Creating opportunities for Africa's new generation : theme 4

Abstract

In spite of concerted efforts over the past three decades, to increase girls’ and boys’ access to schooling and to reduce the disparities between them, there still exists a considerable degree of bias against girls in the education systems in many African countries. The progress has also been uneven across countries on the African continent, in terms of access for both boys and girls and the closure of the gap between girls and boys has been slow. Apart from a few countries in southern Africa, the available indicators of illiteracy, primary school enrolment, the transition from primary to secondary to tertiary reveal persistent disparities between sexes. For Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, the combined primary, secondary and tertiary education gross enrolment ratio for 1994 was 38.4% for girls and young women and 46.6 % for boys and young men