All East African states are committed, via their espousal of the Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals, to eliminate gender disparities in education over the next few years.        

Promoting gender equality and women's empowerment is essential to poverty eradication and achieving sustainable human development (World Bank 1999). Governments under the leadership of the United Nations have made strong commitments to promote gender equality and women's empowerment through several instruments. In particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR – 1948); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR – 1966); the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW – 1975); the Beijing Declaration (1995) and the Millennium Declaration (2000).

The Dakar Declaration on Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Declaration in particular committed all nations to eliminating gender inequalities in education over the short-term by the year 2005 and to achieving gender equality in education by the year 2015. The Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) as Uganda's comprehensive development framework highlights education as one of the instruments for enhancing the quality of life of the poor. Primary education is perceived to benefit the poor directly by bringing higher incomes, better health and empowerment, especially for girls.

Progress made                                                                                                                                                                                            Existing literature demonstrates that improvements in gender equality in education has multiplier effects to human development through reduced maternal and infant mortality, improved nutrition, reduced fertility and improved access to productive resources among others. All the five East African countries have made great improvements in primary school enrollment with the gap between girls' and boys' progressively narrowing. Rwanda and Uganda, in particular, are on track in terms of achieving MDG2.

The substantive reduction of the gender gap in enrollment at primary level is mainly related to deliberate government policy to improve the social sector, particularly education, health and water sanitation. The plan tries to address gender concerns and sets specific output targets for different components. The School Facilities Grant includes funds for compulsory provision of separate latrines with doors, for girls and boys. The grant operates through a ranking system which prioritizes poorest schools and rewards schools with 48% or more girls enrollment.

Existing gender inequalities in education                                                                                                                                               Higher illiteracy rates among women – in all the five EAC member states, female literacy is lagging behind that of males. Uganda is lagging behind the rest of the five EAC countries with 66% literacy for women compared to 82% literacy for men in 2008. This implies that more women compared to men continue to miss out on development opportunities because they cannot read and write.                                                                                                                                                        It is clear that the progress in enrollment has not been accompanied by interventions to address the structural gender inequalities that continue to undermine females' education. Some of these include early marriages, teenage pregnancies, heavier family responsibilities, gender insensitive learning environment for young girls and parental preference for boys to access education among others.

No progress towards improving females in science based disciplines – while implementation of affirmative action in favor of females on admission to higher institutions of learning has improved the percentage of females at tertiary level of education, the impact has been more on arts based disciplines. Females' under representation in science based disciplines under mines their effective representation and participation in sectors such as industrial development, mining and infrastructural development that are critical to regional development.

Fewer female teachers at all levels – percentage of female teachers at all levels is far below that of male teachers. This has impact on the learning environment by denying of girls and women role models that can positively inspire them to attain higher standards in education. It also points to a bigger challenge of male dominance in the education sector.                                                                                                                                                                                          Inequitable access to education resources – the persistent under representation of females at all levels of education within the region points to a deeper challenge of inequitable access to and distribution of public resources not only in the education, but also in all sectors. Since women and girls form more than half of the region's (EAC) population. It is imperative that public resources within the education sector are allocated to interventions that can reduce the above gender inequalities. 

There is a wider gap in access among girls from the lowest and highest wealth quintiles than there is among boys. This pattern is reflected in higher levels of education where most of the girls that access secondary and, much more so, higher education tend to come from middle and above wealth quintiles while the pattern for boys has a fairer representation across all wealth categories (Kasente, 1995).                                                                                                  Existing challenges to bridging the gender gaps in education                                                                                                           Education like other sectors still faces a number of challenges which account for existing gender inequalities;

·         Patriarchal values and practices such as preference, early and forced marriages and female genital mutilation among others that are emphasized through socialization within the family units, in schools and the wider society continue to undermine female's educational progress.

·         Lack of effective institutional and policy implementation mechanisms. In addition, the capacity to spearhead gender mainstreaming within the sector is still limited, isolated and marginalized.

·         Most of the interventions on promoting gender equality within the sector have largely lacked the full support and involvement of men and boys. For instance, affirmative action for females on admission into higher institutions of learning in Uganda has been misunderstood as denying men of “opportunities” and attracted resistance.

·         Women lack information and have limited understanding of their human rights.

·         The wide spread conflicts in the region and the resulting displacements have greatly disrupted and undermined access to education as parents hesitate to send their children especially girls to schools for fear of associated challenges such as rape, sexual harassment and abuse, abduction into sex slavery among others.

·         School careers of many girls are cut short because of pregnancy either by the girls withdrawing themselves from school or through the national policies that ensure that pregnant girls are expelled from the education system with little or no chance of re-entry after delivery.

·         Poverty often serves to worsen already existing gender biases. When schooling costs become a pertinent issue and a choice has to be made to send a boy or girl, the boy is usually given precedence. This choice is driven by societal construction of gender where male children are expected to carry on the family tree across generations and are therefore accorded more value than girl children.

·         In patrilineal systems where girls join their husbands, reluctance to educate girls for the other family into which they are expected to marry is compounded by the opportunity costs which continue to get higher for poor households who depend considerably on the labour of their children in order to supplement household income and help to take care of the sick, especially in this era of HIV/AIDS.

·         Widespread resistance to gender equality both because of inadequate knowledge of the meaning of gender equality and traditional perceptions that put men in a privileged position in all decision making

Costs of gender inequalities in education for regional development

The persistent gender inequalities in education have implications to the region's potential for the achievement of the MDGs and overall human development. Lower education levels among women continue to undermine their employment and advancement opportunities. This to a large extent explains the wide gap between men and women, limited access to productive resources such as capital and high poverty rates among women in the region.

Lack of education was listed as one of the largest causes of poverty in Ugandan households because it leads to reduced income generating opportunities, particularly for women who have more illiterate rates than men (GoU, 1999). Education is seen by the poor as a route out of poverty as it has been seen to employment and business opportunities.

Sources;

1.      Policy Brief on Gender Inequalities in Education in East Africa, by the Eastern Africana Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI).

2.      Gender and Education in Uganda; A case study for EFA Monitoring Report, 2003, bu Dr. Deborah Kasente, Makerere University.

By Sandra Komuhiimbo,

Intern, Gender and ICT Policy Advocay

At the Sub-Regional conference of Women in EastAfrica attending on behalf of WOUGNET.