Girls are in class, but...

When Kenya High School topped the charts in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, a statement was made. Girls no longer played second fiddle in academia. Race to the top has been flung wide open and gender no longer counts. Perform is based on innate ability not gender.
And that was not an isolated case. For two consecutive years – 2017 and 2018 – girls topped in KCSE examinations.

In 2017, Kirimi Naomi Kawira of Pangani Girls in Nairobi topped the charts with A of 87.011 and was followed by Sharon Jepchumba of Moi Girls Eldoret, A (86.83). Come 2018, and it was Irene Juliet Otieno, also of Pangani, who scored A with 86.644 to scoop the top honours. These are some of the highlights of girls’ achievement in education in recent years. Precedents have been established. Girls have become equal players in education. Campaigns to take girls to school, ensure they stay, perform and transit to higher levels have not been in vain.

BEIJING DECLARATION

This week, Kenya joins the rest of the world to mark the International Women’s Day. Later in the year, the world will mark the 25th year since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Put together, these are critical landmarks.
In all the initiatives to promote gender equity, education is a central subject of debate.

At the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, the international community made 12 critical resolutions to promote women’s development agenda. Two focused on education and training.
Two-and-half decades later, we can look back with some level of confidence that commendable strides have been made.

Policies and strategies at the international and national levels have made a difference. Variables of education success comprise access, equity, relevance, retention, completion and transition. Evidence exist to suggest success has been recorded on various fronts.

STATISTICS

In 1995, there were 2,734,091 girls enrolled in primary schools and 2,802,305 boys. At the end of 2018, statistics by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics show there were 5,178,300 girls and 5,364,300 boys in primary schools. During the same period, there were 290,581 girls compared to 341,807 representing a ratio of 45.9:54.1 per cent.
The figures have since changed in 2018, there were 1,437,400 girls against 1,505,300 boys. The general trend is that gender gap is closing.
A significant development is the increased number of girls sitting Standard Eight and Form Four exams. In 2019, there were 341,440 girls and 355,782 boys, representing 48.97 per cent and 51.03 respectively. Compare this to five years ago when there 243,581 girls (46.49 per cent) and 279,289 males (53.41 per cent).

FREE PRIMARY EDUCATION

For the past two decades, Kenya has implemented strategies that have enhanced girls’ participation in schools. In the mid-90s, the government introduced a policy that allowed pregnant school girls to return to class after weaning children. This contributed significantly in eliminating dropouts. Free primary education (FPE) introduced by the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) administration in 2003, and later subsidised secondary education in 2006, went a long way to ease cost burden and make it possible for more girls to go to school.
These policy articulations found anchor in the 2010 Constitution that made basic education, defined as primary and secondary schooling, a fundamental human right.
Previously and in a context of poverty, families without economic resources had to make choices of who would go to school; boys were favoured and girls left out and often forced into early marriages. Indeed, statistics indicate that because of FPE, enrolment rose dramatically in primary schools from 5.9 million in 2001 to 7.2 million in 2004. To date, about 10.5 million children attend primary schools, 5.1 million being girls, representing 49 per cent.
Notwithstanding the achievements, girls are still disadvantaged. At primary and secondary school levels, more boys than girls record high performance in core subjects that promise them opportunities in lucrative university courses and ultimately better placement in the job market and upward career progression.
Looking at the 2019 KCSE performance, for instance, there were 627 candidates who scored grade A and out of that, 358 were boys and 269 were girls, accounting for 42 per cent. Similarly, out of the 125,746 candidates who obtained grade C+ and above, who qualify for university education, girls were 53,775, translating into 42 per cent. Girls outshone boys mainly in languages and humanities, which has implication for career choices.
At the university, most girls end up taking humanities as boys dominate science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM), courses that offer better professional opportunities. With less girls than boys represented in the STEM programmes in higher education levels, the implication is that there are fewer female role models in those professions to inspire the young girls.
Challenges such as dropouts arising from socio-economic deprivations persist. Negative cultural practices like female genital mutilation, teenage pregnancies and early marriages thrive despite legal and policy edicts.
Gender question remains a vexed socio-economic and developmental challenge. Inequalities have persisted for years with women relegated to the periphery.
Reversing the imbalances is an existential imperative. Education is the best and sustainable means towards redressing the inequities.
Despite steps made in expanding access and nearly achieving gender parity in primary and secondary levels, more work is required to put girls and females on a pedestal in education and prime them to compete favourably at the workplace as well as at social and economic levels.
The theme for this year’s celebrations #EachforEqual is thus a rallying call for governments and institutions to define education systems, policies and programmes that promote equality.