss school because they
have to help at home and over 50 per cent said that it is difficult to go to school every
day. These were by far the highest scores in any country or type of location in the
survey. Even among elite urban girls 43 per cent were sometimes missing school to
help at home.

As far as attitude was concerned 85 per cent of the rural children thought that girls need
to go to school as much as boys. However, 38 per cent (half of the boys and a third of
the girls) agreed that "Girls don't really need to go to school". This proposition was
strongly refuted by the single-sex class of urban girls.
Both rural and urban pupils strongly wished (97 per cent) that school were nearer to
their homes. Fathers appeared to be very supportive of both sons' and daughters'
education but rural mothers were less sure about it apparently - only 77 per cent of the
rural children (by far the lowest in the survey) agreed that "My mother wants me to
come to school very much". And this is despite the fact that in the rural schools we
were looking at the children of relatively well-off and literate families with 82 per cent
of their mothers said to be "good at reading and writing". Second only to rural Vanuatu,
41 per cent of the rural children expected to leave school at the end of the year,
although like children in the other countries in the survey, over 90 per cent would like
to go to secondary school.

Only 74 per cent of the rural pupils said they intended to marry and 80 per cent of the
urban girls. It is striking that there is almost 100 per cent agreement that 0-2 boys and 0-
2 girls would be their ideal family. Bangladesh, along with India, seems to have
successfully persuaded its young people, in theory at least, that they should have
smaller families. Children in Cameroon, Jamaica and Vanuatu are far less restrained in
their plans.

Girls' career preferences in Bangladesh were the most limited in the survey: rural girls
opted for 'doctor' or 'teacher' almost without exception and 88 per cent of the urban girls
said they wanted to be doctors. The lack of range in career preferences would appear to
be linked to the lack of role models for the girls: only a tiny percentage of their mothers
were working outside the home.

B. Factors
i. Geographical

At the local scale in rural Bangladesh the issues of female security and
access to primary schooling combine to the extent that a distance of more
than 2 kilometres can prevent female take-up of primary schooling.
Indeed the percentage of children wishing schools were nearer to their
homes was 95% in the rural Bangladesh schools surveyed: the highest in
any of the countries visited.

On the larger scale the incompleteness of the schooling network, leading

to marked disparities in the distribution of educational opportunity: the
tendency for the poorer teachers to be on the periphery of the system
where access is most difficult; the concentration of single sex schooling
and related accommodation in urban areas, the physical disruption of the
rainy season with its increased costs of access to school by water, all
combine to operate against the educational interests of rural girls to a
greater extent than their male counterparts.

The rural/urban imbalance in provision, enrolment, drop-out and female

literacy rates is very striking.

ii. Socio-Cultural

Societal norms, especially parental attitudes, are key pressures in this

case, and operate against the educational progress of girls and women to
different degrees in each of the four main components of the population:
the rural poor (constituting the vast majority); the rural elite; the urban
poor; the urban elite. The rural/urban dichotomy is stark and extreme.

There is a fundamental cultural bias in favour of males which is most

effective in the poor majority. Rural girls are confined to the village and
as far as possible to the individual home. This is partly for their safety
and security in view of the widespread fear of violent and sexual assault
upon the female person. Should a girl be violated, then not only would
this be a personal tragedy, but also an economic setback for the family as
the prospects of marriage would have been significantly damaged. Hence
the strict security and early betrothal which is endemic and which further
constrain a girl's chances of schooling. Being so confined to the home,
the majority of Bangladeshi girls are likely to be more affected than their
brothers by the extremely low levels of literacy obtaining among adult
females. A combination of very hard physical labour and poor diet means
that the minority of girls who do get to travel to government schools, are
often not in a fit state to respond to the educational challenge which, in
the form in which it is provided, is largely alien to their immediate needs.
In any case, in the context outlined above, the majority of teachers will
be male, and as such unacceptable to the parents of girls. Female teachers
are rare in government rural schools because, for the same reason, few
girls from such an environment would have proceeded through the
system to the level of teacher training, and urban females would not wish
to work in the countryside for reasons of security and lack of facilities.

In the rural locations then, it is not enough simply to provide a school as

girls will not necessarily attend it. When poverty forces a choice between
a boy and a girl going to school, the boy will have preference. Boys have
far more importance than girls and in fact the high birth-rate to a certain
extent is the result of parents trying to get sons and enough of them to
ensure that at least some survive. A girl, despite her contribution to
domestic work, is regarded as a burden in terms of dowry and as too
transitory to be worth investment in her education- in some villages all
girls over 12 are married. The prolonged cycle of child bearing of her
mother, the large number of siblings and the burden of domestic and
agricultural tasks ensure that a girl is likely to be kept at home to help
rather than sent to school. Seclusion in the past has been a middle-
class/elite phenomenon: the rural poor cannot afford it but there is still a
tendency to think that "the home is the most respectable place for a
woman". Girls do not go to the shop or market; boys do. These deep-
rooted attitudes combine with more pressing economic factors in making
decisions about whether a rural girl will go to school or not.

Among the urban middle classes the education of daughters is now

encouraged and indeed has flourished in recent decades, especially in
Dhaka. Such girls are achieving very highly across the whole range of
subjects up to and including university levels, including the so called
areas of male preserve such as engineering science. Indeed there is a
surplus of female professionals, including teachers, in the cities.
However, even the educated female elite suffers discrimination when it
comes to promotion to positions of some power and influence. In all the
sectors of society mentioned above, it is still the attitude of fathers that is
the key to female opportunities in education.

iii. Health

This factor was surprisingly rarely mentioned by professionals and

students, but it was identified by parents. Two dimensions are readily
apparent. First there is the general medical effect of living in conditions
of severe poverty, and the particular point of the extra malnutrition of
girls due to the preference given to boys and men. Many rural children
reach school hungry and this adversely affects their performance. There
is apparently no government food programme for schools as found in
some corresponding countries.

The malnutrition of girls, their lower resistance to disease and their

higher mortality rate are obvious causes of concern. When survival is the
issue, education must take second place.

Secondly, there is the area of birth control and the particular issues of
'young' pregnancies and their physical and social effects. The work of the
Asia Foundation's population programme in Bangladesh has shown that
help in providing secondary schooling for individual girls can have a
distinct retarding effect on the age of marriage, the age of first birth and
the exit of females from formal education. We strongly recommend it.

The family size amongst the children surveyed was as follows:

1 - 3 children 33.3 %
4 - 6 children 54.1%
7 - 9 children 12.6%

The children's own ideas about their future offspring showed that their
plans are for much smaller families, not only in the elite urban groups
where this might be expected, but also in poorer rural ones where the
work of BRAC is obviously having an influence.

iv. Economic

The socio-economic status of parents seems to be the crucial factor in

deciding whether girls go to school or not. It is poverty which is the main
hurdle.

Costs are both direct and hidden, leading parents to favour the education
of boys rather than girls, that is if any of their children are to attend
school. The pressures of poverty are extreme and, given the patrilocal
system obtaining, investment in a girl's schooling tends to be seen as a
loss since any benefit would accrue to her husband's family. Furthermore,
in advance of marriage, the girl's labour would be needed at home in
traditional female roles. If school is attended then direct costs arise in
respect of such aspects as books and other materials, appropriate
clothing, and transportation by water in the severe rainy season.

In rural areas girls' labour in the home and on the farm is an economic
necessity because it frees others to earn outside, and is valuable to the
mother in terms of coping with a 5.00 am - 10.00 pm day of "life-long
invisible work". Girls and women are unpaid family labourers. The
collection of water and firewood are heavy jobs and recent more
intensive cropping by men has led to more post-harvest work for women.
Many mothers cannot spare their daughters for schooling. Wage-work for
cash may also be essential to the survival of the family but this tends to
involve boys more than girls. In urban areas girls are surrogate mothers,
freeing women to work outside the home. The survey revealed that 92%
of the pupils involved sometimes could not attend school because they
had to do jobs for their mothers and fathers. This was the highest
percentage in any country, and shows that helping at home radically
affects not only initial enrolment but also attendance by those children
who do go to school. It also affects drop-out as the school terms clash
with the agricultural cycles and those who miss school over several
weeks drop behind, despair and ultimately abandon school.

Traditional outside jobs for girls and women such as rice-milling are
declining because of mechanisation and even in low socio-economic
groups men prefer women to take on jobs which can be done at home.
Learning skills which can help them to work outside the home would
assist women not only economically, but lead to them taking more part in
decision-making and having more freedom of movement and experience
of holding and handling money, all of which would have positive
implications for their daughters.

v. Religious

Among the various people interviewed or surveyed, religion was not

reckoned to be a direct factor of any significance to the issue of female
educational opportunity. However, it is invoked by some of those who
wish to constrain such opportunity, so that it operates implicitly through
perceived norms. In view of the fact that there is no religious constraint
in this respect, it would be helpful if religious leaders were to espouse the
cause of girls' education, for there can be no significant development in
Bangladesh without it.

vi. Legal

Like health, this factor was hardly raised by respondents but it is also
significant. Legal norms assume a woman to be dependent and therefore
to have no need for access to income or property in her own right.
Women remain statutory minors. Illiterate women with no knowledge of
the law are helpless in the face of injustice.

The question of dowry for instance has become increasingly important as

economic conditions have worsened: dowry violence is on the increase.
A wife however has little legal redress when things go wrong.

Another issue relates to early marriage. The law relating to the minimum
age of marriage might be strengthened in some way. Also more women
should become conversant with the interpretation and formulation of
letters with legal intent. At present, safeguards against the misuse or
neglect of existing legislation, especially in the area of physical abuse,
seem very difficult to operate.

vii. Political/Administrative

Informants complained of lack of real political will in respect of

supporting educational development in general and that of girls in
particular, despite the good intentions expressed in Educational Plans
over the years. One of the problems of access for girls is that the system
is far from complete. Many villages have no primary school which makes
the need to travel too big a barrier for most boys and girls of school age.
A five year system of UPE has been pronounced for achievement by
2000 AD. In the meantime certain initiatives have been taken by the
government to encourage greater female participation, for example: free
schooling for girls up to the age of 8; lower entry requirements for
women to certain programmes of teacher training; a cooperative attitude
to NGOs working on projects to promote female participation.
Nonetheless there is no real push at secondary level in this direction.

While there may be strong central government, the extremely weak

nature of local administration means that such initiatives as may be
attempted are ineffective in practice. Among the short-comings are the
lack of effective supervision of primary teachers, which in turn increases
parental concern and caution. Weak local administration also fails to
check the traditional power of rural elites who in general do not support
the raising of the level of awareness of the rural masses, including the
perception of potential benefits arising from increased educational
opportunities for girls.

viii. Education

"My mother wants me to come to school very much" - only 77% of the
rural children in the survey agreed with this statement: the lowest
percentage in any of the countries studied.

"Girls don't really need to go to school" - 38% of the rural children

agreed with this, one of the highest scores in the survey, despite the fact
that a BRAC school was in existence and influencing attitudes to girls'
education in the area.
There is no doubt that the shortcomings highlighted by the educational
profile of Bangladesh show that this factor is itself significant in the
constraint of female participation in schooling. Most fundamental is the
low level of literacy, particularly among adult rural females, most of
whom are mothers. This must affect the educational potential of both
male and female children, but the mother additionally acts as a role
model for the girls and the fact that they are confined to the home and its
immediate environs means that their male counterparts are likely to enjoy
a richer experience albeit within a largely illiterate setting.

Textbooks themselves militate against improved attitudes towards girls'

status and education by the invisibility of women in texts and by the low
social value of women presented when they do appear.

The incompleteness of the system, its limited relevance to the short-term

survival imperative, its extremely poor amenities (there are often no
separate toilets for girls which is another factor causing their absence),
the high incidence of mismanagement at local level and absenteeism by
(male) teachers all combine to have a negative effect on the issue in
question.

There are not enough single sex schools at secondary level to encourage
parents to permit their daughters to attend, and the schedule and hours of
government schools are at odds with the economic and ecological cycle
of rural communities. Greater flexibility is needed if the figure of at least
50% dropout of girls during years 1 and 2 in some areas is to be reduced.
Despite the initiative in respect of attracting female entrants to teaching
by lowering entry requirements, there are still many thousands more
primary teachers needed over the next decade if the achievement of UPE
is to have any real meaning.

As far as secondary education is concerned there is a real need for

incentives in the form of scholarships for girls, particularly the rural ones,
and for the provision of safe hostel facilities.

ix. Initiatives

Bangladesh seems to be fertile ground for national and international

projects in education, some of which have a direct bearing on the
educational prospects of women and girls.

Among these the pioneering work of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement

 Committee (BRAC) is outstanding and provides a possible model for a
national scale assault on the problem of girls' educational opportunities.
The work of BRAC is so well known that no further comment will be
made on it other than that the writers strongly recommend the model.

• The Asia Foundation/USAID population project

including enhancement of secondary education for girls has
been mentioned above.

• Very useful research on education in Bangladesh,

including the gender factor is undertaken by FREED, there
is a primary teacher training thrust under government
auspices and a UNESCO backed national-scale curriculum
and textbook programme at the NCTBB. There are
numerous other NGOs in the field.

• The Women's Ministry project currently funded by

NORAD, which links with BRAC in its education
components, illustrates well the need to operate on a broad
front, making sure that education is not isolated. Here it is
integrated with issues concerning health, nutrition and
family planning and operates in every province of the
country.

• The government's plans include more scholarships for

girls, more ITT places and hostel accommodation for
women, the placing of more women teachers in primary
schools, and a relaxation of qualification requirements for
intending women teachers.

C. Recommendations
Our major recommendations (not necessarily in order of priority) would be:

i. that support be given to BRAC to enable its primary non-formal

education work to expand educationally and geographically.

ii. that special consideration be given to the articulation between primary

and secondary schooling with a view to encouraging the products of
BRAC and similar schemes to continue their schooling. This could
involve the provision of new secondary schools with adequate residential
facilities for girls in particular.

iii. we were particularly impressed by the Asia Foundation Scholarship

Scheme for promoting girls' secondary education and would
enthusiastically approve support given to this or similar schemes.

iv. that, in rural areas in particular, aid for scholarships for girls to attend
secondary schools be provided.

v. that consideration be given to funding a pilot scheme of new single-sex

secondary schools for girls with safe hostel facilities for both pupils and
female teachers.

vi. that incentives be increased such as abolition of fees, provision of free

uniforms, books and meals.

vii. that support be considered for feeding schemes in primary and

secondary schools where such a facility might encourage and enable the
poorest families to send their boys and girls to school.

viii. that support be given to assist the further integration of the products
of the work of NGOs in this area and the government's scheme of
education and training.

ix. that support to similar NGOs working with the education of rural
women be considered, especially where the work is similar to that of
BRAC.

x. that text-book revision/development schemes should be encouraged

where particular attention could be paid to how girls and women are
presented in texts and illustrations in school books. The influence of
school materials on the ideas and attitudes of both boys and girls could be
an important factor in how the next generation of female children
participate in education: today's pupils are tomorrow's parents.

xi. that initiatives be encouraged to develop technical and vocational

education for both sexes especially, but not exclusively, as a 'second
chance' for dropouts from formal schooling.

xii. that Bangladesh be assisted in reviewing and expanding its system of

teacher-training especially for primary school work.
xiii. that assistance be provided to enable the school day and the school
year to be adjusted to the realities of rural life and the demands of rural
economies.

xiv. that consideration be given to providing secure residential

accommodation for female teachers, especially in rural areas.

xv. there is a need to improve the level of educational policy

implementation at the local level in Bangladesh. This would involve the
training of considerable numbers of personnel in systems of
implementation and delivery. Their role in the implementation of policy
would be a practical one of animation, advice and support rather than
mere administration. The opportunity could be taken to train a significant
number of women in this work.

xvi. that support be considered for rationalising the provision of

schooling in Dhaka where rapid urbanisation may be adding to already
complex patterns of demand.

xvii. although health was not a factor perceived by many respondents to

be influential, it is in fact almost certainly affecting the educational well-
being of girls in particular, so some kind of integrated operation linking
medicine, educational and economic development in an integrated way
could be considered and piloted. Successful schemes already established
have the following characteristics: the provision of text-books, materials
and stationery female aides to accompany girls to school, school lunch
programmes and free medical facilities. The nutrition and health of girls
is an area for priority action within any educational programme.

xviii. that further assistance be considered for improving the standards of

traditional agricultural practice especially where this will enhance the
experience, status and income of females.

xix. that, especially in rural communities, projects should be developed

combining pre-school initiatives with income generation and basic
literacy and numeracy skills for rural women.

xx. that efforts be made to raise the level of male awareness of the
community and family economic benefits likely to arise from increased
participation of women and girls in educational and income generation
activity.
[Previous Page] [Top of Page] [Next Page]
Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries - Education
Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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5.2 The Case of Cameroon

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

A. Context
a. General

The United Republic of Cameroon/République Unie du Cameroun took its present form in 1961
following the readjustment of the border with Nigeria by which some former territory was ceded.
However, not all the anglophone regions transferred, and the present republic comprises
anglophone provinces and francophone provinces. Beneath this anglo-gallic overlay there is a
complex pattern of tribal cultures and languages and some remnants of the earlier German
colonial legacy.

Environmentally, Cameroon is often referred to as 'Africa in miniature', as its ecological zones

range from the Sahara Desert in the north to equatorial forest in the south. Hence the varied
human response and adaptation and the resulting complex of cultures. Outside of the arid regions
the soils are generally supportive, though for the size of the country the population total (about
10 million), and the overall density (about 14 per square kilometre) are very modest. However,
the current rate of population increase is extremely high. There are several significant urban
clusters associated with administrative and economic developments, notably the elevated inland
capital Yaoundé, the major port of Douala and the prime anglophone centres of Bamenda and
Buea. Corridors of modernisation have developed along major routes between these centres,
encouraging urbanisation, possibly at the expense of rural societies and economies.

