Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and education dignitaries from 16 Africa Countries have developed and presented a manifesto which seeks to address gender inequality in education in Africa and the World at large.
The manifesto was developed during a 3-day high-level dialogue at the Bintumani Conference Centre in Freetown.
The event was facilitated by the United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Its objective is to also build an alliance of high-level ‘gender in education’ champions to drive and influence action for girls’ education and gender equality at national, continental, and global levels.
The Minister of MBSSE, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh, said that the manifesto focused on four priority areas, namely: providing teachers for girls in comfort and remote areas; budgeting for education particularly Girls’ education and gender equity; commitment around data to measure information of active schoolgirls and children and higher-level education.
He noted that the manifesto also serves as a steppingstone towards the United Nation Transforming Education Summit which is to be held in September.
He said that it is also aimed to mobilize ambition, solidarity, and solutions to transform education.
“These commitments will be put forward during the transforming summit of the United Nations on behalf of Africa Countries, and it hopefully become a commitment that the world needs for girls to get into schools and transitioned,”
Going forward, he said the high-level dialogue would help to lay the foundation for African education leaders to domesticate action for gender equality in and through education.
“I think people usually think that transformation is difficult. One thing we learned in a workshop with all the permanent secretaries, directors and ministers is that transformation does not need to be hard, it does not have to be difficult, long and expensive,” he said.
He mentioned that radical inclusion framework focused on communities and families, citing that it requires community engagement, teachers and a revised curriculum that has to do with sexuality in education.
The South Sudanese Minister of Education, Awut Deng Acuil said that the best way to develop education is to promote educational system and provide a space for competition among educational systems.
He cited that in Niger, most girls only complete primary education, adding that because of the geographical locations of secondary schools, parents do not allow their girl child to leave their homes because of the long distance to access secondary schools. To break the chain to access secondary schools, he said the government consented to the construction of boarding homes for girls, where all their needs are catered for, noting that the boarding home initiative have resulted to excellent grades during the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). He noted that many good results will be seen in the next five years.
By George M.O. Williams