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Achieving EFA: Specific Operational Strategies /Gender Responsive Strategies
1 Scope and Strategic Formulations
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An important development in enhanced attention to gender was the adoption by the MoEYS in 2002 of a Five-Year Gender Mainstreaming Strategy: 2002-2006: From Commitment to Action. The Strategy addresses three components: a) Girls' equal access to education, b) Enhancing gender equity in education management and delivery of services; and c) Strengthening gender technical capacity in education programming and policy-making. The specific interventions will focus on providing incentives/scholarships for girls in order to ensure their transition into and progression through secondary education and subsequently into post-secondary education.
A Gender Secretariat of the MoEYS has been established to support the activities of the Gender Working Group and to mainstream gender issues in all aspects of MoEYS work. This Secretariat will produce an annual report on the progress made in achieving equitable access to program benefits for females within the EFA plan implementation.
A work-plan for the Gender Working Group has been evolved; a pilot program of scholarships for girls for grade 6-7 transition has been developed and evaluated in cooperation with two local NGOs and implemented through Provincial Offices of Education; gender training activities involving MoEYS officers at national and provincial levels have taken place; a network of focal persons to promote and monitor gender issues is being established; and plans for activities in the short-to-medium term are being negotiated.
2 Goals and Objectives
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Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls' full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
3 Challenges and Issues
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Unless gender issues are comprehensively addressed at all levels and within all sub-sectors of the education system, the achievement of all the EFA goals will be thwarted. In Cambodia, it is particularly apt that gender is addressed as a cross-cutting goal underpinning all others. It is imperative that the Gender Secretariat be linked formally and informally with the EFA Secretariat, and EFA actions at all levels of the education system, and in the community-focused activities associated with NFE and adult education.
In addition to documenting the impact and outcomes of all gender-affirmative education programs, a further challenge is to learn from hard-won experience, document what works best and at what cost, and expand strong programs in areas of the country where gender disparities remain substantial. This is difficult, as these are areas that will need special concessions on entry requirements to teacher training programs, special incentives in the form of scholarships and allowances for enrolled girls, and the provision of facilities, programs and modes of interaction that are gender-responsive in every school and learning centre.
4 Operational Strategies
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Cross-cutting Approaches
Gender equity targets will be approached primarily as a cross-cutting issue as noted earlier. While there will be discrete programs to promote gender parity within the educational system at both formal and non-formal levels (such as special incentive programs and scholarships), these programs will be linked in a way that cuts across several sectors simultaneously.
For example, the absence of female role models in remote primary school classrooms is strongly influenced by the high cost of secondary education, which tends to be available only in urban and semi-urban centers combined with socio-cultural factors that lead to high dropout rates among girls starting at upper primary level. Scholarship programs to subsidize high direct educational costs, infrastructure investments to promote greater availability of secondary education access in remote areas, and flexible entry requirements to teacher training institutions for girls residing in remote areas to enhance posting of female teachers to these areas are all examples of cross-cutting approaches that will serve gender equity goals.
Discrete Strategies to Promote Gender Equity
In order to promote gender equity within the educational system, the MoEYS Gender Working Group, relevant departments, in cooperation with the National EFA Committee will undertake the following strategies:
» Poverty indexed incentive programs to prevent dropout among girls.
» Institutional capacity building to promote greater representation of women at management level within the education system.
» Review of annual departmental plans to ensure integration of gender-related issues.
» Disaggregation of data by sex at all levels.
» Sponsoring gender awareness training linked with concrete follow-up among government stakeholders and communities.
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