With well developed export agriculture and certain mineral resources, especially petroleum, the
economy of the Cameroons has been among the healthiest in Africa until the last few years.
Having both British and French links still strong and with needy neighbours, there has been a
diversified trading position, but a notable decline is evident in the economy. Furthermore, the
distribution of wealth would seem to be somewhat limited, with a per capita income of only
about $US600 pa, placing the country in the lower range of the middle income group of
developing countries, despite the existence of a substantial middle class.
Religious affiliations have some educational significance in that both Christian and Islamic
organisations have played their part in the provision of schooling. This means that Arabic is
added to the list of significant languages especially in the north. There is a broad association
between Protestant Christian approaches and anglophone colonial legacies in the NW and SW
provinces, and between Roman Catholic and francophone traditions elsewhere. Because of a
massive migration into Central Province and Yaoundé in particular, the social geography of the
capital is very complex with related educational implications.

b. Education

The diagram overleaf (T. N. Postlethwaite, 1988) shows the parallel anglophone and
francophone systems of education in Cameroon. The pupils surveyed were in Primary 7
(anglophone) and CM2 (francophone).

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF CAMEROON

Table 1: Primary Education in Selected Regions 1985-86

CENTRE SOUTH-WEST FAR NORTH

B G B G B G
Class 1/C1 36,505 36,150 10,217 9,593 32,886 17,434
Class 2/CP 26,768 26,070 17,574 16,521 21,029 9,645
Class 3/CEI 30,784 29,869 13,382 12,949 20,768 8,606
Class 4/CE2 22,623 22,691 13,362 12,369 13,073 4,436
Class 5/CM1 22,452 22,379 12,139 11,323 11,269 2,729
Class 6/CM2 20,044 18,784 11,311 10,382 10,668 2,122
Class 7 155* 188* 7,355 6,028 - -

*Anglophone classes in Yaoundé.

Statistics for Tables 1 and 2 based on Données générales de la scolarisation au Cameroun, Année
scolaire 1985-6 Ministère de l'Education Nationale, Yaoundé, 1989.

Table 1 illustrates clearly the drop-out during the primary cycle and contrasts three regions:
Central, South-West and the Far North. The figures for the Far North show a high degree of
wastage, particularly where girls are concerned. The general level of female participation in
education in Cameroon at the various levels when compared with that of boys can be seen in
Table 2. It is particularly interesting to note how the gap widens as the pupils proceed through
the system, the degree to which classes are repeated, and the ratio of male to female teachers.

Table 2: Figures for 1985 - 1986 Republic of Cameroon

SECTOR PUPILS REPEATERS TEACHERS

B G T B G T M F
NURSERY Public 21,320 20,808 42,12S - - - - 1,711
Private 16,408 14,970 31,37S - - - 10 733
Total 37,728 35,778 73,506 - - - 10 2,444
PRIMARY Public 627,840 500,719 1,128,559 202,860 154,656 357,516 29,433 6,376
Private 229,658 277,101 576,760 75,118 66,860 141,978 4,828 2,617
Total 927,499 777,820 1,705,319 277,978 221,516 499,494 24,605 8,993
GENERAL Public 86,710 45,013 131,723 13,813 8,433 22,246 3,420 1,066
SECONDARY Private 73,716 51,014 124,730 16,000 10,374 26,374 2,519 505
Total 160,426 96,027 256,453 29,813 18,807 48,620 5,939 1,571
TECHNICAL Public 14,995 7,592 22,587 2,482 1,410 3,892 1,022 488
SECONDARY Private 33,671 26,961 60,632 4,597 3,844 8,441 1,252 362
Total 48,666 34,553 83,219 7,079 5,254 12,333 2,274 810
TEACHER Public 2,267 1,591 3,858 186 110 296 372 112
TRAINING Private 99 101 200 - - - 15 3
COLLEGES
Total 2,366 1,692 4,058 186 110 296 387 115

c. Primary Perceptions

In Cameroon, 320 pupils (177 boys and 143 girls) were surveyed in both anglophone and
francophone schools, in Yaoundé the capital, in villages in South-Central and North-Western
provinces, and on the coast. The age-range in the final year of primary school ranged from 9-18,
although the over-age pupils were found mainly in the rural schools. Late enrolment and
repeating classes were both contributing to the high age profile in several schools. Average class-
size was larger in Cameroon than in the other countries visited. Classes with 70-90 pupils on roll
were not uncommon.

Survey results suggest that both boys and girls are equally involved in agricultural work in rural
areas except, significantly, in the north where girls help less. Both sexes are also very involved in
fetching water and caring for siblings, but particularly the girls. Involvement in the preparation
of food was statistically significant for girls as compared with boys everywhere, except among
elite anglophone families in Yaoundé. Boys and girls were equally involved and to a high degree
in tasks such as sweeping. They went in equal numbers to the market or store except, again, in
the north where it was more likely to be the boys who went. Although 88 per cent agreed that
girls help at home more than boys, consensus was more general in the rural areas where girls are
still playing a more traditional role. In urban areas the numbers of children saying they
sometimes missed school because of doing jobs at home were low but 77 per cent of our
anglophone pupils in the North-West and coastal areas said this sometimes happened to them.
This percentage was exceeded only in the rural Bangladesh and rural Sierra Leone samples.

Only 63 per cent of the pupils surveyed agreed that "girls need to go to school as much as boys"
and 27 per cent (mainly boys) went so far as to agree that "girls don't really need to go to
school". Negative attitudes were generally strongest in the north and in rural areas, as one might
expect, but were surprisingly high in the francophone survey schools in and near the capital.

In the various regions between 91-98 per cent of the pupils surveyed intended to marry. These
Cameroonian pupils, particularly those in rural areas, wanted large families when they grew up.
In the case of boy-children, the numbers were also high in urban areas. Indeed, the future family
sizes imagined for themselves by these prospective mothers and fathers were by far the largest in
the survey and reflect the high number of brothers and sisters they themselves have. The families
of the pupils surveyed were again the largest in any of the countries studied (1-3 children: 9.3 per
cent; 4-6 children: 49.5 per cent; 7-9 children: 36 per cent; 10 or more, 5.2 per cent). There was
no statistical difference between the anglophone and francophone groups in this respect.

Career choices as in other countries reflected the breadth and sophistication of choice of urban
pupils as compared with rural ones and the more restricted range of choice among girls whether
urban or rural. It was noted that a very high proportion of the pupils' mothers were working
outside the home whether in professional or government jobs among the urban elite or in
subsistence farming or trading in rural areas.

B. Factors
i. Geographical

Cameroon is a mosaic of differing cultures, languages and religions, united only

by the accident of colonial history. There is therefore great diversity in traditional
attitudes towards women and girls and still today it is difficult to generalise about
problems of female participation in education because of this diversity. Another
factor which has added to this regional disparity is the geographical aspect of the
educational penetration of the country by the various Christian missions: first in
developing boys' education and later that for girls, the missions worked inwards
from the coast. The north and east of Cameroon therefore are underdeveloped
educationally even today, especially where girls are concerned. In 1955 primary
enrolment was 6% in the north and 86% in the south-central province; the gap is
smaller today but has not yet been closed.

In addition to local cultural variations, the major division of the Cameroons into
anglophone and francophone areas is a significant one in that the relative neglect
of the western regions has, over the last two decades led to the take-up of
anglophone educational opportunities by both males and females in Nigeria, Sierra
Leone and Ghana.

To compound this situation there is also the disparity between rural and urban
areas in all parts of the country. Aspects of this dichotomy which affect the role,
status and education of females include polygamy (declining more slowly in rural
areas than in the towns), whether mothers work outside the home (26% in one
rural school in the survey and 78% in a Yaoundé school) and family size, which
although large in all parts of Cameroon, is bigger in rural areas and judging by
children's plans as to their future families, is likely to remain so.

There was a strong school location policy in the west pre-unification, so that the
network is well developed there, though the more recent policy of concentrating
schools near the Nigerian border is deforming it to some degree. Here as
elsewhere the disparities and gaps occur more at secondary level, where in some
places girls cannot reach schools without living away from home, which is not
acceptable to most parents (a 40-mile catchment radius is used by the authorities in
planning secondary locations). As secondary participation becomes strained, it is
the poorer families whose girls lose out as the economic factor emerges. There is
certainly a need for more secondary boarding facilities.

At the primary level the potential problem of distance between home and school
does not normally arise, although there is still a problem in the far north,
particularly among nomadic groups.

ii. Socio-Cultural

This is an extremely important factor and socio-cultural attitudes to some extent

account for the fact that the problem of female participation in education tends to
be under acknowledged. (There are very few studies on the subject and the
problem is often neither recognised nor appreciated.) Even if one accepts the
hypothesis that traditionally Cameroonian women were 'parallel' or
'complementary' in their roles rather than oppressed, they were certainly in a
marginal position.
Women were a scarce resource "given in marriage to the highest bidder". Their
bride-price bought their labour, their sexuality and their child-bearing capacity.
Marriage traditionally has been early, at puberty or just after in some tribal groups
and before puberty in others. Early marriage is still common today in rural areas,
and the tradition continues that marriage is the only possible future for a female: in
one group for instance, all females are married - even widows immediately
marrying their husband's heir. However, the girl-child is at least regarded as a
valuable asset, if only for her work in the fields and for her bride-price. There is a
sharp link between early marriage and the making of money. Although the father's
role and influence is, in itself, declining, the continued operation of a patrilocal
system and the custom of bride-price make investment in the education of girls
less attractive to rural parents than that of boys. A girl is transitory within the
family group.

Traditional non-formal education for girls in most tribal groups centred on

preparing them to be good house-keepers and mothers. A satisfactory wife had "un
ventre de fécondité", a strong spine (for working), good cooking skills and good
manners. Her mother educated her towards this ideal. This traditional view
conflicts with the curriculum of school and school may seen irrelevant to what is
still seen as her only future role by many parents.

In most areas of Cameroon women have always worked in the fields and moved
freely around the extended compounds and villages but in the Far Northern
province there is a tradition of seclusion: meetings organised for women by the
government are not attended and it is said that women are not allowed out even to
vote. Such traditions have obvious implications for school drop-out at puberty
where girls are concerned.

These differences between regions are reflected in our survey when the
percentages of Primary 7 anglophone children disagreeing with the statement:
"Girls need to go to school as much as boys" were 52% (northern rural), 31%
(littoral rural and 19% (central urban).

There is a broad regional disparity in custom as between the north, the south and
the west. In the North men still fear the independence of women that can come
through education and there is more pressure on women to conform to traditional
norms. In the large urban areas of the south and west there is a growing concern
over delinquency in both sexes. This affects secondary education for a significant
number and there are calls for both religious and health education to be
strengthened.

iii. Health
This factor was hardly mentioned by respondents, though parents highlighted it in
connection with the sexual dimension of the youth culture where sex education
and the health of adolescent girls are matters of concern.

The custom of bride-price obviously protects the health of young girls to some
extent, but early marriage and early pregnancy militate against health as well as
against educational opportunity.

The female mortality rate is not however higher than that of males in Cameroon as
it is in India and Vanuatu for example.

iv. Economic

Despite the relatively well developed and diversified economy, the economic
factor was seen by most respondents as the most influential in respect of families
facing problems of supporting their daughters in school. Cameroon has enjoyed
something of a boom until recent years, but is now experiencing rapidly
deteriorating economic circumstances, with the poverty factor likely to be
affecting the take-up of primary schooling opportunities in the context of a
significantly high birth rate.

The economy of polygamy is a significant factor in rural areas: "le travail familial
a besoin de bras". More hands means more agricultural production and therefore
more income: more income means a man can purchase more wives; this in turn
increases production and income. More wives also means more daughters and
therefore more bride-prices. The large polygamous families of the past are
decreasing in number however.

Women play a central role in subsistence agriculture: they are the prime source of
labour. In some tribal groups they own their own fields and own store-houses for
grain. Their role in feeding or helping to feed the family has implications for their
daughters who have to work with them both to help and also to learn the
agricultural skills they will need later: school enrolment and attendance will
obviously be affected. Girls may also be involved in their mothers' petty-trading
activities with similar results.

It should be noted that modernisation in agriculture has been largely directed at

cash crops (which are usually the men's concern) and not at subsistence agriculture
which is where women are involved. Their tasks and those of their daughters have
not become any easier or any less time-consuming.

There is thus a rather utilitarian view of girls within the traditional economy: that
they are useful for housework and farming and will ultimately bring in a bride-
price. This view is prevalent among both Muslims and Christians in the north and
among the Bamilékés, for example, The girl then, unlike the boy who is often
allowed to concentrate on his school-work, may be expected to divide her time
between domestic duties and school. Our survey showed both boys and girls help
extensively at home, girls more than boys in the preparation of food and the care
of siblings.

In view of their work in farming and petty trading with their mothers, girls
apparently may have a relaxed attitude to schooling. Many in rural areas see
themselves as economic burdens on their families and are keen to enter productive
work in the context of trade and then to marry. Ordinary girls need money for
marriage, and a tension arises in the early secondary years between making money
and continuing with schooling. Despite increased opportunities for women to
obtain paid jobs during the boom period, most are in the lower paid sector. In the
professional classes women have made considerable progress but this is partly due
to the size of the bureaucracy and they are mainly appointed at the lower levels.
As elsewhere there appears to be discrimination against women at the senior
levels, though some women are in high positions as the tribal affiliation factor is
also at work.

Promotions for women are mainly in "safe" areas such as education, rather than in
parastatals or international organisations. We were constantly assured however,
that the political will was there and our attention was drawn to the fourteen weeks'
maternity leave and one hour's feeding time per day which are mandatory in
Government occupations.

v. Religious

This is not a direct factor, but indirectly influential and generally supportive of the
education of girls in both Christian and Islamic zones. Though historically
interested in males, neither group has excluded girls. Some of the discrimination
against girls in education in Muslim areas is however religiously legitimised by
traditional men. The Catholic and Protestant traditions view schoolgirl pregnancies
very differently, the former being much more supportive and realistic. It would
appear that Cameroon society has expectations of the churches in respect of
combating the significant moral decline of adolescents and young adults in which
females tend to suffer and be inconvenienced to a greater degree than males.

Some of the indigenous religious rites do give some indication of the traditional
importance of boys as opposed to girls: for example, unless a man has a son, his
skull will not be exhumed and he will never become an ancestor.
vi. Legal

Although customary law gives almost all powers to the male, on paper there have
been equal opportunities since Independence, but the various factors mentioned
above have engendered different types of female disadvantage in respect of
education.

On the issue of early marriage, which is still a significant constraint on girls'

education, while the minimum age for the girl is 18, lawyers will agree to legalise
the union at much younger ages (as low as 12) provided that both sets of parents
are agreed. This is not uncommon, especially in rural areas, and is clearly a
significant factor.

vii. Political/Administrative

The broad anglophone/francophone divide has been noted. As a result there are
two schooling systems which feed into a single tertiary sector. Though the system
is officially complete, there are certainly locational disparities that make for
difficulties of access in some places. With the rapid increase in live births a
thorough review of the accessibility and capacity of the primary sector would be
helpful and illuminating. The anglophone west has been relatively neglected, but
there has also been a policy of locating new schools in the Nigerian border region
to stem the outflow of talent.

A Ministry of Women's Affairs has been created, and this is seen as a boost to
female role perception and morale even though the budget is limited. Levels of
local administration need a boost, in education as elsewhere. They are male
dominated, and given the increasing number of qualified females, it would
probably be beneficial to the administration of education and the confrontation of
female disadvantage where it does exist to have more women in this field. The
view that too much educational aid from overseas has gone into higher education
was strongly voiced, with a call to concentrate more on the renewal of the primary
and secondary sector and increasing their capacity to cope with the rapidly
increasing numbers of clients. If, with economic decline, these sectors come under
stress, especially in the rural regions, it will be the females who will lose out. The
age of drop-out may fall. Aid agencies like ODA should place firm conditions on
the targeting of the younger students. One exception to this might be an attempt to
revive the Buea Campus of the University which has apparently been
systematically neglected by the central administration.

viii. Educational
Many of the schools, particularly at the secondary level are fee-paying and this
affects girls more than boys. There are still significant differences between the
enrolment figures for boys and girls at all levels, particularly in rural areas and
even more so in the northern regions. Even in primary schools, where girls'
enrolment figures are the least different, female drop-out starts quite early and is
very heavy at the end of the primary cycle. The lower socio-economic groups
suffer particularly because these children tend to enrol later and to drop out earlier
than others. The long school day, extending until 5.30 in francophone schools is
another factor which militates against girls who are required to help at home and
in the fields. There is very little daylight left after 5.30 and the long break in the
middle of the day may be all taken in getting home to eat and back to school again.

Class-size which is the largest we saw in the survey, 70-90 pupils being quite
common, is another worrying factor from the point of view of girls in particular.
From what recent research has shown us about classroom interaction and gender,
one can hypothesise that the larger the class, the less attention girls are going to
receive.

The primary and secondary sectors are near universal, with the main problem
being at secondary level in rural areas where insufficient boarding places are
available. This affects girls more adversely than boys as hostel accommodation is
crucial for them.

There is evidence of residual gender bias in the secondary curriculum with

traditional options being on offer. This is a problem of structure as well as content.

The technical/vocational sector is very weak, traditional academic models

remaining dominant.

The tertiary sector presents a problem for anglophones and for females in
particular in that places are concentrated largely in Yaoundé, the Buea campus
having been neglected. Though both languages are supposed to be available, in
practice French predominates. There is a tendency it was said, for francophone
males to offer assistance and accommodation, with pregnancy and drop-out from
the university resulting for the girl. Another response to this francophone
domination is to go to anglophone West African universities, which creates an
anglophone brain drain. However, among those who come through to graduation
an increasing proportion are female (perhaps mainly francophone), and operating
across a wide range of subject areas including the so-called male fields such as
engineering.

In the teaching profession, women tend to be concentrated on the younger pupils

 and in the urban areas. One reason for the over concentration of teachers in
Yaoundé is that married women whose husbands are in government service are
guaranteed jobs in the schools and colleges of the capital. As the schools are
overstaffed, some teach only a few hours per week for a full salary. This rare case
of female advantage in education derives from French colonial policy.

ix. Initiatives

A number of initiatives with some bearing on gender and education were

identified, namely:

• various church schemes for young mothers to improve

health/hygiene and family care generally;

• OIC (Buea) - an initiative funded from the parent organisation in

the USA (Opportunities Industrialisation Centre), which is a
vocational/technical enterprise for young persons of both sexes.
There is no gender bias in respect of trades/skills learnt and the
scheme appears to be highly successful in providing 'second
chances' for young people.

• Institut Pédagogique Appliqué a Vocation Rurale - a ministry

backed scheme with recognised examinations and certification.

