The impact of economic recession on UPE in Nigeria

The article reports on the impact of economic recession on the demand for primary education in Nigeria where the free Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme was launched nationwide in 1976. Towards this purpose time series data on primary school age (6–11 years) population and primary school enrolment in Imo State of Nigeria were analysed for the period 1976 to 1990. The findings are: (i) the economic recession which hit Nigeria severely in the 1980s caused a corresponding decline in primary school enrolment in the country; and (ii) the decline was more pronounced for the girls. The situation could be explained by the fiscal austerity measures introduced to stabilize the ailing economy which raised the private costs of schooling thereby curtailing the demand for primary education by the poor especially for the girls. To mitigate the situation which retards the progress towards UPE and Education For All (EFA) especially for the girls, it is concluded that there is the need for internationally assisted relief programmes that substantially reduce the private cost of primary schooling in a poor adjusting country like Nigeria.     

Gender and Science in the Swedish Compulsory School

This study investigates how Swedish pupils meet chemistry, physics and technology in compulsory school. It explores girls' and boys' actions in and thoughts about these subjects during grades 7 to 9. The pupils come from different worlds determined by gender and social background. In the classroom girls are given, and take upon themselves, the role of keeping lessons together, while boys' attempts to dominate the public arena create disorder. Girls and boys prefer different subject areas. Boys have a practical while girls have a more theoretical approach to science. Girls seek ‘connected knowledge’, and even the successful girls question their understanding. Girls who take an interest in physics and chemistry often have supporting scientist fathers or at least parents with a higher education. Technology is rejected by all girls. The mutual construction and reconstruction of gender and of science/technology contribute to gendered choices of study programmes in upper secondary school.     

‘Come on girls,let's go to school’: an effort towards gender educational equity in Turkey

In many developing countries, women's education has been a highly prominent issue which is not adequately addressed in their education policies. The participation of female populations in education in most of the developing regions of the world has been much lower than the participation of their male counterparts [UNICEF. 2005a. “Report Card on Gender Parity and Primary Education.” www.unicef.org/turkey]. As a developing country, Turkey engaged in fairly vigorous and determined attempts to address the issues regarding women's education [Aydagül, B. 2008. “No Shared Vision for Achieving Education for All: Turkey at Risk.” Prospects 38 (3): 401–407] owing to the support, incentives, and pressure of the international organisations through various conventions in the last decade. The current paper scrutinises one of these attempts, namely, the campaign called ‘Come on girls, let's go to school’ which was initiated by the Ministry of National Education with the support of United Nations Children's Fund and World Bank, and considerably contributed to the increases in girls' enrolment and attendance rates in rural areas and southeast regions of Turkey. This paper utilises the social equity criteria as its conceptual framework drawing from Levin [1978. “The Dilemma of Comprehensive Secondary School Reforms in Western Europe.” Comparative Education Review 22 (3): 434–451] and Stromquist [2011. Educational Equity [Lecture Notes]. College Park: University of Maryland]. The analysis yields that the girls' education campaign in Turkey addresses to varying extents the criteria of accessibility, probability of enrolment, probability of participation, and length of participation, whereas it fails to meet the standard of educational results.     

Girls' secondary education in Uganda: assessing policy within the women's empowerment framework

This paper makes the case that policies, such as the National Strategy for Girls' Education in Uganda (NSGE), intended to achieve gender equity in education for girls in developing countries, have limited relevance to, and impact on girls' actual educational experiences. Recent considerations of girls' education acknowledge that gender equity within education is more than access to schooling; it entails the cultivation of capabilities necessary for girls to participate fully, actively and equally in all aspects of their societies. Drawing on a longitudinal, ethnographic policy research case study with 15 Ugandan schoolgirls in rural Masaka District, Uganda, from August 2004 to September 2006, I explore the girls' educational experiences in relationship to the NSGE. I employ the Women's Empowerment Framework (WEF) to evaluate the NSGE with respect to the extent to which its interventions are ‘empowering’ for girls.     

Making distinctions: privatisation and the (un)educated girl on Mount Kilimanjaro,Tanzania

This article looks at the effects of privatisation policies on girls' education in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. It begins by describing changes in economic and education policies in Tanzania since independence in 1961. It presents the results of a study about parental wealth and education and the findings from an essay task completed by girls at a secondary school in the region.¹ The article also provides life-history sketches of several girls who have not attended secondary school and a discussion of the social and economic factors that mark the distinction between “educated” and “uneducated” girls in Tanzania today. These different sources of information show how cultural notions about gender and economic hardship in Kilimanjaro work together in making the attainment of a secondary school education an untenable goal for girls from poor households.     

Gender context of the school and study culture,or how the presence of girls affects the achievement of boys

This paper builds on my previous research, explaining the differential achievement of boys and girls in secondary education by the fact that boys' culture is less study orientated than girls' culture. The central question of the present paper is whether the presence of girls at school affects the boys' study culture and, by consequence, boys' achievement. The research is based on data of 877 boys and 714 girls, attending the fifth year of a sample of 15 general secondary schools. It is shown that the gender context of the school does not affect the boys' study culture, but the presence of girls positively influences the general pupils' study culture. By means of multilevel analyses (HLM), it is demonstrated that the larger the proportion of girls at school, the higher the boys achieve, and this finding can be ascribed to the general pupils' study culture.     

