Ministry taking measures to promote girls' education

Addis Ababa, April 11(ENA)-- The Ministry of Education (MOE) says it has been exerting efforts with a view to promoting girls' education as part of its second Education Sector Development Program (ESDP II).

Speaking at a joint press briefing organized by MOE and UNICEF here on Friday, UNICEF project coordinator with MOE, Alemayehu Worku said the program would initiate locally-relevant measures to address socio-cultural barriers to the education of girls.

It would also help create safe, supportive and appropriate learning environments for girls with gender-sensitive curricula, textbooks and teachers, he said, adding awareness-raising programs and training would also be provided to teachers, education managers and students.

Alemayehu said the program allowed the reviewing of curricula, textbooks and instructional processes in a bid to remove gender bias as well as increasing the number of role models at schools.

He said a study on gender gap in terms of enrolment, retention and performance in primary schools of five selected States was being carried out with the support of UNICEF, which he said would enable to devise local strategies to improve girls' education.

The Ministry was currently formulating a new three-year program based on the strategy papers of regional states that identified locally relevant interventions to tackle girls' education problems, Alemayehu said.

UNICEF Resident Representative Bjorn Ljungqvist said on his part that though Ethiopia has made tremendous strides in increasing school enrolment rates from 30 per cent in 1996 to 61.6 per cent today, there is still 20 percentage point gap separating the enrollment rate of boys and girls nationally.

Ethiopia is one of the countries selected for UNICEF's '25 by 2005' campaign, a major initiative to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education in 25 priority countries by the year 2005, he said.

A documentary film entitled 'Samia: An Inspiration for Girls' Education' was screened on the occasion. The film shows how Samia Sadik, now 19, has escaped a forced marriage by her parents when she was grade 4 and continued her education.

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