• Centre National d'Education - designed to achieve harmony

between the anglophone and francophone sectors of the system.

• Local Domestic Science/Handicraft Centres for Dropout Girls.

• Rural Community Development Centres mainly for the benefit of

wives and mothers.

• Maisons de la Femme - under the auspices of the Ministry of

Women's Affairs.

• A general willingness by the Ministry of Education to bend rules

in favour of girls by waiving for example, the normal age of
admission for entry to certain classes.

C. Recommendations
Our major recommendations (not necessarily in order of priority) would be:

i. Girls' enrolment in rural areas might be improved by a re-timing of the school

day in francophone schools;

ii. that encouragement should be given to efficient NGOs to promote schemes to

effect the progression of girls from primary to secondary schools.

iii. that support be considered for projects aiming to eradicate gender bias from
primary and secondary text books and other material.

iv. that in situations of poverty and malnutrition, feeding schemes for primary and
secondary pupils be considered for support;

v. there is a need for more secondary schools in certain rural locations with
suitable accommodation for girls, and also for additional accommodation in some
existing schools.

vi. other incentives such as a scholarship scheme for girls (cp. Asia Foundation
Scheme in Bangladesh) would encourage secondary participation, increase
primary enrolment in anticipation, delay the age of marriage and open better
employment opportunities to girls;

vii. that the support recommended in (vi) above be targeted at rural areas in
particular;

viii. that consideration be given to developing single sex secondary schools for
girls in the northern zone;

ix. since the technical/vocational sector is particularly weak, and since in view of
the shift in Cameroon's economic fortunes, training in this area may well become
crucial to employment, support could well be offered in this case;

x. the OIC initiative in Buea could be examined with a view to using this model
(or a modification) elsewhere in Cameroon;

xi. that family planning schemes be encouraged and aided to take special account
of the educational needs of teenage mothers who wish to return to school;

xii. it would seem that some sort of health/sex education initiative for adolescent
Cameroonians (to curb the rising rate of promiscuity as seen by parents) would
assist the continuing education of girls;

xiii. there is untapped potential at the Buea campus in both physical and human
terms and a good opportunity to attract anglophones who may well otherwise go to
Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, or out of Africa altogether;

xiv. as in Bangladesh, there is a need to improve the level of educational policy

implementation at the local level in Cameroon. Again this would involve the
training of considerable numbers of personnel in systems of implementation and
delivery. Their role in the implementation of policy would be a practical one of
animation, advice and support rather than mere administration. The opportunity
could be taken to train a significant number of women in this work;

xv. that support be considered for rationalising the provision of schooling in

Yaoundé where rapid urbanisation may be creating increased complexity in
patterns of demand;

xvi. that support to NGOs working with the education of rural women be
considered;

xvii. that wherever possible, and especially in rural locations, an integrated

approach in the fields of medical, educational and economic development be
adopted;

xviii. that, again especially in rural communities, projects should be developed

combining pre school initiatives with income generation and basic literacy and
numeracy skills for rural women;

xix. that credible women's movements, with track records of support for women
and girls in need, be identified and considered for aid;

xx. girls would also be helped by schemes in agricultural training which aimed at
the modernisation of subsistence agriculture;

xxi. that efforts be made to raise the level of male awareness of the community
and family economic benefits likely to arise from increased participation of
women and girls in educational and income generation activity.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries - Education Research
Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

[Previous Page] [Table of Contents] [Next Page]

5.3 The Case of India

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

A. Context
a. General

Coming into being in its present form in 1947, India, to an even greater extent than most other countries,
defies useful generalisation contextual and otherwise. This federal republic, comprising 22 major political
units is the second most populous country in the world.

Within the sub-continent of which India stills forms the major part there is immense environmental
contrast. Particularly in the drier areas, but also elsewhere, the main climatic characteristic is its
unpredictability, causing continual problems of sheer survival for the majority of the population formed of
rural subsistence communities. Alongside this massive and depressed rural sector is a substantial and
dichotomous urban component in which are juxtaposed some of the most modern industries and high
density traditional trading and religious centres. There is also a huge movement of urbanisation creating
not only vast shanty zones but also multicultural complexes. Given the large territorial area, the overall
population density of about 200 per square kilometre is fairly high, and in many areas rates of population
increase are a cause for concern. With a per capita GNP of about $200 p.a. India is, on average, one of the
poorest countries in the world.

In addition to discussions in Delhi, the field visits were limited to the States of Gujarat and Orissa and
locations in and around Baroda and Bhubaneswar in particular.

The State of Gujarat on the western side of India is predominantly agricultural, though with a very
significant history of trading, and associated urban centres. With a population of between 30-40 million,
the State is demographically larger than most countries. Gujarati is the main language, with Hindi also
official, but in the major centres such as Baroda English is widely used in the professional, industrial and
commercial communities. Baroda, on the main route between Delhi and Bombay, is the centre of a former
'princely state', in which formal education has a strong tradition. However urban/rural dichotomy is stark,
with modern microelectronic industries on the one hand and the most basic subsistence agriculture on the
other, on which the majority depend for survival.

By contrast, the State of Orissa on the eastern side of the country is relatively moist, though considerably
poorer than Gujarat in overall terms. Also with a population of over 30 million, Orissa is predominantly
agricultural. On the interior hills are some of main concentrations of tribal peoples, some of whom are
shifting cultivators. They have been pushed further inland by the extension of the more developed rural
economies of the plains people and the industrial and commercial activities in the maritime zone. The
predominant and official language is Oriya, with English recognised above Hindi as the second State
language, which is against federal policy and has educational implications.

Although there are significant mineral deposits in Orissa, and some related secondary industries, the
trading sector is not so well developed as Gujarat and the overall economic profile of the state poorer as a
result. Bhubaneswar is a relatively modern and planned capital.

b. Education

The system of education in India is illustrated in the diagram below (Cowen and McLean 1984 p 154).
The pupils surveyed were in the first year of the Upper Primary cycle.

The following statistics for five states/union territories attempt to demonstrate female participation in
education in Gujarat and Orissa in relation to that in other parts of India. Delhi has been selected because
of the idiosyncrasy of capital cities, Kerala because of its high participation rate and Rajasthan because
female enrolment is lower there than anywhere else in India. The various tables illustrate girls' enrolment,
overall dropout and numbers of female teachers in each region. (Source: NCERT. Fifth All-India
Educational Survey selected statistics Delhi 1989).

EDUCATION SYSTEM OF INDIA BASED ON THE 10+2+3 SYSTEM

Table 1: Percentage of Girls' enrolment to Total Enrolment: 1986

Classes I - V Classes VI - VIII Classes IX - X Classes XI - XII

Gujarat 43.18 38.82 36.23 37.52
Kerala 48.79 49.12 49.63 43.00
Orissa 42.10 36.32 32.41 35.51
Rajasthan 28.02 19.75 16.82 16.42
Delhi 45.56 45.32 43.07 44.76

Table 2: Enrolment in Classes II - VIII as Percentage of Enrolment in Class 1 (Boys and Girls)

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5 Class 6 Class 7 Class 8

Gujarat 100 73.04 69.48 57.35 50.61 41.29 34.82 30.03
Kerala 100 106.10 103.16 97.45 98.84 92.18 84.73 81.31
Orissa 100 80.15 74.60 56.48 47.10 35.15 31.01 27.92
Rajasthan 100 47.61 35.38 33.25 27.55 27.19 20.87 18.50
Delhi 100 92.58 83.10 77.51 70.51 79.56 72.00 64.37

Table 3: Percentage of Women Teachers

Primary Stage Upper Primary Secondary Higher Secondary

Gujarat 44.81 41.17 21.25 22.67
Kerala 61.20 57.34 60.51 45.69
Orissa 16.08 13.14 16.13 45.94
Rajasthan 23.07 22.99 19.37 18.98
Delhi 66.11 54.88 49.34 48.41

c. Primary Perceptions

Part of the survey was conducted in Primary 7 classes in Gujarati-medium schools in and around Baroda
and the rest in Oriya-medium schools in and around Bhubaneswar in Orissa. There were 266 pupils
involved, 166 boys and 100 girls, from a variety of backgrounds: urban and rural elite, urban and rural
poor - children of industrial chemists and of road-sweepers, of grain merchants and of subsistence farmers.
Ages ranged from 10-15 years but the majority were 12 or 13 years of age. Statistics show educational
opportunities and enrolment to be a little better for girls in Gujarat than in Orissa and this was confirmed
by our survey in the schools. Educational provision for girls is free in Gujarat from primary school to
University and has been positively encouraged in Baroda for two generations.

The pupils in the survey were quite heavily involved in helping at home: the boys mainly fetching water,
working in the fields and going to the market and the girls fetching water, preparing food and sweeping.
Both looked after siblings. Rural girls were more likely to help with crops in Orissa than in Gujarat. They
were less likely however to go to the market and this, together with the difficulty of getting access to talk
to mothers in Orissa, seems symptomatic of the prevalence of more traditional attitudes. There was
general agreement that girls help at home more than boys but urban boys seemed less willing to admit this.

Overall 53 per cent of the pupils surveyed said that they sometimes could not come to school because they
had to do jobs for their parents, but the percentage was higher in the rural areas in both Gujarat and Orissa.
The only statistically significant difference between boys and girls was in urban Gujarat where boys were
more likely to miss school for this reason. The highest percentage was in a small market town in Gujarat
where many of the boys helped in their fathers' shops.
When asked to agree or disagree with the statement "Girls need to go to school as much as boys", pupils in
Gujarat agreed more strongly than any other group in the survey; in fact only 3 per cent disagreed. The
numbers disagreeing in Orissa, especially rural Orissa, were higher. Urban girls in both regions were more
likely than rural ones to reject the idea that girls leave school earlier than boys. Pupils in urban areas were
also, as in Jamaica and Sierra Leone, more likely to regard distance to school as a problem. Transport and
distance loom large as problems for city children while rural ones either have a school in their village, or
seem to accept quite long walking distances to get to school as being a natural part of life.

The children's perceptions of their parents' literacy levels followed the expected patterns: the percentage of
mothers "good at reading and writing" is consistently lower than that of fathers and the percentage for both
parents is lower in the rural areas than in the towns.

As regards marriage, the numbers of children intending to marry is slightly below the survey average in
Gujarat but average in Orissa. The striking result is in the numbers of children these pupils plan to have:
with only one exception, pupils from both regions and from all types of locations are almost 100 per cent
in favour of having between 0 and 2 daughters and 0-2 sons. Together with Bangladesh, the Indian sample
has the lowest family size projections in the survey: pupils in Cameroon, Jamaica and Vanuatu envisage
much larger families. The one exception in the Indian sample is in rural Orissa where traditional attitudes
surface in the case of boy children: 87 per cent want 0-2 boys and 13 per cent would like 3-5 boys.

In general, career choices appear to be sex-stereotyped, and in the case of girls, rather limited. Gujarat
produced the only pupils in the whole survey apart from two in Yaoundé who wanted to become artists or
poets; they were all boys. Even so, female participation in education in Gujarat is obviously making
progress. Of the 66 teachers in schools visited, only seven were men, even if the headteachers and bursars
were male. One group of girls in a quiet, small market town can serve to illustrate how new attitudes are
emerging: these girls had a wider range of career choices than the boys in the same class, more than half
did not intend to marry or have children, a startling one third of them came to school on bicycles, and all
came from families with no more than two or three children. They were nearly all daughters of oil, grain
or cloth traders, clerks or teachers. It is not only the professionally and socially elite groups in the cities
who are giving more opportunities to their daughters: a great deal is happening in Gujarat's small towns
and villages too.

The answers below are those of a 12 year old girl living in a village. Her father is a clerk and her mother a
stone-worker. She has two brothers. She helps at home everyday fetching water, preparing food, sweeping
and shopping. She wants to be a teacher, to marry and to have one son and one daughter.
B. Factors
i. Geographical

There is immense geographical diversity, in both human and physical terms, even just
within Gujarat and Orissa and the areas visited in and around Baroda and Bhubaneswar.

The rural/urban dichotomy is profound, ranging from sophisticated cities with high tech
industries and substantial educational traditions to highly marginalised hill tribes with pre-
industrial economies. There is a massive migration from rural to urban areas, creating
increasingly complicated cultural mosaics with which schools are required to cope. The
educational dimension of this relationship works in both directions (push/pull) and rapid
change in rural areas arising from new lines of communication (roads for long distance
commercial travel) can be both liberating and damaging in respect of the needs and causes
of rural women and girls.

Issues of isolation, dispersal of population and locale specific cultural traits including
innumerable vernaculars provide difficult contexts in which to try to focus on the particular
educational needs of any given group of people. Relationship between the social groups,
perhaps through education will produce new problems.

In general in the rural areas contacted the enrolment of girls was substantially less than that
of boys, with an internal contrast between the relatively strong support of the local elite for
their girls' schooling and the weak response of the underprivileged masses, whose daughters
may not enrol until 8-10 years old and drop out within a year or two.

In any case the school systems are not universal, being provided by a variety of sponsors,
including the Federal and State Governments, and a significant private sector. If the system
is to become universal and effective, then more efficient location and operation of the
individual units is essential, and the population base for the establishment of a primary
school may need to be reduced (e.g. from 300 to 200). At present, distance between home
and school can still be a deterrent to female participation, despite the national policy of
attempts to provide schooling facilities within a radius of one kilometre of the country's
rural habitations.

ii. Socio-Cultural

This is a very strong factor in the case of India, but in close harness with the economic. The
marked urban/rural dichotomy already mentioned means that for more detailed discussion
the populations would have to be disaggregated at least into: urban elites, urban mass, rural
elites and rural mass. But then we would have further to recognise scheduled castes and
tribes as well as the squatting urban poor of the shanties. Comments here must inevitably be
rather general.
In most communities patriarchal forces still dominate. Females are subordinated unless they
are in a matriarchal system (as in Kerala for example). Where formal schooling exists,
female participation is repelled by a lack of female teachers. The issue of the security of
daughters is very significant. With girls being home-based, some informants thought that
the most useful educational skill they can acquire is letter reading and writing on behalf of
their illiterate parents, and particularly their mothers. Subjection is the norm for most Indian
women outside of the urban middle classes. This severely constrains the school attendance
of girls after the onset of puberty. They are required to learn other skills of significance to
their family and community and in respect of their marriageability, such as singing, dancing,
cooking and the decoration of buildings. Formal education can be a severe disadvantage in
this respect. For women and girls to break away from such restrictions, either the support of
males would have to be gained and/or the women would have to acquire at least a measure
of real economic independence. Neither is easily obtained in a situation of patriarchal
poverty.

The average family size in the samples of pupils tapped in Gujarat and Orissa is smaller
than Cameroon, Sierra Leone and Vanuatu, and the number of children these boys and girls
hoped to have when they become parents was also relatively small, though the preference,
especially of the boys was for male offspring. The high status attached to boys has the
corollary of low status for girls, though in the scheduled tribes (e.g. Orissa), girls are
considered more of an asset. Across the whole range of social groups mentioned above, the
nature of female role models, and the contribution of trained and educated women to
community interests are significant.

iii. Health

A factor surprisingly rarely mentioned by respondents, but self-evidently significant to the

participation of girls and women in any form of educational exercise. Grinding poverty and
sheer hard work are debilitating and can cause particular conditions of note, such as
blindness. The high rate of female mortality has various causes but within it, infant and
maternal mortality are both seriously high. Female infanticide persists, with increasingly
sophisticated methods being used by the more affluent urban middle classes. There is a low
valuation of female life at birth followed by neglect, early marriage and childbirth (with
associated health risks), a long reproductive span and domestic overwork. Large families are
seen as an insurance in rural regions, but fewer, better fed babies would be preferable. The
opening up of new roads tends to bring additional health hazards, including sexually
transmitted diseases. As one source put it: "Women's lives are cheaper and more expendable
than men's. Their inferior status stands in the way of their survival."

iv. Economic

Poverty and hunger are the main reasons for the non-participation of girls in education.
Food and survival are urgent daily issues. Boys do not attend either, usually working in the
fields or going to market, but the girls' tasks often carry with them surrogate mother
dimensions with all the responsibilities implied, because changing patterns of employment
are forcing their mothers further afield. Pupils surveyed in the primary schools visited
certainly had such tasks, especially the girls, but the ones who were probably doing most for
their parents were not at school to answer our questions! Child labour is an endemic and
basic aspect of the majority of poor rural economies in India.

There is a worsening position for the female work force; in both agriculture and industry
women are being deprived of traditional work and income by technological development
and mechanisation. Women lack the basic education to learn technical and vocational skills,
which are in any case not widely available through the formal system. There is a strong
belief in boys' formal education as an investment and lack of belief in non-formal education
as an investment. Both are profoundly mistaken in the context of rural India.

Dowry costs can be crippling at family level. Due to the patrilocal system, the labour of
daughters is lost on marriage, hence the dis-incentive to invest in their education (markedly
different in matriarchal areas of course). Where formal schooling does exist the lack of
correspondence between education and economy highlights the need for income generation
for rural women. The only relevant form of education at this stage is whatever will achieve
this. A sharp boost in functional literacy combined with appropriate technology is needed to
improve existing systems.

Women desperately need independent income (a) for the family and (b) to cope with
divorce and widowhood. To achieve this, upgraded or new skills acquired must be locale
specific. Such skills are particularly important to drop-outs from the academic secondary
sector. Formal education during years of physical growth can render both sexes physically
unable to contribute to local economy in the traditional way (for example the inability to
carry heavy loads - especially water - on the head, often a female task). The later the drop-
out, the greater the problem.

v. Religious

This is not a strong factor in itself and respondents rarely mentioned it. Both indigenous and
imported varieties are evident. In respect of the former, both Gujarat and Orissa are Hindu
areas where women traditionally have low status and are under obligation to marry and
produce male children. The religious significance of sons in terms of obligations to parents
can be important, though in practice some elderly people are now also seeing their
daughters in this role - mainly a middle class variant due to the mobility of professional
sons.

Islam is often maligned in respect of this topic, but in fact its teachings are sometimes
misinterpreted in order to try to legitimise religiously the relative male:female status. The
Koran does not forbid the education of girls.
Christianity has largely been a beneficial influence in India in terms of improving female
status and access to education. The cases of Kerala and Assam illustrate this, where the
political factor is also supportive. Teachers are attracted to denominational schools because
they receive regular and reliable pay.

