Education
Source: The Star
The new executive director of the Forum for African Women Educationists (Fawe) Hendrina Doroba says girls are still getting a raw deal in education. For instance, school books and teachers still describe boys as heroes and girls as weak. She tells Star's John Muchangi what Fawe is doing to end that.
You have just marked 21 years since Fawe was established in Nairobi to promote education of girls across Africa. Has this vision been achieved?
Fawe was established by female ministers of education who were concerned nobody was thinking about girls' education. It's now 21 years and we are celebrating our transition to adulthood!
The need at that time was more on creating awareness that girls' education is important -- more so to the communities and the ministries of education across Africa. But now it is the ministries of education coming to us to say: We want girls education prioritised, how do we do that? So we went back to the drawing board. One of the models we have drawn empowers teachers to be gender responsive. This is called gender-responsive pedagogy. We are not teaching content, but how to deliver a lesson and ensure issues of boys and girls are taken into consideration. That was informed by a study that showed the way lessons are taught has a lot of implication on the level of engagement or participation, particularly for girls.
We work with teachers to create that gender awareness, and also help them take cognizance of that when they are teaching and developing teaching plans. We started this particular model in 2005. Currently we're in about 15 African countries, including Kenya. We have a centre of excellence in Kajiado where we are trying the model.
What gender biases have you found in the current teaching methods and books?
The current methods of teaching carry a lot of gender bias to the boy. When you look at pictures or illustration, everything they talk about is about boys. Where do we fit in the girls?
We engage with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), previously Kenya Institute of Education, vigorously and they looked at removing some of the pictures and set up a committee to ensure books are gender responsive. What they are trying to remove are casual things like "He is a pilot," "he is an architect"; You see, where the 'he' is pronounced much more than the 'she'. When it comes to cooking, it's "she is cooking", "she is sweeping", "she is washing clothes". We worked with various institutions to demystify such materials because it has impact on students.
Do you think teachers also need to be sensitised on this?
We appreciate teachers. They go an extra mile despite their working conditions. They do a lot in shaping the economic development of a country. We need to pay lots of attention in building their capacity for them to teach effectively. Here at Fawe we look at how to improve their gender pedagogical skills, that is, having skills that take care of needs of boys and girls. For instance, when girls start having their menses this may affect their concentration and teachers should not bully them.
Fawe has for a log time campaigned for employment of more female teachers.
Unesco statistics show there are more male teachers than female. Yet studies show if you have more female teachers, it helps girls to learn. But we are looking not just at having adequate female teachers, but ensuring they are gender-responsive to work with both boys and girls because their needs are different. The challenge Kenya has faced is, since free primary education, enrollment has risen and didn't tally with the number of teachers recruited. Unesco says we need seven million teachers recruited to achieve basic eduction across the continent.
What's your view of the state of education in Kenya so far?
Kenya has achieved a lot. This county is a pioneer of free basic education and secondary education. But we need to do more to ensure teachers are well-equipped. One of the TV stations showed makeshift classes in Kajiado. We are just a few weeks to 2015 and it should not be so. On the other hand, Kenya has done lots of efforts in budget provision to ensure they provide for education sector and also accountability, that money goes to the right use. We also want to ensure the gender is taken into consideration at both budgeting and implementation level. We appreciate the provision of sanitary towels. But there are other issues of water availability, toilets -- just the whole in infrastructure. I think they need to do more. We appreciate that decentralisation has come into play.
I read Unicef's report on the International Day for Girls on October 11. It notes that there is work still to be done on girl's access to education. One in 10 girls globally experiences sexual violence and child marriage is still rampant.
Girls have a right to education. We need to provide for their needs. If you educate a girl, you educate a community. That can only happen if we ensure girls receive quality education; quality learning outcome. That is, having the right skills and ensuring they are able to contribute to livelihood of their community and right skills to be part of decision-makers. We want to maximise their space in leadership. We also want learning environment conducive for both girls and boys.
Have the Millennium Development Goals helped to achieve this?
In terms of gender parity at entry level, grade one, most countries have tried to reach that gender parity. But we need to understand what happens when that child enters high school.
CONCERNED: Hendrina Doroba is pushing to have learning environments conducive for both girls and boys.
There is high attrition. We also need to look at school-related gender violence. We are saying we need a stop on that. Every child, girls in particular, should not be seen as sex objects.
You have been in university and you heard of sex for grades. It affects girls more than boys. Why? That girl has a right for education. We not only need to ensure girls have education but look at the economic value of educating girls.
What do you think should be prioritised in the next goals, the sustainable development goals?
If you been following development on SDGs, at one point there was no goal to deal with girls education. Two weeks ago, we ensured that goal is there. Goal number three. For us that is a plus. But we are concerned African governments have taken a backseat, yet the implementation will be by these governments.
We need to see more participation. Come next year every country should take this and run with it. If we are not part of this process, it will be very difficult to optimise these goals to our own interests. So our governments should take lead in these issues.