Education
Source: The Telegraph Across the globe, there is an increasing awareness that the fight for gender equality starts at school. In Britain, we (rightly) fret about the lack of girls choosing science and technology subjects – shutting the door to well-paid profession such as engineers or computer programmers.
In Africa, 40 per cent of women don't have access to even basic education, depriving them of a fair share in their continent's growing wealth and condemning them to a life of financial dependence on men.
The situation for poor girls in Ghana is particularly bleak: primary completion rates are lower than for boys and academic achievements are inferior.
This is in part due to pervasive traditional beliefs about gender roles. Early marriage and a cultural acceptance of youth pregnancy result in many dropping out altogether.
More often, however, the reasons for girls failing to attend class are more prosaic. Grinding poverty means that many families are forced to make financial tough choices and often decide only to educate their sons.
When they do go to school, girls are expected to spend more hours on household chores, working in the fields or selling goods at market.
This month GEMS Education launched the MGCubed project (an acronym for 'Making Ghanaian Girls Great') an interactive distance learning initiative in 72 Ghanaian state primary schools funded by the Department for International Development's Girl's Education Challenge (GEC) fund.
The aims of the project are simple: to encourage girls back into the classroom by providing reliably high quality education and through mentoring by female role models.
MGCubed uses 'virtual learning' to guarantee that there's always a well-trained teacher available for pupils even if they are not physically in the room.
'Virtual' interactive lessons taught from a studio in Accra are broadcast into classrooms via a webcam, offering an hour of basic maths and English language tuition every day.
The local teacher on the spot encourages participation via a microphone, and makes sure pupils are keeping up with the pace set in the studio.
As broadband is non-existent in many of these villages, the project has paid for satellite broadband receivers to be placed on school roofs. Solar panels and solar-powered computers are provided so that lessons can continue despite an intermittent power supply.
MGCubed is now delivering lessons 'virtually' to over 4,000 marginalised girls (8,000 total students) in the Volta Region and Greater Accra Region of Ghana, remote areas where girls are at particular risk of dropping out of education.
The overall aim is to offer such high quality teaching that girls are enthused about school and their prospects, and to introduce them to careers or opportunities outside of their traditional domestic roles.
Teachers are often absent in Ghana due to having second jobs or difficulties in reaching school on bad roads. Even when they do turn up, many are not well trained or qualified. Therefore by guaranteeing some quality teaching each day, MGCubed should result in better academic achievement, which, in turn, will encourage families to let their girls stay in school.
A key part of the programme is the girls-only 'Wonder Women' after-school classes, also via a virtual link from Accra. These are targeted at marginalised girls, some of whom do not attend school or are at high-risk of dropping out.
They are a trusted forum to discuss issues such as early pregnancy and early marriage, health concerns such as malaria prevention, financial advice, and future careers. Sessions are also designed to be aspirational, providing a chance for girls to talk to Ghanaian female role models – from pilots to actresses and Government Ministers.
Talking only to women, however, cannot change ingrained community attitudes. Husbands, fathers and brothers also need to understand and accept the importance of girls' education. Practical arguments are often the best.
Mothers with six or more years of education have drastically improved prenatal health, postnatal health and childbirth survival rates. Educated mothers immunise their children 50 per cent more often than uneducated women, and educated girls are less likely to contract Aids.
The MGCubed project will be tightly monitored, providing intelligence on how far distance-learning projects can transform the prospects for girls. It has the potential to be replicated across Africa, offering an innovative and sustainable education solution to Governments whose budgets are being squeezed by many competing priorities.
One teacher has the potential to educate one thousand children, across many different classrooms, giving access to high quality education for those who haven't had one.
Over the last few years, the importance of Girls' Education is starting to get the attention it deserves. Malala Yousafzai's eloquence and dignity combined with the Nigerian kidnappings has turned it into an urgent campaign issue.
But just as important as these impressive human rights campaigns are the practical steps on the ground, community by community. Whether girls feel empowered about their future will, in the end, depend on having teachers and a curriculum that can inspire.