The role of local elders, which can have religious dimensions, in supporting increased
female participation, can be vital to any development scheme.

vi. Legal

India has a good and relatively long standing record of labour laws against misuse, but these
are constantly flouted by employers. Rural workers rarely complain as a paid job of any sort
is a valuable asset. In any case, such laws do not relate to the informal/family based
economic unit and women are constrained by other laws. They have no rights to inherit
property, indeed they are property, as shown in the marriage customs. Rural and poor urban
women are not in a position to claim legal rights due to lack of education (basic literacy),
lack of legal knowledge and their traditional dependence on males.

Important in this respect would be the acquisition of letter writing, simple accounting and
contractual skills by (rural) women, as also in such aspects as hire purchase and marriage
laws. Literacy programmes therefore need to be relevant to such special needs of women
and girls.

vii. Political/Administrative

The political dimension is complex here. Modern India comprises 32 major units, unified
only against outsiders. All three levels of public political life, Federal, State and local, affect
this issue and there are also other interested political forces (such as teachers' unions which
are against locale specific operations of any kind).

Political will in respect of resolving the problem of female participation in schooling is

weak, and especially so at local level, where the quality and reliability of local (male)
officials is very poor and in need of reform. Rural elites are still a strong force, usually for
conservatism. Decisions as to positive discrimination in favour of women can be counter-
productive, but the lesser of two evils may be better than nothing.

Even where village schools exist, they tend to be appropriated for community and family
functions though this may not be as dysfunctional as heads and teachers feel it is, provided
additional funding accrues from such uses, which it usually does not. Formal education is
clearly a subordinate element in many of the rural communities of rural India.

viii. Educational
There are many systems of provision, often overlapping or interconnecting, but in general
the system is incomplete and inadequate and fails to get anywhere near the educational
needs of the majority of females. This may have its benefits in the long term, providing that
future developments in provision are relevant. Some sort of nursery provision is essential in
order to free mothers for economically productive (income generating) work. The very low
level, even incidence, of (adult) female literacy is a strong brake on development and
perhaps priority should be given to initiatives combining pre-school and adult education,
with provision of formal schooling coming later in association with changing economic
needs in respect of education in each locality.

As far as the formal system at school level is concerned it is incomplete, poorly resourced
and administered. An enormous upgrading of political will is required to direct more public
funds to formal education, for devolved funds dissipate due to maladministration in the face
of the complexity and scale of the problem. As it stands, formal schooling is of little
relevance in the rural communities, but an essential element of urban economies, for in the
case of India (to a greater extent than most of the other cases) there is also a very
sophisticated urban-based economy which can absorb both male and female products of the
system. As in Bangladesh middle class girls are achieving very highly and moving strongly
into areas previously the preserve of males, such as engineering. But the systems of the
Indian states also vary greatly in terms of female participation according to historical
influences, matriarchal systems and political will. Where these come together, as in Kerala,
the education participation of women and girls is outstanding. By contrast in the relatively
high tribal component of the population of Orissa, the female proportion of the respective
age-group participating in primary, 'middle' and secondary education is 16, 9 and 4 per cent
respectively. Both State and Federal systems remain inflexible in the face of locale specific
educational needs.

So in respect of girls there is low access, insufficient places and a dearth of female teachers
in some rural areas. The last is particularly significant as the security of girls is vital in the
face of possible assault not only en route to school, but also sometimes at the hands of male
teachers. Female teachers would also be at risk in rural locations and in any case there is no
accommodation for them in the villages. The majority of qualified female teachers are from
urban areas and are married to husbands who work in such areas.

Girls start late and drop out quickly, even more so in the tribal communities where the
whole situation of an enclosed space for (abstract) education to be imparted is profoundly
alien to their own environmental imperatives and informal educational practices which
serve them well unless they wish to join the modern sector, or indeed cannot avoid it
reaching them. Going to formal school can disadvantage tribal children in respect of their
own community.

There are efforts in the formal system to deal with gender bias in texts and this is helpful.
But even in the advanced urban areas, the fact that the education of girls can lead to
 independence of thought and increased aspirations does not necessarily appeal to middle
class males, nor to mothers-in-law who are still key figures in family organisation.
Nonetheless urban middle class girls are excelling in the universities, including the male
'preserves', such as engineering, but will they help their rural sisters?

ix. Initiatives

Numerous initiatives are being taken that relate in various ways to the issue of female
participation in education and only a selection will be mentioned here, for example:

• The Integrated Child Development Scheme

(ICDS) for the age-range 3-6, operating three hours per day under the
auspices of the Ministry of Welfare;

• Operation Blackboard another Federal initiative attempting inter-alia to

solve the problem of lack of female teachers (and therefore of female
enrolment) in rural areas;

• The new DIETS (over 400) for the support of 'pre-service' INSET:

• The SCERT Early Childhood Centres scheme;

• The Indira Ghandi Open University outreach programme.

Massive initiatives carry immense problems of their own in such areas as funding, logistics,
counterparts and constructing. Perhaps the most impressive initiatives, and more likely to
succeed, are smaller scale efforts on the part of individual institutions, with the likelihood of
long term commitment such as the MS University of Baroda Home Science Extension
Programme.

C. Recommendations
Our major recommendations (not necessarily in order of priority) would be:

i. that in situations of poverty and malnutrition, feeding schemes for primary and secondary
pupils be considered for support;

ii. that schemes be funded to revise text-books and develop new ones that would help to
raise consciousness at school level as to the problem of lack of female representation and
the possibilities for improving the situation;
iii. that encouragement should be given to efficient NGOs to promote schemes to effect the
progression of girls from primary to secondary school;

iv. that consideration be given to funding a pilot scheme of new single-sex secondary
schools for girls with safe hostel facilities for both pupils and female teachers;

v. that initiatives be encouraged to develop technical and vocational education, for both
sexes especially, but not exclusively, as a 'second chance' for drop-outs from formal
schooling;

vi. that India be assisted in the reviewing and expansion of teacher education and training
provision in such a way as to encourage greater female participation, including more
residential facilities and with special consideration for the primary sector;

vii. that the particular problem of the security of (rural) females be addressed, especially the
provision of accommodation for female teachers.

viii. that projects be developed to improve the standard of local administration of

educational provision and that the opportunity be taken to train a significant number of
women in this work;

ix. that where work patterns cut across school hours, parents and the local community be
involved in deciding on school hours and terms, (as per BRAC schools in Bangladesh).
Adjustment should be made to the imperatives of the local economy;

x. that support be considered for rationalising the provision of schooling in large urban
areas, such as Baroda and Bhubaneswar, where rapid urbanisation may be adding to already
complex patterns of demand;

xi. that projects be developed and supported that address pre-school/child care needs and
adult literacy needs in harness;

xii. that agencies such as ODA continue, and if possible increase, their support of
development schemes targeted on rural women and operated by NGOs, and in particular to
do with income generation, non-formal education and basic legal knowledge;

xiii. that incentives be increased such as: abolition of fees, provision of uniforms, free books
and meals, scholarships and 'dowry-bribes' (so that schooling can be completed before
marriage);

xiv. that initiatives be coordinated with health, sanitation, water, income generating and
other projects so that education is part of a coordinated package;
xv. that further assistance be considered for improving the standards of traditional
agricultural practice, especially where this will enhance the experience, status and income of
females;

xvi. that credible women's movements, with track records of support for women and girls in
need, be identified and considered for aid;

xvii. that efforts be made to raise the level of male awareness of the community and family
economic benefits likely to arise from increased participation of women and girls in certain
forms of educational and income generating activity.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries - Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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5.4 The Case of Jamaica

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

A. Context
a. General

Jamaica is a republic founded in 1962 following the demise of the Federation of the West Indies through which the majority of the former British colonies in the
Caribbean had gained independence in 1958. It is by far the largest in land area (some 11000 sq. kilometres), and population total (now well over 2 million) within
that group of states collectively known as the 'Commonwealth Caribbean'.

Jamaica enjoys an equable sub-tropical climate though with periodic devastating visitations by hurricanes. With the higher part of the island being in the northeast
and in the path of the trade winds there is a marked contrast between the leeward and windward sectors. Kingston the capital (and its environs) has grown rapidly in
the past few decades on the leeward slopes below the Blue Mountains and the conurbation now contains more than half the island's population. The overall
population density is about 200 per square kilometre.

In general Jamaica is culturally homogeneous, predominantly anglophone, and about 80 per cent Afro-Caribbean. However, there are significant ethnic minorities of
Indian, Chinese and Levantine origin and a variety of Christian denominations (20 per cent Anglican, 20 per cent Baptist, 10 per cent Church of God, 8 per cent each
of Catholic and Methodist) all of which have made significant educational contributions. The long standing North American connection has provided the link for the
development of Rastafarianism from the 1920s on, and this has spread to other Commonwealth Caribbean states as well as the West Indian diaspora, with some
educational effects.

By the standard indices Jamaica ranks as an 'upper-middle income country', that is to say the highest group within the developing world, with a per capita income of
well over $US1000 p.a. For a relatively small island state the economy is quite well diversified, with extractive industries and export agriculture in the primary
sector, a small but not insignificant manufacturing sector, and a tertiary sector that includes tourism, financial services and the main campus of the University of the
West Indies which produces an advantageous multiplier effect, though of course the Government of Jamaica contributes more than any other to the capital and
recurrent costs of this regional institution. For the past two decades the economy of Jamaica has been in a critical state and in recent years subject to strict IMF
controls, including on public spending, and therefore education at all levels.
b. Education
The diagram on upper (T. N. Postlethwaite, 1988, p.399) shows the educational system of Jamaica. The pupils surveyed were in Primary 6 classes, the last year of
the primary cycle.

Table 1 below shows clearly the more regular attendance of girls at school in both urban and rural areas. Girls not only attend school more regularly but also achieve
more steadily than boys as can be seen in Table 2 which analyses "repeaters" in the school system.

Table 1: Percentage Attendance In Primary & All Age Schools By Location And Sex

PARISH SEX PRIMARY ALL AGE

URBAN RURAL TOTAL URBAN RURAL TOTAL

Kingston M 79 - 79 69 - 69
F 83 - 83 74 - 74
St. Andrew M 79 71 75 77 61 64
F 80 67 74 78 66 72
St. Thomas M 76 63 70 69 55 62
F 75 70 73 70 60 65
Portland M 71 63 67 60 54 57
F 83 68 76 63 61 62
St. Mary M 70 56 63 67 64 66
F 75 54 65 70 69 70
St. Ann M 73 71 72 68 62 65
F 72 75 74 75 70 73
Trelawny M 71 68 70 71 59 65
F 69 74 72 76 65 71
St. James M 82 66 74 70 62 63
F 86 69 78 78 65 72
Hanover M 69 69 69 63 62 63
F 75 72 74 75 68 72
Westmoreland M 67 59 63 65 56 61
F 73 61 67 74 62 73
St. Elizabeth M 63 64 64 62 55 59
F 68 68 68 68 57 63
Manchester M 76 72 74 68 62 65
 F 76 74 75 68 71 70
Clarendon M 69 72 71 57 57 57
F 72 73 73 64 64 64
St. Catherine M 78 63 71 64 60 62
F 79 70 75 68 64 66
TOTAL M 76 65 71 68 64 65
F 78 69 74 72 64 68
GRAND TOTAL 77 67 73 70 63 67

(Source: Ministry of Education. Education Statistics 1987-88. Kingston. 1989, p 39)

Table 2: Number of Repeaters by Grade, Sex and Type of School

SEX GRADE 1 GRADE 2 GRADE 3 GRADE 4 GRADE 5 GRADE 6 TOTAL

Primary M 1040 257 216 225 259 1089 3086
F 653 173 148 144 180 1640 2938
All Age M 1052 480 264 230 176 506 2708
F 656 232 168 149 111 748 2064
TOTAL M 2092 737 480 455 435 1595 5794
F 1309 405 316 293 291 2388 5002
TOTAL 3401 1142 796 748 726 3983 10796

SEX GRADE 7 GRADE 8 GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12 GRADE 13 TOTAL

All Age (7 - 13) M 273 174 473 - - - - 920
F 252 218 486 - - - - 956
New Secondary M 13 41 153 34 50 - - 291
F 2 34 66 51 12 - - 165
Secondary High M 7 69 159 179 362 6 6 788
F 25 59 89 136 279 11 3 602
Comprehensive High M 9 14 14 13 93 - - 143
F 5 1 20 7 51 - - 84
Technical High M - 1 11 19 31 - - 62
F - - - 5 17 - - 22
TOTAL M 302 299 810 245 536 6 6 2204
F 284 312 661 199 359 11 3 1829
GRAND TOTAL 586 910 1471 444 895 17 9 4033

(Source: Ministry of Education, ibid, p 59)

Girls are consistently entered for the selective Common Entrance Examination for secondary high school places in greater numbers than boys and win more places.
The results for the years 1980-86 are shown in Table 3. Overleaf, Table 4 shows how this pattern is typical throughout Jamaica.

Table 3: Entries and Awards In The Common Entrance Examination 1980-86

ENTRIES AWARDS
Year Boys Girls Boys Girls
1980 13796 24310 3735 5031
1981 13659 23762 3999 5317
1982 15534 26933 4199 5187
1983 17948 30065 4086 5292
1984 18083 29744 4200 5480
1985 17694 29201 4284 5784
1986 17523 28560 4303 5541

(Source: Ministry of Education)

Table 4: Common Entrance Examination for Entry To Secondary High Schools: Numbers of Entries and Awards By Type of School, By Sex and By Parish

PARISHES ENTRIES AWARDS

GRAND TOTAL ALL-AGE & INDEPENDENT TOTAL GOVERNMENT FREE CANDIDATES ENTERED
PRIMARY SCHOLARSHIP PLACES FROM
PRIMARY INDEPENDENT
& ALL AGE SCHOOLS
SCHOOLS -
Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
Kingston 1764 2646 4410 1534 2451 3985 230 195 425 972 4 8 405 555 265 406 140 149
St. Andrew 5262 7185 12447 4482 6248 10730 780 937 1717 3139 11 4 1419 1705 940 1134 479 571
St. Thomas 537 1076 1613 530 1069 1599 7 7 14 431 1 - 167 263 164 261 3 2
Portland 407 918 1325 399 900 1299 8 18 26 231 - - 107 124 103 118 4 6
St. Mary 549 1110 1659 540 1094 1634 9 16 25 366 - - 117 249 111 244 6 5
St. Ann 866 1720 2586 834 1669 2503 32 51 83 697 - - 241 456 223 430 18 26
Trelawny 449 788 1237 449 788 1237 - - - - - - 111 186 111 186 - -
St. James 1407 2040 3447 1359 1954 3313 48 86 134 735 - 1 316 418 298 371 18 47
Hanover 225 714 939 225 714 939 - - - 164 - - 71 93 71 93 - -
Westmoreland 658 1238 1896 637 1205 1842 21 33 54 246 - - 119 127 113 121 6 6
St. Elizabeth 571 1392 1963 549 1354 1903 22 38 60 518 - 1 224 293 207 265 17 28
Manchester 819 1577 2396 739 1491 2230 80 86 166 560 1 1 249 309 194 253 55 56
Clarendon 1177 2567 3744 1064 2402 3466 113 165 278 870 - - 388 482 318 397 70 85
St. Catherine 2604 4358 6962 2533 4279 6812 71 79 150 1616 - - 738 878 688 837 50 41
TOTAL 17295 29329 46624 15874 27618 43492 1421 1711 3132 10842 17 15 4672 6138 3806 5116 866 1022

Ministry of Education (ibid) p67

Table 5 gives the most up-to-date figures for enrolment in government aided high-schools and shows the preponderance of girls in selective secondary education.

Table 5: Enrolment in Government-Aided High School by Sex and Parish

1986/87 1987/88
Total Male Female Total Male Female
Jamaica 55,810 23,566 32,244 54,558 22,649 31,909
Kingston 8,281 5,263 3,018 8,218 5,260 2,958
St. Andrew 19,018 6,750 12,268 19,030 6,605 12,425
St. Thomas 1,276 568 708 1,303 564 739
Portland 2,380 974 1,406 2,564 1,066 1,498
St. Mary 1,863 627 1,236 1,884 595 1,289
St. Ann 2,593 884 1,709 2,718 954 1,764
Trelawny 1,360 434 926 1,477 414 1,063
St. James 3,391 1,152 2,239 3,431 1,228 2,203
Hanover - - - - - -
Westmoreland 1,579 711 868 1,597 725 872
St. Elizabeth 1,356 671 685 1,372 686 686
Manchester 2,467 929 1,538 2,473 905 1,568
Clarendon 3,860 1,774 2,086 4,057 1,885 2,172
St. Catherine 6,386 2,829 3,557 4,434 1,762 2,672

(Source: Ministry of Education, ibid p 67)

Table 6 demonstrates the preponderance of female teachers a' all levels of the school system and particularly in the primary sector.

Table 6: Number of Teachers in Infant, Primary and Secondary Schools By Qualification, Sex and Parish

PARISH TRAINED GRADUATE PRE-TRAINED TRAINED TEACHER PRE-TRAINED TOTAL GRAND TOTAL
GRADUATE TEACHER
M F M F M F M F M F
Kingston 46 182 49 56 370 1,060 30 36 495 1334 1829
St. Andrew 95 430 44 104 548 2,074 48 58 735 2666 3401
St. Thomas 9 23 8 4 121 463 11 32 149 522 671
Portland 12 14 9 6 119 483 16 23 156 526 682
St. Mary 14 32 5 8 136 633 16 28 171 701 872
St. Anne 9 31 3 4 153 781 4 20 169 836 1005
Trelawny 12 16 5 - 96 435 7 10 120 461 581
St. James 34 69 5 11 188 800 10 15 237 895 1132
Hanover 10 17 - 1 86 385 11 14 107 417 524
Westmoreland 16 35 4 5 153 662 5 19 178 721 899
St. Elizabeth 21 41 10 9 202 855 30 26 263 931 1194
Manchester 16 65 12 16 212 792 13 11 253 884 1137
Clarendon 35 64 9 8 325 1,236 29 33 398 1341 1739
St. Catherine 28 132 16 34 395 1,822 26 76 465 2064 2529
TOTAL 357 1,151 179 266 3,104 12,481 256 401 3,896 14,299 18,195
GRAND TOTAL 1,508 445 15,585 657 18,195

(Source: Ministry of Education, ibid, p 15)

c. Primary Perceptions

In Jamaica the pupils surveyed were in Primary 6 classes in rural, suburban and urban schools and covered an age range of 11-13, the most compact we came across.
There were 142 pupils, 60 per cent girls and 40 per cent boys. The skew was caused by including a top set from one school in which there were 41 girls and only 18
boys. The ratio of girls to boys in this particular class and elsewhere is an indicator of attendance, attitudes and achievements in Jamaican primary schools: in
general, girls out-perform boys.

