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Women's Education
and Training
Education is a basic human right but 60%
of those who have no access to education are women and girls. Out of the 960
million illiterate adults in the world, two thirds are women.
WHY?
- Discriminatory
customary attitudes
- Early
marriages
- Gender
biased teaching and materials
- Lack
of school facilities
- Domestic
chores for girls which lead to poor school performance and dropping out of
school
- An
increase rate in teenage pregnancy.
Recommendations
- Teachers
made aware of gender issues and gender sensitised
- Encourage
girls to take non traditional courses in school such as sciences
- Make
family planning part of the school curriculum
- Allow
girls who dropout of school because of pregnancy to be able to return to
finish their studies.
- Promote
equal access to education for girls through active
and clear policies and programmes.
Progress
for Women in Botswana
Women's Education and Training
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The
Revised National Policy on Education (1994) provides that all Batswana
children including girls should be provided with ten years basic
education. The policy also
makes provision for the introduction of pre-vocational skills such as
computing and technical skills. |
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A
policy on Vocational Education and Training has been formulated which
places emphasis on the participation of marginalized
groups including women in vocational training and education. |
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A
gender sensitisation programme, directed towards increasing female
participation, has been introduced by the Ministry of Education and the
Women’s Affairs Department. |
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Botswana
is unique among many countries in that women have a higher level of
literacy (79%) to men 75%. |
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Women
also constitute the majority of those in non-formal education.
Due to Botswana’s strong cattle-herding traditions, there are
more girls than boys in primary schools and boys form the majority of
dropouts at that level. |
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Nine
percent of school dropouts at secondary school level are due to pregnancy.
Sex education in schools has been introduced and is still a
controversial issue. |
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Women
now account for 52.7% of total enrolment at the Local University although
there are fewer girls in science and technology related disciplines. |
Who
is addressing this area? CORDE
Worldview Botswana
Lentswe La Basadi Ba
Botswana
Botswana Christian
Council
YWCA
Nurses Association of
Botswana
Botswana Federation of Trade
Union
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