As regards helping at home, rural boys in the survey were slightly more likely to help in the fields than girls, but both sexes are involved in other tasks such as
fetching water, caring for siblings, preparing food, sweeping and shopping. Although 87 per cent agree that girls help at home more than boys, there was a
statistically significant number of boys disagreeing about this in the rural and urban groups. The percentage of pupils who said they sometimes could not come to
school because they had to help at home varied according to rural/urban location and socio-economic background: rural and poorer children were more likely to miss
school (46 per cent).

Almost every child in the survey declared his or her mother to be good at "reading and writing". This was the highest percentage in the six countries and reflects the
high degree of female participation and achievement in education in Jamaica. Support from mothers for their children's education was 100 per cent. Only 13 per cent
of the pupils (the lowest in the survey) thought that perhaps girls "didn't really need to go to school". Only 2 per cent of the children thought they might be dropping
out of school at the end of the year (a greatly lower percentage than anywhere else) and practically 100 per cent wanted to continue their education.

Jamaican children however seem very aware of the direct and indirect costs of education. In fact 93 per cent agreed that "it costs a lot of money to go to school".
Urban pupils were particularly conscious of this and the concern may be linked to transport costs.. Over 90 per cent of the children wished school were nearer to
their homes.

As regards marriage, 89 per cent expressed an intention to marry and the vast majority wanted children. Rural pupils, particularly boys, wanted more children than
those in urban and suburban schools. Boys in general wanted not only more children but more sons than did girls, to a statistically significant degree. As regards
careers, both boys and girls made varied and sophisticated choices. Boys had a wider number of ideas, but girls' choices were not as stereotyped and limited as in
other countries in the survey - they included 'detective', 'archaeologist', 'aircraft fire-fighter' and 'divorce lawyer', along with the more usual 'dress-maker' and 'nurse'.
Very few pupils had a mother who was not working and girls took it for granted that they too would have jobs after they had completed their schooling.

B. Factors
i. Geographical

This factor is complex in its influence and effect due to the irregular juxtaposition of urban and rural in a small state and the relative lack of catchment
regulation. Access can in practice be difficult and journeys up to 25 miles from home to school are not unknown. The pattern becomes bewildering
within the Kingston/St. Andrews metropolitan area. For the mass of pupils, public transport is the only regular means of reaching school. As the bus
companies have been deregulated and are in cutthroat competition, they do not find "schoolers" sufficiently profitable and leave them standing at the
stops. Once onto the bus young adolescent girls who should be paying reduced fare are verbally abused in view of their mature physical state and
required to pay full fare or get off. The result is a daily battle with pupils arriving tired and angry. Rural pupils with longer journeys may not reach
school at all.

Teachers, especially the younger ones with little capital, and also females tend to prefer moving or returning to rural areas after graduation whence
they too commute into the urban centres. For historical reasons most of the well-established schools at secondary level are in Kingston or its environs
and parents go for the prestigious names.

Common Entrance selection procedures from primary to high school have particular geographical dimensions since there is no official catchment, but
parish boundaries and demographic patterns are taken into account. As girls form two thirds of the high school pupils they and their parents are
directly enmeshed in this Byzantine situation.
Jamaicans form a 'migration society', internally, regionally and internationally, with females to the fore. Given the socio-cultural nature of that society,
mothers as migrant role models strongly influence their daughters. They migrate for work, and this in recent decades means the tourist areas in
particular, as well as continued drift to Kingston.

ii. Socio-Cultural

This is strongly matrifocal society. Jamaican women are accustomed to gainful employment, to handling money, to taking decisions and commanding
respect. Not surprisingly, daughters learn survival strategies from their mothers and boys learn to be dependent on females. This dependency is
reinforced at the primary school by the predominantly female nature of the teaching force. This is resented by boys because, despite (or perhaps
because of) the 'free ranging' life of the adult male they have also absorbed an ideology of male domination. This tension may be a cause of some of
the male rejection of the school system, even at primary level. In any case, boys are encouraged by mothers to "do their own thing" and move easily
into a streetwise culture where membership of a gang (not necessarily violent) compensates for the absence of a father figure. Such a pattern is deep
rooted in Jamaican society, as is a relatively high incidence of homosexuality.

Girls, by contrast are protected by the home, with a positive role model to follow and strong support for schooling. This may not be so easy in practice
in the more remote rural regions and in very poor families where, if access to school is difficult and more than adequate clothing, including shoes, is
not available, then girls may be kept away from school. It would be tolerable for a boy to go ill-shod, even barefoot, but not a girl. The sartorial
presentation of girls in particular is a strong cultural trait.

Boys are also deterred from school by the lack of one of their special interests, sport, which has declined markedly in recent decades. In view of their
poor performance in class, boys may be over-represented in the All-Age Schools which have no suitable sporting or other amenities for them,
including vocational and technical.

Teenage pregnancy is common, some estimates put the incidence at about 25 per cent of this age range, and strongest in the lower socio-economic
classes. There is a feeling that one has to prove one's fertility by the mid-teens. This introduces a significant female problem in relation to education
that contrasts with the general gender profile. In the past most such girls would have dropped out but several initiatives (see below) have been
introduced to keep them in schooling and on line for the gainful employment that can follow the successful completion of schooling. This problem
also exists in the lower middle and middle classes but mothers are usually very supportive.

Despite being accustomed to employment and responsibility, Jamaican women still tend to defer to male authority at senior institutional levels and in
public life, though a break through may well come in a big way.

iii. Health

There can be significant medical effects of early child bearing, especially if combined with poverty, yet despite family size, Jamaican women have a
higher life expectancy and lower mortality rate than men. Boys surveyed in primary schools looked forward to having large numbers of male children.

A rather difficult aspect to deal with is the psychological effects of failing to gain selection in the Common Entrance Examination, both for the child
and the family.

iv. Economic
During the 1970s and early 1980s women and girls proceeded through the system into jobs in the growing modern sector. It is not so easy now, but if
qualified beyond school level, for example as a teacher, there are still opportunities. So the predominantly female teaching force is prone to be
transitory, en route to better paid and more highly regarded occupations, and the small male component even more so. This is a purely economic
decision, as teaching formerly carried some prestige in Jamaica.

Traditionally both sexes helped at home, boys more on the land, and this is still so. In the urban areas, some of the boys are in the street economy,
entering the informal work sector earlier. Consequently they are more often absent from school and drop out sooner. For generations boys have been
into a 'money culture' and some do very well without any formal education. Others remain poor for life, mostly in the ghettoes of E and W Kingston,
where the efforts to send girls to school are surviving (in the interests of the family income). In the event of poverty preventing all children in a family
going to school "the one with the book" i.e. most likely to succeed in the academic environment (whether boy or girl) will be sent. In the primary
school survey, the urban school pupils registered one of the highest levels of appreciation of the significance of both cost and the distance from home.

v. Religious

As usual not a direct factor in that all religions and denominations in Jamaica (and there is great diversity) favour the education of both sexes and
indeed help to provide it. However, some strong criticism was voiced to the effect that the patriarchal ethos in some way supported male domination.
The Anglican church in Jamaica had voted against the ordination of women after vigorous debate. This supports the 'deference to men in high office'
syndrome. However, the United Theological College, a multi-denominational seminary linked with UWI, strongly supported the Women and
Development Studies programme there.

One practical legacy is that Christian denominations founded many of the prestigious high schools and thereby determined their locations which now
contribute to the somewhat bizarre pattern of provision in geographical terms.

vi. Legal

There were no comments on this factor, but it might be noted that unlike some countries, schooling is not compulsory. In the social context of Jamaica,
this probably affects the boys' drop-out (or non enrolment) to some extent.

vii. Political/Administrative

Perhaps because of the devolved nature of the system, there was very little direct comment on this factor. However, there is a Women's 'Ministry'
within the Government structure and major parties address the issue of women in Jamaica. Much that would normally come under this heading, of
necessity falls under the following section for obvious reasons. The administrative operation of the Ministry of Education is in process of
decentralising, with six local offices, in an attempt to work more closely with communities from which it hopes more direct, including financial,
support for schooling may come.

viii. Educational

In the circumstances described, the Ministry of Education becomes more of a coordinator and referee, but as difficulties deepen it does intervene more.
For example, it was decided to upgrade eight 'New Secondary Schools' to the status of High School, ostensibly in order to rationalise the chaotic
mobility outcome of the status and significance of the Common Entrance examination. This was widely believed to have been a purely political
decision.
The basic unit of educational provision is the Board of Governors of each school and these bodies tend to seek male principals of schools, despite the
predominantly female nature of the teaching profession. This is said inter alia to be to do with controlling boys, but is also part of the 'deference to
males in high places' syndrome.

Findings from primary school surveys on this project confirm the documented pattern of the relatively high achievements of girls, their better
attendance and domination of the Common Entrance successes. By this stage the top set has become markedly skewed in sex ratio terms (for example
at an urban primary school there were 41 girls and 18 boys in set A and 31 boys and 20 girls in set B).

The entire system of schooling is predicated on the Common Entrance, including the nature of the curriculum where traditional patterns and styles
occur in both primary and secondary sectors. Sex stereotyping in books and other materials is common and the options structure in the secondary
sector, reflects this. The common pattern of 'girls' subjects' and 'boys' subjects' is there, with the latter tending towards the sciences. In the high schools
of course, the largely middle class male component performs as well as the girls, though perhaps because of the thrust from earlier years the profile of
girls in the CXC examinations and in the higher education sector is strengthening year by year. Top students in the applied sciences, like engineering,
are now female. Curiously, however, at school level there is still a gender difference in mathematics that tends towards the boys and is found in some
other countries In general girls do better in single sex schools. ix. Initiatives

• Crisis Centres have been established for pregnant girls and young mothers where education can be continued while looking after the
baby. These are doing a good job but cannot meet the demands produced by the high rate of teenage pregnancies.

• There are more crèches appearing in work places.

• The Van Leer Foundation has a project for teenage mothers in three locations.

• An unofficial but sanctioned abortion clinic operates in Kingston, largely for the benefit of pregnant teenagers who wish to take this
option. The standards are high as it is de facto part of the medical system.

• The YWCA have established an Educational Institute for girls which provides vocational/technical education for products of the 'All
Age Primary Schools' who emerge without qualifications and too young for employment. It is a 'second chance' for such girls and is
doing an excellent job. Funding for the teachers' salaries is from the Government but not for other salaries (ancillary) or for materials
which are inevitably expensive in this type of work. For this reason perhaps an academic element leading to public examinations has
been introduced. There are good relationships with both private and public sector employers who take girls on placements. The regime
is strict. Failure to comply loses a girl's placement and therefore her prospect of gainful employment. The main Institute is in Kingston
but two others have been founded elsewhere on a very small scale without any
Government support as yet.

• The Sisteren movement, though not directly educational at school level, provides support for women and girls who are in difficulties
and in particular who have been abused. The fact that they are in so much demand throughout Jamaica illustrates the continued
disadvantage of females, mainly in the lower social groups, despite the formal educational profile. Sisteren will help girls of school age
on an individual basis and also has a travelling theatre to present and explore the problems it is addressing and some initiatives to
resolve them. It is concerned with income generating skills for women and has a retail outlet for its products. Other sources of funding
are very limited.

• Women and Development Studies Programme in UWI. This is a cross-faculty and cross-campus initiative which has the strong 'moral'
 support of the male dominated hierarchy of the University but not the funding. Over a decade or more it has operated a number of
successful regional meetings, workshops and programmes and by so doing has contributed significantly to the understanding of gender
issues in the Caribbean region. It is now looking even wider for recognition and funding and hoping to examine Gender in a Single
Europe. It is not directly concerned with the educational and other experiences of Jamaican females in particular but does provide a
theoretical and academic framework for some of those who do work 'on the ground' for the improvement of the position of women and
girls. Unfortunately, for reasons of internal institutional policies, the Faculty of Education is not yet linked with this initiative, though
some tutors are, on a personal basis.

C. Recommendations
Our major recommendations (not necessarily in order of priority) would be:

i. that support be considered for feeding schemes in the primary and secondary schools, such as already exist but need developing further; they are
currently run from the Ministry of Education. If such a development is not forthcoming, in the circumstances of economic down-turn there could well
be an increase in the drop-out rate of both sexes, even at primary level;

ii. that research be funded into the gender dimension of the (New) Secondary Schools and All Age Schools. To date almost all research has been on
the High Schools. It would be useful, perhaps especially for boys in Jamaica, to know more about this important sector;

iii. that support be considered for projects aiming to eradicate gender bias from primary and secondary textbooks and other materials.

iv. that support be considered for the YWCA Educational Institute for Girls model, for its extension to other locations in Jamaica and for the proper
resourcing of the existing programmes, which inevitably involve mechanical, electrical and other apparatus;

v. that support be considered for a boys equivalent to the YWCA model to be established;

vi. that support be considered for the development of Community skills centres and other skills training programmes to promote employment
prospects for teenage girls (and boys), but taking into account lessons learnt from the generally disappointing HEART initiative;

vii. it would seem that some sort of health/sex education initiative is needed for adolescent Jamaicans in order to combat the high rate of teenage
pregnancies which may well adversely affect the educational profile of up to 25 per cent of young Jamaican females;

viii. associated with the previous recommendation, support for further development of family planning schemes should be considered, especially to
take account of the educational needs of teenage mothers who wish to return to school;

ix. that support be considered for the reform of educational administration under way that will place the Ministry of Education on a decentralised
operation linking with local communities. As in other countries visited, the level of local educational administration is a vital one in terms of reaching
the real problems and being able to respond efficiently;

x. that support be considered for rationalising the provision of schooling in large urban areas, especially Kingston where complex patterns of demand
and transportation can be disadvantageous;
xi. that support be considered for Women's Centres for pregnant teenagers;

xii. that consideration be given to aiding selected women's organisations like Sisteren which are clearly needed by many Jamaican women and girls.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries - Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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5.5 The Case of Sierra Leone

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

A. Context
a. General

Sierra Leone is one of the smaller West African republics, with an area of some 71,000 square kilometres. Independence was gained in 1961, and the
country comprises a number of significantly contrasting environmental and cultural components.

There is a fundamental and considerable difference between the Freetown Peninsula, which includes the capital and primate city, and the rest of the country.
Following the resettlement of freed Afro-Caribbean slaves from the New World on the peninsula and its environs, this part of the country not only benefited
from the trading economy of the major port but also developed an educationally oriented culture served by a number of prestigious schools and colleges.
This cluster of institutions once extended its influence throughout West Africa and beyond.

While the (Krio) culture of the peninsula is relatively homogeneous, urban and Christian based, the rural interior of the country has both Christian and
Islamic dimensions and is multi-tribal and multi-lingual, though two major groups predominate, the Mende and the Temne, each with about 30 per cent of
the total national population.

Economically, Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita income of about $US200 p.a. The majority of people are
subsistence farmers, and at this basic level the land is generally supportive. There are significant mineral deposits, including diamonds, and the one major
trading centre of Freetown, but the general economic profile of the country has been in decline for at least a decade. One of the results of this is the chronic
underfunding of public education at all levels, but particularly in the primary sector where the high birth rate is causing increasing demand for places. At the
same time there is an evident disenchantment with schooling on the part of some rural parents and communities which is shared by a significant number of
primary teachers who remain unpaid for considerable periods of time and are forced to revert to their land for personal survival.

However, with a total population still only about 3 million and a modest overall density of 40 per square kilometre, survival on the land is still possible, but
such a scenario does not encourage participation in school by either sex.

b. Education
The diagram below (T. N. Postlethwaite, 1988, p 593) shows the educational system in Sierra Leone. The survey was conducted with pupils in Primary 7.

Table 1 shows the relative enrolment of boys and girls as proportions of the school-age population at primary level. Enrolment is low for both sexes but
lower for girls in all age-groups.
Table 1: Enrolment in Primary Schools in Relation to Number of Children of School-Going Age

Age % Enrolment of Boys In Relation to Boys of School-going Age % Enrolement of Girls in relation to Girls of School-going Age
5 36.7 28.0
6 47.1 33.4
7 48.1 32.2
8 42.0 28.6
9 39.4 25.7
5-9 42.6 29.6
10 35.2 24.1
11 31.7 20.8
12 27.1 16.3
13 20.6 11.1
14 12.4 4.5
10-14 25.7 15.6

(Source: J May-Parker (1986) from C. Davies et al. Final report on access to school - primary and secondary data 1977 - 1978, Government of Sierra Leone,
nd.)

Secondary enrolment is lower for girls than for boys but also varies according to province. Tables 2 and 3 contrast the enrolment and retention of boys and
girls in the Northern Province and the Western Area (which includes Freetown), and illustrate the extremes of the regional differences.

Table 2: School Enrolment by Class and Sex: NORTHERN PROVINCE

MALES FEMALES TOTAL

FORMS NUMBER PERCENTAGE NUMBER PERCENTAGE NUMBER PERCENTAGE
 1 2,251 30.6 980 38.1 3,231 32.6
2 1,715 23.3 595 23.1 2,310 23.3
3 1,519 20.7 551 21.4 2,070 20.9
4 1,119 15.2 294 11.4 1,413 14.2
5 668 9.1 147 5.7 815 8.2
Lower 6 48 0.7 3 0.1 51 0.5
Upper 6 27 0.4 3 0.1 30 0.3
TOTAL 7,347 100.0 2,573 100.0 9,920 100.0

Table 3: School Enrolment by Class and Sex: WESTERN AREA

MALES FEMALES TOTAL

FORMS NUMBER PERCENTAGE NUMBER PERCENTAGE NUMBER
1 3,334 27.9 2,671 30.0 6,005
2 2,719 22.7 2,099 24.2 4,810
3 2,345 19.6 1,585 18.3 3,930
4 2,009 16.7 1,255 14.5 3,264
5 1,225 10.7 895 10.3 2,120
Lower 6 179 1.5 100 1.2 279
Upper 6 113 0.9 57 0.7 170
TOTAL 11,924 100.0 8,662 100.0 20,586

(Source: C Davies et al., ibid p 61-62)

c. Primary Perceptions

The survey in Sierra Leone was carried out in Primary 7 classes in Freetown, in a small town in the north and in relatively remote villages in the north-east
and southeast of the country. The ages of pupils ranged from 10-15 but the majority of older pupils were in schools outside Freetown. Altogether 140 girls
and boys were included in the survey in roughly equal numbers.

In rural areas both boys and girls were equally and very much involved in helping with agricultural work and in such tasks as fetching water. In both rural
and urban areas both sexes were concerned with caring for siblings. It was by no means a task only for girls. Cooking was also done by both sexes but to a
lesser degree in the north where it is traditionally the female who prepares food. Both boys and girls were involved in sweeping and shopping. Village
children agreed 100 per cent that girls help more at home than boys, but there was less consensus in the north (85 per cent) and Freetown (83 per cent).
Outside Freetown a staggering 86 per cent of children agreed that they sometimes could not come to school because they had to help their mother or their
father; even in Freetown however 52 per cent were in the same position. There was no significant difference between the sexes in this and 37 per cent found
it difficult to get to school every day.

Pupils were largely in agreement that boys stay on longer at school than girls and even more agreed in the villages. Outside Freetown 35 per cent thought
that girls did not need to go to school as much as boys. The attitudes in the north of the country were more negative even than in the villages, in fact 77 per
cent of pupils there agreed that "Girls don't really need to go to school". This was by far the most negative reaction to girls' schooling in the whole survey
and was not statistically significant by sex - the majority of the girls agreed with the boys! Parental attitudes to their sons' and daughters' schooling seemed
highly supportive, judging by the answers to items 5 and 10 ("My mother/my father wants me to come to school very much") and there was no sign of sex
discrimination in the results for this question.

The pupils' responses to the questions on their parents' skills in reading and writing indicate much lower literacy levels for mothers than for fathers in the
villages, the small northern town and in Freetown itself. The rural and northern figures for women (17 per cent and 52 per cent respectively) are the lowest
in the whole survey, whilst those for Freetown, though lower than those for men, are a respectable 80 per cent. The children's perceptions of their fathers'
reading and writing skills follow a similar pattern at a higher level: rural 59 per cent, northern urban 85 per cent and Freetown 87 per cent. Outside Freetown
the gap between male and female literacy is a serious one: the children's responses confirm the statistics.

Pupils in Sierra Leone are extremely conscious of the costs of education: 89 per cent agreed that "it costs a lot to go to school", and this was the highest
figure in the survey. In Freetown pupils are very concerned about distance 87 per cent wished school were nearer to their homes and this would appear to be
related to the lack of zoning and the poor transport system in the city. However, most of the children in all regions wanted to continue school next year.

The children's families were large and comparable in size with those in Cameroon and Vanuatu: (1-3 children: 15.6 per cent; 4-6 children: 40.7 per cent; 7-9
children: 30.7 per cent and more than 10:12.8 per cent). Whatever their intentions as regards marriage and having children themselves (this group was not
specifically asked about this) their career choices seem to be, as elsewhere, far more varied and ambitious in the case of the boys. In rural areas, choices
seem to be dictated for both sexes by the limited number of role models available- boys think they would like to be a doctor or a missionary, girls write
down "nurse". At the moment very few rural girls complete primary school and for those who do, the nearest secondary school may be a long way off. Not
many will have the chance to become a nurse.

The answers below are those of Yama who is twelve and lives in a small town in the north. Her father is a teacher, her mother a housewife and she is the
middle child in the family of three girls and two boys. She fetches water, sweeps and looks after her little brother and sister every day. Her teacher considers
she is average in ability.

Say whether you AGREE or DISAGREE with these sentences:

AGREE (Yes!)
DISAGREE (No!)
1. Girls help at home more than boys √x
2. Boys usually stay at school for more years than girls √x
3. Girls need to go to school as much as boys √x
4. Girls are usually younger than boys when they stop going to school √x
5. My mother wants me to come to school very much √x
6. Girls don't really need to go to school √x
7. Sometimes I can't come to school because there are jobs I must do for my mother or my father √x
8. It costs a lot of money to go to school √x
9. I wish school was nearer to my house √x
10. My father wants me to come to school very much √x
11. I think my mother is good at reading and writing √x
12. I think my father is good at reading and writing √x
13. I think I shall be leaving school at the end of this year √x
14. I would like to go to school next year √x
15. It is difficult to come to school every day √x
16. I would like to go to secondary school √x
17. I like school √x

WHEN I GROW UP

When I grow up, the work I'd like to do is nurse .

B. Factors
i. Geographical

Sierra Leone shares with other West African states, and of course the Cameroons, a Christian/Islamic dichotomy. The Christian dimension is
further divided between the Freetown Peninsula and the remainder. The Freetown Peninsula contains not only the primate city and capital, but
also the distinctive Krio culture of the descendants of freed slaves from the Caribbean. The contrast between the capital and the rest of the
country is even greater than in most developing states, and this includes education.

In the Western Province the position of women is far better than elsewhere in Sierra Leone, whereas to be both female and provincial leads to
underprivilege. The further inland along the few roads of any note, the more remote and isolated each settlement becomes. Urban/rural
dichotomy may be best described in terms of Freetown/Province dichotomy, so dominant is the primate city among the towns of Sierra Leone.
Most educated working women are in Western Province. Northern Province is particularly low in the provision of post-primary education and
in the proportion of the female population who are gainfully employed.

Rural/urban contrasts are sharp in secondary education enrolments and in literacy rates. Indeed the rural parents in our survey had the poorest
literacy rate in the entire project. Distance from school can be quite considerable and deter attendance at primary level in the rural regions, but
for different reasons, getting to school across Freetown can also be very difficult. Secondary pupils are likely to have even longer distances,
and both public and private transport are extremely poor. Parents are particularly concerned about their daughters having to travel long and
insecure journeys to school.

ii. Socio-Cultural

Factors in this range are central to the poor profile of female participation in education in Sierra Leone. The traditional role of women as
housekeeper, mother and community member remains strong. Outside of Freetown, men are willing for their women to have employment
initiatives but only if they are based at home. Traditional forms of tribal education continue, with the Bondo bush schools fulfilling certain
traditional roles. By contrast the curriculum of the rural primary school appears, and of course is, of little relevance to the realities of everyday
life in rural Sierra Leone. So while the participation rates of rural girls are very low, those of boys are not much better.

The low status of women is particularly noticeable in Northern Province, mainly for reasons of custom rather than religion, though Islam
tends to be held responsible. In fact some significant educational initiatives for girls in Sierra Leone have been generated by Islamic
communities and professionals.

In the provinces and rural areas there is an obligation for a 'mature' girl to marry. Early marriage and pregnancy are still major reasons for
drop-out or non-enrolment. Several of the parents surveyed indicated quite independently the fact that many girls were precocious (in the
sexual sense) and it is evident that the high rate of sexual relationships from an early age is a cultural element across gender.

Male domination attitudes run deep and are early acquired. For example, considerable proportions of boys in the rural primary schools visited
did not consider it necessary for girls to go to school at all. The figure reached 77% in Makeni which is way ahead of anything else in the
survey. On other surveys, the 'negative attitudes of fathers' figures strongly, and 'lack of encouragement from parents' is also sadly a frequent
comment.

iii. Health

Surprisingly rarely mentioned in interviews, this factor is clearly an important one. Early marriage, and especially pregnancy, can have
adverse effects on the physical development of girls. The massive rate of sexual activity inevitably introduces related medical problems
including now AIDS, and so the International Planned Parenthood Federation has a major project running in Sierra Leone. Part of the problem
according to the project director, may be ascribed, albeit indirectly, to education in that in order to reach a secondary school some girls and
boys will have to live away from home and so such sanctions as have existed are inoperative. Even routine health practices learned informally
in the community are forgotten. Under-nourishment, though not famine, is widespread in Sierra Leone, and when combined with physical
hardship and long journeys to school, it takes its toll. Inevitably levels of concentration are reduced.

iv. Economic

Poverty is by far the largest cause of low levels of female participation as perceived by virtually every set of respondents, teachers, students,
parents and professional educators. It operates both directly and indirectly. The hidden costs would include the usefulness of the pupil at home
and on the land, but the real costs are quite significant too. Primary school pupils are well aware of this and wish to try to succeed in order to
make money later for themselves and their own families. Children of both sexes may be found in Freetown engaging in petty trading during
school hours.
Girls may obtain money from boy friends and sometimes from "sugar daddies" - older men who will fund their education or other interests in
return for a relationship. There is a danger that this may well lead to an early pregnancy. The age at which this tends to happen corresponds
roughly with the onset of the academic secondary school programmes/options leading to public examinations. This is an expensive stage,
requiring the recommended course texts and other costly items. It is particularly disappointing for girls who have worked hard to reach this
point to have to drop out, and the support of an older man can resolve the problem.

Large family sizes are both benefit and burden, but in this context, rather the latter, being in the range of 5-10 children in the majority of cases
at the schools visited. Inevitably fees cannot be raised for as many children as this, and if anyone is going to be supported, it will be a boy.
Even if they do get to a school, most will also have to work hard at home or on the land. Such activities as looking after siblings, fetching
water, sweeping the compound and going to market are vital to the survival of the family. So a family's opportunity costs, as well as actual
costs will be considerable if one or more of their children goes to school.

Most educated women are from elite backgrounds. There are some employment opportunities for women in Freetown but hardly any in the
provinces. Even in Freetown due to economic constraint, men are coming into competition with women for jobs normally occupied by
females, such as typing, nursing and primary school teaching.

It is difficult to desegregate economic from socio-cultural factors. For example, the Fula, once a remote minority in the north, are now a major
entrepreneurial force, using their increased wealth to educate both boys and girls. This is a modern parallel to the mercantile operations of the
creoles in the nineteenth century who used their wealth to educate daughters as well as sons by establishing schools and encouraging their
offspring to seek professional roles. The Fulas are now investing in real estate and property development in Freetown. Twenty-five years ago,
the enrolment of Fula girls in school was rare, now it is increasingly strong.

v. Religious

The broad dichotomy between Christian and Islamic zones has been noted. Religion per se is not a direct factor according to most
respondents, but it was strongly considered to be so by one particular group, the senior professionals interviewed in Sierra Leone. As
elsewhere, it is custom rather than religion that tends to deprive girls of schooling in Muslim areas. In addition to the example of the Fulas
mentioned above, there are other initiatives from within the Islamic communities affording opportunities to girls to acquire technical and
vocational skills. The Christian denominations also have been a positive force for female education. Their institutions tend to be well
organised and attract good staff who are generally committed to their task as they know they will be paid regularly.

vi. Legal

Not seen as a factor in the modern sense, though traditional custom is obviously a constraint on girls' education in many areas.

vii. Political/Administrative

Given the state of the economy, it is not possible for the political and administrative systems to serve the communities as the regulations
provide. One telling example is that of the payment of teachers' salaries. It is not uncommon for these to be in arrears by several months.
Consequently many teachers become demotivated or simply have to find other sources of income. In rural areas they may work on their land
instead of coming to school. If rural schools are inadequately staffed as a result there is even less reason for parents to suffer loss of labour at
home or on the land.

Even though the Government is faced with severe difficulties, questions were raised about the political will required to maintain the
educational effort, and within that to try harder to meet the particular needs of girls. A Women's Bureau has been set up in the Ministry of
Rural Development, but it has virtually no funding at all. As pointed out by a senior researcher at the University of Sierra Leone, the issues
are complex and need to be addressed by cross-sectoral efforts. An example would be the Basic Education thrust where programmes for out-
of-school girls, the non-formal education of adults and improved primary programmes were all components of an integrated exercise.
However, in current circumstances it is difficult to envisage such a coordinated effort being effectively mounted.

Reference was made to the fact that the Sierra Leone Government did not sign the UN Convention on Women's Rights until 1988, and even
then only after considerable pressure had been brought to bear. The appalling communications problem aids Government control in that there
is little (and late) reporting of complaints or demonstrations. There are only very limited networks of communication, and no television,
which leads to the further fragmentation of the mass of the population.

The politics of language in Sierra Leone obviously affects education as political affiliation tends to be regional. This is reflected in the
selection of the four main community languages for the new curriculum, Krio, Mende, Limba and Timne.

viii. Education

Provision is theoretically equal, but in practice is not necessarily so; and girls do not take up such opportunities as there are, due to the various
pressures already mentioned. The crumbling nature of the system, physically as well as administratively, clearly renders it unattractive. Many
parents complained in their returns about the state of buildings. They also called for an effort in the area of technical and vocational education,
since the experience gained in the present curriculum does not seem so functional in the light of occupational and income generation needs.

To summarise some of the problems particularly affecting girls:

there is low enrolment overall, not just girls but worse for them, and especially in the provinces;

the drop-out rate is high, again worse for girls and in the provinces;

the system of repeating classes means that more costs have to be borne by parents over a longer period of time; this makes girls
older than they should be by the secondary stage when problems of pregnancy appear;

teachers' salaries remain unpaid for months and this creates demotivation and absenteeism;

the curriculum is not seen as relevant, while alternatives like technical and vocational approaches are unresourced.

ix. Initiatives

Among the initiatives noted were:

 • The Women's Commission in Adult Education

• The Planned Parenthood Federation Programme

• The Bunumbu Curriculum Development Project - a six year basic education work orientated curriculum which includes skills
for employment.

• PLAN International - a scheme providing financial help to cover fees, books and medical expenses to successful applicants
from the Greater Freetown area. Currently there are about 1400 scholars, divided equally between the sexes.

• The Women's Bureau - Ministry of Rural Development.

• Njala University College scheme on The Participation of Women in Adult Literacy

• Peoples' Educational Association undertakes literacy work, for example the development of teaching/learning materials and
the training of female literacy tutors

• MECAS/UNESCO Project on Women & Civic Education

C. Recommendations
Our major recommendations (not necessarily in order of priority) would be:

i. that NGOs be encouraged to develop (non-formal) primary education projects for both sexes but with some positive discrimination in
favour of the participation of girls;

ii. that in situations of poverty and malnutrition, feeding schemes for primary and secondary pupils be considered for support;

iii. incentives for enrolment and retention (waiving of fees for girls);

iv. that encouragement should be given to efficient NGOs to promote schemes to effect the progression of girls from primary to secondary
school;

v. investigate textbooks and materials for gender bias and develop appropriate materials;

vi. more and better secondary provision in rural areas and small towns; if possible single sex schools with secure boarding facilities,
especially in the northern region;
vii. in the urban areas, primarily Freetown, the further funding and development of scholarships schemes for secondary girls;

viii. that initiatives be encouraged to develop technical and vocational education for both sexes especially, but not exclusively, as a 'second
chance' for drop-outs from formal schooling;

ix. a family planning and returnees scheme for teenage mothers;

x. it would seem that some sort of health/sex education initiative is needed for adolescent Sierra Leonians, especially in the Freetown area, in
order to combat the high rate of teenage pregnancies;

xi. a scheme to train more female teachers for rural locations;

xii. there is a need to improve the level of educational policy implementation at the local level. This would involve the training of personnel in
systems of implementation and delivery. Their role in the implementation of policy would be a practical one of animation, advice and support
rather than mere administration. The opportunity could be taken to train a significant number of women in this work;

xiii. that assistance be provided to enable the school day and the school year to be adjusted to the realities of rural life and the demands of
rural economies on child labour;

xiv. the resolution of the transport problem in Freetown by zoning or developing an infrastructure;

xv. literacy and income-generating schemes for women;

xvi. that initiatives be coordinated with health, sanitation, water, income generating and other projects so that education is part of an
integrated package;

xvii. that further assistance be considered for improving the standards of traditional agricultural practice especially where this will enhance the
experience, status and income of females;

xviii. that, especially in rural communities, projects should be developed combining pre-school initiatives with income generation and basic
literacy and numeracy skills for rural women;

xix. that aid be considered for credible women's movements with track records of support for aspects of education and training, both formal
and non-formal;

xx. that efforts be supported to raise the level of male awareness of the community and family economic benefits likely to arise from
increased participation of women and girls in educational and income generating activities.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries -
Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

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5.6 The Case of Vanuatu

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

A. Context
a. General

Formerly an Anglo-French Condominium, known as the New Hebrides, Vanuatu

gained independence in 1980. Like Cameroon, the country therefore has a dual colonial
legacy, with obvious educational implications, though it is not formally divided into
anglophone and francophone sectors in a geographical sense.

The indigenous population is predominantly Melanesian, but comprises a complex of

numerous local languages and ethnic identities. In addition to English and French, there
is also the local pidgin language Bislama, which though not spoken by all, acts as a
lingua franca.

The country is also physically fragmented, being an archipelago of twelve major islands
and numerous smaller ones. This inevitably affects national cohesion and the costs of
educational provision. Like many small island states, while the economy of Vanuatu is
inevitably limited and concentrated, the possibilities for survival, mostly on a basis of
subsistence agriculture, are certainly apparent. Potential for diversification and
development is another matter; these must be limited as are the employment prospects
of the output of the formal education system. The per capita GNP p.a. is over $US500,
which places Vanuatu in the middle range of developing countries.

With a population of only about 120,000 Vanuatu is by far the smallest, both
economically and in terms of land area, among the six case study countries in this
project.

b. Education
Since Independence, the Government of Vanuatu has been attempting to fuse the
separate and differing anglophone and francophone systems of education into one
national system with a choice of English or French as medium of instruction.
Curriculum development for the six-year primary cycle is taking place for both
language mediums in parallel so that ultimately there will be a single curriculum and
materials will differ only in language.

Small village schools in some areas are feeder infant schools for larger upper primaries
in more central or accessible places where boarding facilities are provided. In some of
these boarding primary schools there are both English and French medium classes.

At the end of primary 6 there are selection examinations for entry to Junior secondary
schools/first cycle of secondary education. There is at least one junior secondary school
on most of the larger islands but some do not as yet go as far as Year 10. Senior
secondary classes are centralised in Port Vila at Malapoa College and the Lycée Louis
Antoine de Bougainville and entry is regulated by a selection examination at the end of
the junior secondary cycle (Year 10). Facilities for technical education and the Teacher
Training College are also based in Port Vila. There is a USP campus in Vanuatu, but
most students follow pre-university and undergraduate courses abroad in New Zealand,
PNG or at the main USP campus in Fiji.

The figures for girls' enrolment in primary schools vary according to region, as can be
seen in Table 1. Banks and Torres in the north and TAFEA (Tanna and neighbouring
islands) in the south have the lowest percentages. Percentages for Paama, Epi, Tongoa
and the Shepherds are distorted by the smallness of the populations. Girls' enrolment in
Efate where Port Vila is situated is consistently high throughout the primary cycle, as
one would expect.

Table 1: Girls as % of Enrolment by Region and Class

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 TOTAL
1. Banks/Torres 42% 52% 41% 39% 37% 44% 42%
2. Santo/Malo 49% 43% 41% 42% 48% 40% 45%
3. Ambae/Maewo 48% 47% 50% 45% 45% 45% 47%
4. Pentecost 45 % 53 % 47 % 45 % 43 % 47 % 47 %
5. Malekula 45% 46% 51% 46% 47% 49% 47%
6. Ambrym 49% 44% 49% 41% 45% 47% 46%
*7. Paama 53% 42% 58% 42% 51% 44% 47%
*8. Epi 41% 48% 54% 43% 46% 48% 47%
*9. Tongoa/Shepherds 47% 51% 46% 52% 56% 46% 49%
10. Efate 49% 48% 49% 47% 48% 47% 48%
11. TAFEA 46% 44% 46% 43% 43% 41% 44%
TOTALS 47% 47% 48% 44% 46% 45% 46%

(Based on 1989 figures supplied by the Ministry of Education).

School enrolment rates as percentages of the whole population and at the different
levels vary greatly when considered in terms of urban/rural areas and by sex. Table 2
(Asia Development Bank, 1987) indicates clearly the disadvantage of rural girls.

Table 2: School Enrolment Rate 1979 (%) Based on the 1979 Census

URBAN Age-group Female Male

6-9 91.8 90.0
10 - 14 86.4 90.8
15 - 19 33.5 33.3
20 - 24 3.8 4.2
RURAL 6-9 60.9 66.1
10 - 14 56.1 75.0
15 - 19 23.6 37.1
20 - 24 2.1 6.6

(Source: Asia Development Bank, Vocational Training and the Labour Market in
Vanuatu 1987).

Table 3 gives some indication of schooling by region and by sex, again from the 1979
Census figures.

Table 3: Percentage of ni-Vanuatu aged 6 years and over who had attended School
by Local Government Region, 1979

Percentage Attended School

Local Government Region Male Female Total

Banks/Torres 72.0 54.5 63.3
Santo 66.3 59.1 63.1
Ambae/Maewo 83.7 74.7 79.5
Malekula 78.5 75.0 76.9
Pentecost 68.0 59.5 63.8
Ambrym 80.7 75.4 78.2
Paama 90.0 82.3 86.1
Epi 83.0 76.5 79.8
Shepherds 89.7 86.3 88.0
Efate 88.3 88.5 88.4
TAFEA 62.0 41.4 52.2
Vanuatu 75.5 67.3 71.6

Source - R Bedford (Ed) Population of Vanuatu Noumea 1989, p 92)

Table 4 illustrates the common phenomenon of high numbers of female teachers in

government/administrative centres (here Port Vila on Efate). Educational expansion in
the 1984-89 period on Santo/Malo and in TAFEA has resulted in many more women
teachers being employed but it is interesting that the latter region still has twice as
many male as female teachers.

Table 4: Numbers of Teachers by Region and by Sex

FEMALE MALE
1984 1989 1984 1989
Banks/Torres 15 11 31 31
Santo/Malo 57 100 66 80
Ambae/Maewo 41 29 53 59
Malekula 74 68 94 112
Pentecost 32 50 33 41
Ambrym 16 14 41 43
Paama 4 4 18 14
Epi 10 8 23 23
Tongoa/Shepherds 13 12 33 27
Efate 83 100 77 71
TAFEA 19 63 56 117
TOTAL 364 459 525 618

(Based on figures supplied by the Ministry of Education)

c. Primary Perceptions

The survey was conducted in a range of Primary 6 anglophone and francophone classes
on three of the islands of Vanuatu: Efate, Espiritu Santo and Tanna. The urban samples
were taken in Port Vila, the capital. The age-range was 8-15 years and altogether there
were 112 girls and 115 boys involved.

A very high proportion of children help in the "gardens" (subsistence farms) in

Vanuatu; only 5 per cent were never involved. Girls and boys appear to contribute
equally in "garden" work, in fetching water and in going to market/shopping but the
contribution of girls is greater (and statistically significant) in tasks such as caring for
younger siblings, cooking, sweeping and laundry. The pupils generally agreed (93 per
cent) that girls do help more at home than boys. Interestingly, despite the high
involvement of pi-Vanuatu children in helping their parents, the percentage agreeing
that they sometimes could not come to school because they had to do jobs for their
mothers or fathers was one of the lowest in the survey (23 per cent). Many of the rural
schools in Vanuatu are boarding establishments because of problems of distance and
inaccessibility and it would seem that this factor may be instrumental in ensuring
attendance during the week, even if not in promoting enrolment in the first place.

Over a third of the children thought that boys stayed on longer at school than girls and
again a third thought that girls did not need to go to school as much as boys. Overall 18
per cent agreed that "Girls don't really need to go to school", but as in other measures of
attitude, there were differences between the responses from the urban and the rural
schools: only 11 per cent agreed in Port Vila but 20-24 per cent agreed in rural
locations on other islands. Nevertheless, only Jamaica showed more positive attitudes
than Vanuatu on this item.

Vanuatu has the highest percentage in the survey of children agreeing that they thought
they would be leaving school at the end of the year and the lowest percentage saying
that they would like to go to secondary school. Again there is an urban/rural difference
within the overall figures and this again correlates with the literacy levels of the parents
as perceived by the children.

The pupils themselves belong to relatively large families (58 per cent with 4-6 children
and 30 per cent with 7 or more). However, the low number of children stating an
intention to marry was startling. Whilst 80-90 per cent of respondents in other countries
intended to marry, in Vanuatu (with the exception of one school) only 30-40 per cent
planned to do so. Perhaps as the average age of marriage is relatively high, such an
eventuality has less reality for a Primary 6 pupil in Vanuatu than it does elsewhere.
Rural pupils planned to have larger families than did urban ones but boys and rural
boys in particular, planned to have more children, especially male children, than did the
girls. The rural boys also had more negative attitudes towards girls' education, as one
might expect.

Overall in the results of the survey there is a strong contrast between pupils in Port Vila
and those in rural schools, especially those on other islands. The female pupils in Port
Vila are expected to stay at school longer, and indeed it is accepted that they need to go
to school as much as boys. Their mothers are twice as likely to be literate as mothers in
rural areas on other islands. More of the girls in Port Vila expect to continue into
secondary education. Their ambitions are higher and much more varied than those of
their rural counterparts and they expect, like their mothers, to have fewer children when
they marry. The situation for girls in rural areas appears to be more constrained by
traditional attitudes.

The answers below are those of Rosina who is 12 years old and lives in a very rural and
inaccessible part of Espiritu Santo. She is the third child in a family of seven and her
parents are subsistence farmers. Rosina works in the "garden" every day and helps to
prepare food. Her teacher considers her to be good at her schoolwork.

8. Que penses-tu des phrases suivantes? Tu es d'accord ou pas d'accord?

√ D'ACCORD (C'est vrai!)

x PAS D'ACCORD (C'est faux!)
1. Les filles aident plus que les garçons à la maison √
2. Généralement les garçons restent a l'école plus d'années √
que les filles
3. Aller à l'école est aussi important pour les filles que √
pour les garçons
4. Généralement les filles vent plus jeunes que les garçons √
quand elles quittent l'école
5. Ma mère est très attachée à ce que je vienne à l'école √
6. En fait, les filles n'ont pas vraiment besoin d'aller a √
l'école
7. Quelquefois je ne peux pas venir a l'école parce que je x
dois aider mon père ou ma mère
8. Ça coûte très cher d'aller a l'école √
9. J'aimerais bien que l'école soit plus près de la maison √
10. Mon père est très attaché a ce que je vienne à l'école √
11. Je pense que ma mère sait bien lire et écrire x
12. Je pense que mon père sait bien lire et écrire x
13. Je pense que je vais quitter l'école a la fin de l'année x
14. J'aimerais continuer l'école l'année prochaine √
15. C'est difficile de venir a l'école tous les jours x
16. Je voudrais bien aller au collège √
17. J'aime l'école √

9. QUAND JE SERAI GRAND ..................

Quand je serai grand, j'aimerais être une maîtresse .

Je voudrais me marier OUI NON

Je voudrais avoir 0 enfants:
0 garçons 0 filles

B. Factors
i. Geographical

The geographical factor is significant in Vanuatu as might be expected.

Enrolment levels vary from island to island but generally decline from
the core (Vile) to the outer islands (exhibiting a "core-periphery" pattern).
Banks and Torres to the north and TAFEA*, to the south are the furthest
from the centre and have the lowest enrolments overall and the lowest
figures for girls. There is also however the question of remoteness and
accessibility within each island: isolated, traditional villages in the
interior have a different attitudes towards the role and status of women
and the education of girls from those on the coast. Groups moving down
to the coast from the interior to settle are making a choice about
modernity and formal education.

[* TAFEA is the acronym for the southern islands (Tanna,

Anatom, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwe).]
Vanuatu exhibits striking diversity in the differences between urban and
rural areas and as 82% of the population lives in scattered rural locations,
this affects a large part of the female school-age population. In parts of
rural Santo for example, only 50% of the potential school population are
recruited. Attitudes to girls' education are significantly different in the
more rural areas, families are larger and access to school is more
difficult.

This latter factor has been tackled by having feeder infant primary
schools at local level with a junior primary (at P4, P5 or P6 level)
receiving pupils as weekly boarders. Even so, rain or rough sea crossings
from off-shore islands may still stop pupils getting to school on
Mondays. The boarding factor solves some problems but there are
implications when a child boards particularly when it is a girl: the
production and help it would normally give in the household and
"garden" (subsistence farming plot) during the week is not available.

The quality of primary education is said to vary from island to island

(partly according to past and present mission influence). Few proceed to
secondary school from Banks and Torres, for example. Access to junior
secondary education is limited and uneven and at upper secondary level,
even more limited.

At secondary level, Malapoa College and the Lycée Louis Antoine de

Bougainville with their central location and prestige act as magnets,
while some Catholic parents go for Montmartre College.

Rural children in our survey had very limited ambitions and girls in
particular were surprised to be asked what they would do when they grew
up: subsistence farming and marriage were all that they expected. There
is however considerable migration between villages and islands, and to
the two urban centres Vila and Luganville (Santo). The male circular
migration of the past is increasingly being superseded by permanent
migration of the whole family to the towns and ambitions are rising.
There is however little migration overseas.

ii. Socio-Cultural

There is a great diversity of cultural traditions in Vanuatu but generally

the status and power of women is low. Overall the system is patriarchal
and only males can own land, be heads of family or chiefs, attend council
and drink kava. A girl's traditional role in society is to help in the home
and "garden", marry young and have children. She has far less
importance than a boy, particularly in rural areas: symptomatically girls'
ages are commonly reported as lower than in reality and those of boys as
higher! The work of a girl in domestic and garden duties exceeds that of a
boy and is therefore missed more if she goes to school. The tradition of
early marriage has disappeared except in remoter areas and most girls
now marry in their early twenties, so that female drop-out in Vanuatu is
not closely related to marriage as in some countries. The system is
however patrilocal on most islands and does involve the girls moving
away, making her a poor investment for the family.

Bride-price and polygamy are still practised and in remoter custom

villages, women live apart during menstruation. Fear of menstrual blood
by men is still common on some islands. In these communities girls are
far less likely to go to school than boys. Indeed, school and access to
Bislama and English or French is seen by some girls as a means of escape
from the traditional life-style.

There is a low incidence of extra marital or early pregnancy, but when it

occurs it incurs societal displeasure, and for schoolgirls this means
expulsion. There does not appear to be a significant problem of sexual
harassment or abuse, and females can normally travel freely to school
and college. There is no problem about girls boarding away from home.
There is however a certain amount of domestic violence against women,
often associated with drink on pay-day.

'Modern' female role models are not strongly developed, but are
emerging in the business field such as in banking. Not surprisingly, there
is a concentration of professional women in Vila. Some concern has been
voiced in connection with discrimination involved in promotion to senior
posts and award of scholarships. Traditionally females in Vanuatu did not
speak in public but this no longer applies, though there is a legacy of a
quieter style than that typical of males. Professional men are not keen on
their wives catching them up in terms of qualifications, occupation and
status. Despite the progress that is evident, activists do not accept that
any fundamental change has occurred.

iii. Health

Fertility is high in Vanuatu, with an average of 5.1 surviving children per

mother. Large families are found in both urban and rural locations but
significantly more in the rural areas. Family size has implications for cost
as far as schooling is concerned and also for early drop-out by girls to
look after younger brothers and sisters. Women's mortality rate is higher
than that of males and reflects the lower status, long reproductive cycle
and heavy work load of ni-Vanuatu women.

Fear of AIDS, though not yet present in Vanuatu, is changing attitudes to

sex. Secondary school heads run unofficial awareness campaigns, but
there is no official teaching or Ministry literature on the subject as a
matter of principle. The Vanuatu Council of Women has organised a
drive on health education, particularly in respect of nutrition and
vaccination, for village women.

iv. Economic

Rural children in Vanuatu do contribute to production at an early age by

the work they do in subsistence "gardens". There is value for parents in
the work of girls in particular in the home and "garden" and this militates
to some extent against them being sent to school. Our survey shows
however that children who are at school are less likely to be absent
because they are needed to do jobs at home than in most of the other
countries in the survey. This is perhaps an advantage of boarding
facilities at upper primary level for rural children.

In the event of families finding it difficult to pay school fees or incidental

costs, it is likely to be the boys rather than the girls who are chosen to go
to school. Girls after all are useful at home, leave the family on marriage,
and will not necessarily attract a higher bride-price by being educated.
However, parents, especially urban parents are beginning to perceive the
economic benefit of educating their daughters who are obtaining
employment in the modern sector. It is easier for an uneducated man to
get a job than an uneducated woman.

Girls' ambitions are more circumscribed than boys' by socio-economic

background and rural locations. In a typical rural school girls will express
a wish to work in a "garden" or to be a teacher (their only role models
being their mothers and teachers). The boys however will typically have
more ideas: mechanic, doctor, sailor, pilot, policeman, driver, carpenter,
etc. Even in Luganville girls' ambitions are limited to teaching, nursing
and working in a bank. Career ambitions at 12 years of age have a
fantasy quality of course but clearly show the difference in attitude
between girls and boys, as we have seen in the Introduction.
In a small developing country there is an obvious political danger of
producing an "over-educated" population for whom there are no jobs, but
there is some desire expressed by the children in the survey for more
access to secondary education.

v. Religious

Western religion is not a direct factor, but there is a disparity in respect of

its general influence on educational provision from the differential aspect
of various Christian missions. Indigenous religion, as part of kastom has
an obvious influence on traditional attitudes towards females.

vi. Legal

The Family Law Bill, drafted under the auspices of the Vanuatu Council
of Women, is largely concerned with marriage and divorce but has not
passed into law. The legal age of marriage for girls is 18 but they still
marry younger than that in remote, rural areas. Overall however, the
average age is over 18 and the age of marriage is not a problem as far as
girls' education is concerned.

Chiefs tend to retain traditional power and sanctions are locally applied if
necessary. On islands such as Tanna a policeman's job is said to be a
sinecure. This does mean however that rape and violence against women,
for example, may be dealt with by customary law and punishment may as
a result be more lenient than it might be.

vii. Political/Administrative

There is thought in some quarters to be discrimination against the

francophone sector, and a questioning of regional considerations in
selection and placement at secondary level. Neither of these factors
affects girls only.

Some respondents felt that women's movements may to some extent be

counter-productive but some progress is being made in local politics. The
Vanuatu Council of Women trains women on how to organise and run
meetings. Such a programme is very important in boosting the
confidence of women as they have not traditionally been involved in
decision making.

viii. Educational
There is a rapidly developing rash of kindergartens in Vanuatu which
seems to be closely linked to enrolment in Primary 1. This may be
encouraging the enrolment of girls. The figures for girls are lower than
those for boys in rural areas and outer islands but progress is being made
at a good rate. Primary education is not compulsory but is approaching
full coverage in Viia, if not elsewhere.

There is no subject differentiation according to gender in the primary

school, but neither it seem is there much awareness in curriculum
development and materials production of the issue of gender bias. This is
particularly important in a society where the girls have traditionally been
held in low esteem - some still bow their heads when passing boys, even
at secondary school. Parents still consider it more important for boys to
repeat a class and to stay on at school: a girl who needs to repeat a year
will often be withdrawn. The numbers of boys transferring to Primary 6
from feeder schools on Tanna by far exceed those for girls. Indeed 55%
of the pupils surveyed in Tanna thought that girls did not need to go to
school as much as boys. In Vila only 13 % were of that opinion.

There are a limited number of places available for junior secondary

education and children seem aware, judging from their answers in the
survey, that few of them stand a chance of secondary education. The
percentage expecting to leave school at the end of Primary 6 is the
highest in the survey and the numbers wanting to go to secondary school
the lowest. This may however be connected with the fact that for the vast
majority going to secondary school would mean leaving home and
boarding at the school.

There is no sex factor operating in selection procedures for secondary

school but boys do seem to gain more places. Certainly boys are more
assertive in the classroom, a point stressed by several interviewees and
figuring quite strongly in survey responses. There is some gender
stereotyping of options at upper secondary and higher education levels of
the usual traditional views as to 'male' and 'female' fields of
study/training.

ix. Initiatives

• Many initiatives in consciousness-raising and women's

development are being organised by the Vanuatu Women's
Council.
 • Kindergartens are being developed by the private sector.

• Curriculum development schemes covering the whole of

the primary curriculum with a view to uniting the
anglophone and francophone sectors are underway.

C. Recommendations
Our major recommendations (not necessarily in order of priority) would be:

i. a project to further encourage the emerging kindergarten schools might

help to boost female confidence at an early age;

ii. that, where necessary, incentives be increased, such as provision of

free uniforms, books and meals, so that economic constraints on female
participation in schooling can be overcome;

iii an exercise aimed at raising gender-awareness and gender issues

amongst pupils at school level might help to improve attitudes to girls'
education in rural areas;

iv. an exercise might be considered to raise the level of gender awareness

in the curriculum development and materials production units, through
some form of INSET for the professionals involved;

v. positive incentives such as more secondary scholarships for girls might

be considered to go along with the present expansion of junior secondary
places;

vi. that support be considered for developing boarding facilities for

secondary school pupils of both sexes;

vii. that initiatives be encouraged to develop technical and vocational

education for both sexes;

viii. as school provision is irregular for historical reasons and the

geography of the country makes for difficulties of access, a school
mapping exercise with a view to informing future plans might enable
universal access even if enrolment remained voluntary. We have noted
however that in TAFEA, for example, there is low enrolment but plenty
of schools.
ix. projects in agricultural training and modernisation focusing on
subsistence farming and aimed at women;

x. that credible women's movements, with track records of support for

women and girls in need, be identified and considered for aid;

xi. that efforts be made to raise the level of male awareness of the
community and family benefits likely to arise from increased
participation of women and girls in educational and income generating
activity.

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Factors affecting female participation in education in seven developing countries -
Education Research Paper No. 09, 1993, 96 p.

[Previous Page] [Table of Contents]

Appendix
The Case Of Seychelles
A. Context
B. Factors

The Case Of Seychelles

(based on fieldwork conducted May - June 1996 by N K Cammish)

A. Context

a. General

The Republic of Seychelles is an archipelago, situated in the Indian Ocean about 1000
miles east of Mombasa. The islands lie between 4° - 5° south of the Equator, outside
the monsoon belt, with temperatures ranging between 70° - 80° F. and with an average
rainfall of 92" per annum. The central group of about 40 islands is granitic and the 50
outlying islands are coralline. Only four islands (Maine, Praslin, La Digue &
Silhouette) have a population of any size and permanence.

Seychelles gained its independence from Britain in June 1976. Settled first by the
French in the late 18th century, it retained many aspects of French custom, law and
culture during the period of British rule from 1814 onwards, not the least of which were
the French language and a French-based creole spoken originally by the slaves brought
from Mauritius & Reunion to work on the first plantations. The official languages are
now Creole, English and French. The population, estimated at 75,305 in 1996, is 90%
Roman Catholic and 8% Anglican, and is mainly descended from the original French
settlers and their slaves with the addition of East Africans freed from slave-ships in the
Indian Ocean after Abolition. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there
was a small influx of Indian and Chinese traders whose descendants constitute about
1% of the population. Since 1911 there has been no census of racial origins since
extensive miscegenation has rendered such a task impossible even were it desirable.
Despite limited resources with income coming mainly from tourism and fisheries,
Seychelles has seen rapid development since Independence in housing provision and in
access to electricity and treated water supplies (84% and 73% respectively, 1994
Census). Infant mortality has fallen to 8.8 infant deaths per thousand live births and life
expectancy is 66 for men and 75 for women. 36% of the population are under 15 or
over 65 years of age. Women constitute 51 % of the total population and 44% of heads
of households.

b. Education

Table 1 depicts the present system of education in Seychelles. The strong tradition of
education for girls is reflected in the 1987 census figures for literacy (Table 2). The
domination of the teaching profession by women is illustrated in Table 3.

Sex stereotyping in the choice of courses in the National Youth Service year can be
seen in Table 4 and in the choice of 'A' level subjects at the Polytechnic in Table 5.

Table 1: The education system in Seychelles

Table 2: Population aged 12+ by literacy & sex, (Census 1987)

Literacy Sex
Females % Males % Total %
Not stated 170 1 268 1 438 1
Not approp. 4 0 1 0 5 0
No 3,363 13 3,836 16 7,179 14
Yes 21,770 86 20,691 83 42,461 85
Total 25.287 100 24,786 50,083 100

(Govt. of Seychelles, 1987 Census Report, Victoria, 1991, p. 97)

Table 3: Number of teachers by gender and nationality

Local Expatriate Total Total Total

F M Total F M Total F M F/M
Crèche 175 0 175 0 0 0 175 0 175
Primary 494 67 561 0 1 1 494 68 562
Secondary 202 137 339 37 36 73 239 173 412
NYS 25 47 72 11 26 37 36 73 109
Polytechnic 41 62 103 13 29 42 54 91 145
Total 937 313 1250 61 92 153 998 405 1403

(Ministry of Education & Culture, Education Statistics. 1996, p. 5)

Table 4: NYS Channel Populations - 1995

SEX AF AD CT SE SC AS Grand Total

Girls 26 27 5 169 64 257 548
Boys 58 22 203 45 108 78 514
Grand total 84 49 208 214 172 335 1062

NYS CHANNEL POPULATIONS - 1995

AF Agriculture & Fisheries Channel

AD Art & Design Channel
CT Construction/Technology Channel
SE Social Economics Channel
SC Science Channel
AS Arts & Social Science Channel

(Ministry of Education and Culture, 1996)

Table 5: 1995 and 1996 'A' LEVEL ENTRIES SEYCHELLES POLYTECHNIC

ANALYSIS BY SUBJECT and GENDER

1995 1996
M F M F
FRENCH 7 16 5 24
ENGLISH 10 23 10 30
HISTORY 3 4 4 8
GEOGRAPHY 5 6 7 22
ECONOMICS 7 10 11 12
MATHEMATICS 35 15 29 21
Syll. C - - 12 2
Further - - 7 1
CHEMISTRY 27 14 22 14
BIOLOGY 11 19 12 22
COMPUTING 5 1 14 7
PHYSICS 28 5 27 4
ART - - 5 4
Total Entries 138 113 165 171
Total Candidates 47 39 54 58

(based on figures supplied by the Ministry of Education and Culture, June 1996)

c. Primary Perceptions

The children surveyed were all in Primary 6: 86 boys and 91 girls in two rural and four
urban locations. The urban schools were situated in and around Victoria; one rural
school was in a relatively remote part of Mahé, the main island, and the other on La
Digue, a quiet island with little development except for a few hotels for tourists. Annual
promotion by age meant that all the pupils were in the 10-12 age group, 82.5% being 11
years old. Not many of their families were large (1-2 children 55.9%; 3-4 children 30%;
5-6 children 6.8%; over 6, 2.3%). Because schools have neighbourhood catchment
areas, 75% of the pupils walked to school. In comparison with other countries surveyed,
the percentage of mothers who worked outside the home was very high (81.4%),
similar only to Jamaica. The mother was still however, the main carer (86%) although
grandmothers, older sisters and aunts figured as second carer in many cases.

Despite the high proportion of working mothers, and although 14% of the children,
mainly in the rural sample, said that they sometimes could not go to school because
they had to help at home, many of the pupils surveyed were concerned only with
sweeping (99.4% - every day or sometimes), washing the pots and going on errands to
the shop. Half the boys and half the girls ''never'' helped with younger brothers &
sisters. The girls were almost unanimous (92.3%) that they helped more than boys.
Rural boys tended to agree with them but urban boys were split 50:50 over this. Certain
tasks such as washing clothes were certainly more likely to be done by girls: 54% of
boys never did the laundry but only 10% of girls never did it.
Both boys (83%) and girls (92%) rejected the idea that girls did not really need to go to
school but it was interesting how many rejected the proposition that girls need to go to
school as much as boys (boys 63%, girls 36%). A third of the children had the
impression that girls were likely to leave school earlier than boys.

Their perceptions of their parents abilities in reading and reading reflect the discrepancy
between male and female literacy rates in Seychelles. Ten per cent of mothers were
considered not to be "good" at reading and writing whilst the figure rose to 21 % for
fathers. Girls were harsher judges than boys.

As regards their futures, 26% rejected the idea of marriage, the rural girls being
particularly wary. Overall 82% of boys were prepared to marry but only 64% of the
girls. Despite the high illegitimacy rate in Seychelles and the custom of living en
ménage, the pupils opted for combining having children with marriage to a statistically
significant degree. The numbers of children they envisaged for themselves were usually
in the range of 0-2 boys and 0-2 girls although rural boys wanted more sons.

Career ambitions followed a similar pattern to those found in our Jamaican survey: girls
had a wide and interesting range of ideas including becoming a singer, detective,
surgeon, vet, scientist, dentist, lawyer, immigration officer, journalist or artist, etc. as
well as the more sex-stereotyped jobs such as teaching and secretarial work. Rural girls
tended to opt more often for teaching and nursing but were attracted to opportunities in
hotels where they existed: tourist guide, chambermaid or waitress. Only four boys
thought of becoming teachers compared with twenty four girls, a measure of the
domination of the teaching profession by women in Seychelles.

The survey overall reflects the dichotomy in girls' participation in education in

Seychelles. At primary level they are ahead academically and have plenty of ambition
but by the end of secondary education, as we shall see, they are increasingly opting for
sex-stereotyped courses and are being over-taken by the boys.

B. Factors

i) Geographical

The isolation of small village communities and the resulting urban-rural

dichotomy in the past has now been largely overcome, especially on
Mahé and Praslin, the two main islands, by the up-grading of the
infrastructure over the last twenty years: roads and local transport have
been greatly improved. In addition, a system of zoning for primary
schools means that the majority of children have relatively easy access to
school at this level. In our survey, 75% of the pupils went to school on
foot. Provision of secondary education is also de-centralised. In any case,
education at primary and secondary levels is compulsory.

The National Youth Service Year overcomes problems of distance and

accessibility by being residential and it is only after that, at Polytechnic
level, that problems of access arise. Not only do students on Mahé often
have a long way to travel but both boys and girls on the islands of Praslin
and La Digue who wish to attend the Polytechnic actually have to move
to Mahé. The 1994 National Report on the Situation of Women in
Seychelles suggests that a Youth Hostel should be built to enable more
girls from the other islands to continue their education at the Polytechnic.
This is especially important in view of the increasing number of teenage
pregnancies in Seychelles.

The small population of Seychelles cannot support an educational system

beyond 'A' level, vocational training, and teacher training. Higher
education has to be pursued overseas. It is at this point that the difference
in access for males and females widens dramatically. The figures for
overseas training in 1994 show 43 females and 85 males following pre-
service courses and 50 females and 67 males doing in-service courses.

ii) Socio-cultural

The family in Seychelles has been described as matrifocal or

matricentric, the father having a somewhat peripheral position in the
domestic unit, particularly in the lower socio-economic groups. Although
the ideal is marriage, (as reflected in pupils' answers in our survey) de
facto unions which have neither religious nor legal sanctions (known as
living en ménage are common in Seychelles. Births are registered by
birth status as being nuptial, acknowledged or other. In 1994 for example,
there were 1,700 births, of which 398 were to married couples; 787 were
"recognised" by the father, and 515 were not. Traditionally, in poorer
families at subsistence level, the woman controlled the money because
she was in control of buying the food. The mother was a responsible
figure, in a central position concerning the control of resources allocated
through the household and also ultimately responsible for the children.
Sociological studies suggest that Seychellois men traditionally were often
seen as rather feckless in comparison, spending money on drink and their
friends as a sign of male status. These traditions, added to the
impermanence of many en ménage relationships, have meant that
Seychellois women are more used to responsibility, decision-making,
handling money, and working outside the home than women in many of
the other countries surveyed and this accounts at least in part for the
extensive use they have made of educational opportunities ever since the
first schools were opened in the mid nineteenth century. The 1981-82
Census for example, shows more girls than boys in each of the age
groups 12-20 pursuing full-time education although it can be argued that
there were more job opportunities for boys in agriculture and fishing so
that boys left school and girls stayed on. The evidence of a long history
of girls' achievements in primary education and higher literacy levels is
reminiscent of Jamaica, along with similar problems of lower motivation,
sex-stereotyped choice of options and early pregnancy once the girls
reach adolescence. In the past girls would often drop out of school in
order to care for younger siblings at home but this problem has been
almost completely eradicated by the establishment of a large scale system
of crèches over the last twenty years. Many interviewees stressed this
point.

iii) Health

Health does not appear to be a significant factor in girls' participation in

education except for the problem of teenage pregnancy. In 1996 the
situation was still that of girls having to withdraw from the educational
system when pregnant but suggestions were being made that alternative
provision for schooling might be established.

iv) Economic

Originally a plantation economy, and today copying with problems such

as the costs of smallness and changing priorities in international aid, the
Seychelles has nevertheless seen a big increase in employment since the
early eighties. The 1987 Census shows women more predominant in
tourism related work and in secretarial, domestic and social services. The
two largest occupation groups were hotel-workers (chambermaids and
cleaners) and teachers. The Seychelles National Gender Unit comments
that women in general are still not equitably represented in the labour
force. Despite the fact that they have a higher literacy rate than men, they
still tend to have less prestigious and lower-paying jobs or ones which
have traditionally been seen as extensions of their domestic role and
functions. With equal opportunities in education and considerable
national investment in education, training, health and the social services
made to improve their position, nevertheless 48.5% of women are still
economically inactive and 53% of skilled job seekers are women (1991
figures).
High teenage fertility rates force girls to drop out of school to look after
the children and women who are heads of households with children can
often only work part-time or in casual jobs. Low marketable skills and
the many responsibilities faced by many women as single parents and
heads of households appear to be among the main factors holding women
back.

v) Religion

The missions of both the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches in the
Seychelles have always been very supportive of education for girls, ever
since St. Joseph's Convent School for Girls was established in 1861. All
the mission schools founded throughout Seychelles in the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries were either mixed or had a girls' school along
side the one for boys. Although on can smile wryly at the compliment
intended by the Director of Education in his report in 1938 when he said -
"As one has come to expect from all Convent Schools throughout the
Colonies, excellent needlework is done", there is a strong tradition in
Seychelles, still active today, of girls working hard at school and being
more literate than their brothers. Primary schools, even those for boys,
have usually been staffed by women, partly because this was easier when
the schools were run by nuns. The 1943 Regulations for Catholic primary
schools list rules of conduct for school-mistresses and make no mention
at all of school-masters. Teaching is seen today as a largely female
profession and the female ethos of the primary schools is held
accountable by many interviewees for the under-achievement of boys, if
not for the good performance of girls. Although the schools are no longer
run by the missions, the factor of religion has had a strong influence on
girls' participation in education and through the churches' encouragement
of women to become teachers, has opened up opportunities for them in
terms of status and earnings.

vi) Legal

Equality of opportunity in education and training is part of a

comprehensive set of rights in Seychelles under the constitution and other
laws. In practice inequalities do still persist, despite the efforts of
legislators to provide the social protection for women and their children
which must underlie any attempt at providing equality of opportunity. As
in some of the other case-studies in this report, traditional attitudes and
practices may militate against adolescent girls fulfilling the promise they
demonstrate so ably in the primary school, despite the legal rulings.
vii) Politico-Administrative

Over the last twenty years there has been strong political encouragement
for equality of opportunity for girls and women as can be seen in efforts
such as the creation of crèches and the involvement of women in local
political activities. Women are represented at all levels of government
including the ministerial and a National Gender Unit has been
established. The Government's Gender Strategy is articulated in the
Human Resource Development Programme and includes the developing
of programmes to ensure for example the availability of gender
disaggregated data and information and effective career guidance.

viii) Education

Within the education system itself, which provides free and unsegregated
opportunities at all levels, there are however factors which affect both
boys' and girls' participation. Erroll Miller's phrase "the marginalisation
of the black male" springs to mind when one looks at the primary level of
education.

Primary schools are staffed largely by women. In 1996 there were only
three male Headteachers to twenty-nine females and only 7 out of 47
Directors of Studies were male. In the schools in our survey, Primary I-
IV classes were taught entirely by women; a few men taught in Primary
V and VI (where there is some semi-specialisation), often in the areas of
mathematics, science & craft.

Just as women dominate among the teachers, so do the girls dominate in

the classroom. As soon as streaming starts in Primary 3/4, the top streams
are full of girls and the boys predominate in the bottom groups. The
figures for one school in the survey tabled below are typical:

PRIMARY THREE CLASSES: SAMPLE URBAN SCHOOL

STREAM GIRLS BOYS
A 25 8
B 23 11
C 12 22
D 13 22
E 10 15
In Primary 6 in the same school there were 2 girls and 22 boys in one
bottom set and 7 girls and 20 boys in the other. A rural school with
similar figures at primary level found that the pattern also continued into
the secondary classes.

The female ethos is also apparent where parents are concerned.

Headteachers said that it is the mothers who are most involved. It is the
mothers who come in to school, who serve on committees and who are
the initiators and organisers.

Causes of strong female participation in education at primary level are

seen to include:

• the availability of places and strong enrolment and

attendance procedures.

• the accessibility of schools which is good because of

zoning and the provision of transport where necessary.

• the low costs for parents: education is free & so were

lunches until recently - even now they are very cheap.

• pre-school provision is good: crèches in all districts mean

that girls are not kept off school to look after younger
siblings.

It was however stressed by interviewees that in the past when there were
fees and transport costs to pay, parents did not usually discriminate
against girls where school was concerned. If they could not pay, both
boys and girls left.

Female enrolment at primary, secondary and polytechnic level is on

average equal to that of boys. The problem area as far as girls are
concerned starts with option choices in the secondary school, in the
National Youth Service Year and at the Polytechnic. The sex-stereotyped
choices (see Tables 4 and 5, p. 90-91) affect later career options,
vocational training and higher education.

Beyond 'A' level, women are very much in the minority apart from in
teacher-training. Academic and professional courses at tertiary level are
taken up mainly by males: females constitute only one third of this group.
In addition there are very limited opportunities of re-entry for those girls
and women who drop out of the education system at an earlier point.

ix. Initiatives

There are many initiatives at all levels to develop awareness of gender

issues in education. As far as girls are concerned, future developments
are seen to lie in the area of the actual range of options at secondary and
polytechnic level (as well as in stereotyped choices), and in the
encouragement of girls to go on into higher education. Interestingly
however, as in Jamaica, there is also the problem of boys' performance in
the primary school which needs to be addressed.

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