Gender organization of schooling and television viewing among early adolescents: a test of two alternative hypotheses

In this analysis, single‐sex and mixed schools are compared in terms of pupils' television viewing habits, the latter factor being considered as an indicator of a pupil's sense of educational responsibilities. It was hypothesized that the presumably lower levels of television watching among girls attending single‐sex schools could be explained by school climate factors pertaining to adolescent subculture values and/or to the pedagogic approaches of a predominantly female staff. Use was made of data from 68 academic‐type secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Of these schools, 25 were mixed and 43 were single‐sex (21 girls', and 22 boys' schools). Respondents were third‐year pupils: 3370 girls and 3057 boys, aged 14 and 15 years. A multilevel analysis (HLM) was performed controlling for parental socio‐economic status, curriculum enrolment, school residency and school mean SES. The results mainly indicate that the differential effect of single‐sex and coeducational schools on girls' TV watching habits may be partially accounted for by factors associated with pedagogic approaches by the predominantly female staff in girls' schools, but not at all by norms related to the adolescent subculture.     

Catching Up: Gender values at a Canadian independent school for girls, 1978-93

Many studies over the past decade have examined the adverse ways in which gender differences inculcated by educational institutions have shaped girls' lives. This article begins by identifying the negative effects that traditional gender norms still have on even privileged young women who study in single-sex environments designed to foster their education and personal development. It goes on to examine the transformation over 15 years of the gender values at a Canadian independent school for girls and their effect on the students and the school structures. The article concludes that despite the progress in breaking down destructive gender divisions made by individual girls' schools, the gender-stereotyped realities of the outside world continue to influence the school environment and the students' thinking. Single-sex schooling for girls, therefore, becomes an even more important antidote to our society's tradition of gender bias.     

‘Much more than a basic education’: supporting self-determination and cultural integrity in a non-traditional school for Indigenous girls

This paper presents data from an interview-based case study of a secondary school located in a suburban area of Queensland (Australia). The school is a non-traditional education site designed to support disadvantaged girls, many of whom are Indigenous, and is highly regarded for its holistic approach to gender and cultural inclusion and equity. Through lenses that align Nancy Fraser's theories of redistributive and recognitive justice, with Indigenous feminists' equity priorities, the paper identifies and analyses the structures and practices at the school that support the girls' capacities for self-determination and their sense of cultural integrity. The paper is an important counterpoint within the context of mainstream gender equity and schooling discourses that continue to homogenise gender categories, sideline the multiple axes of differentiation that interplay to compound gender (dis)advantage and deflect attention away from marginalised girls. In particular, it provides significant insight into how schools can begin to reconcile the double bind of racism and sexism that continues to stymie the schooling and post-school outcomes of Indigenous girls.     

Education and social justice: gender lessons of the past

In 1927 the Swedish grammar school opened up for girls. Thereby girls got access to higher education on the same conditions as boys, at least formally. Thus, many towns' boys and girls were seated in the same classroom. In the large cities, however, sex segregation remained, as separate grammar schools for girls were established and some boys' grammar schools were still reserved for boys. The main aim of this paper is to compare the process of gender construction in these different school forms during the period 1927–1960. The questions put are: Were the discourses and the discursive practices of these schools part of the politics of equality or the politics of difference with regard to gender? Which representations of gender and gendered patterns of communication and domination did they produce? The main data consists of interviews with 30 ex-students of coeducational schools and female and male single-sex schools. The conclusion is that the pedagogy in all school forms was inscribed within the meritocratic discourse of equality, which was also important in shaping the students' subjectives. Both girls and boys had to prove themselves worthy of the privilege of attending the grammar school, and in this respect girls as a group were more successful than boys. To begin with the politics of equality also operated in the norms for how girls should dress and look, but later on a discrete make-up was allowed. The politics of difference was manifest in the swot syndrome, the techniques for punishments and rewards, and also, at least partly, in physical education. It was also manifest in the traditional representations of masculinity and femininity, like the male breadwinner and the housewife, prevalent in boys' grammar schools. Girls in female single sex schools, on the other hand, were firmly determined to make a career of their own.     

Impacts of the universal primary education policy on educational attainment and private costs in rural Uganda

While some governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have abolished tuition to achieve universal primary education (UPE), few studies have examined the impacts of the UPE policy beyond school enrolment. This study estimates the impact of the UPE policy in Uganda on overall primary education attainments by using data including 940 rural households. We find that UPE has decreased delayed enrolments and increased grade completion rates up to the fifth grade and its effects are especially large among girls in poor households. Yet, schools in Uganda still face further challenges in terms of low internal efficiency and the unequal quality of education.     

Cross-school Mentoring: Training and implementing a peer mentoring strategy

This article describes a project based on Year 7 pupils (aged 11-12 years) in a UK inner-city girls' school classified as 'in challenging circumstances'. The girls were cross-mentored by Year 12 (aged 16-17 years) girls from another local girls' school. The city has a diverse multi-cultural population where single gender education is an active preference for many parents. This parental dimension influenced cooperation between the two schools. The conceptual theme for the mentoring project was that the older pupils provided a supportive framework for their younger peers. This was a conscious shift from the traditional notion of 'prefects control younger pupils'. Prior to operating the scheme, a training programme was devised by the city's Secondary Behaviour Support Team. The progress of this training course and the application of the techniques through the mentoring sessions are described.     

Constraints to UPE: More than a question of supply?

The traditional approach to universal primary education (UPE) in developing countries has emphasised supply factors of schooling systems, such as the construction of schools and teacher training facilities, revisions to curricula and improvements in teaching materials. No doubt all these factors have played an important part in encouraging the growth of enrolment ratios throughout the developing world during the past two decades. But the profile of absentees from school, and the disproportionate enrolment of boys and girls in school suggest that this approach is unlikely to achieve full UPE. This paper calls for consideration of demand factors which may prevent children from attending school. Focusing on the household as the relevant unit, it examines the costs incurred when a child attends school in the developing world, and the benefits to be gained from school attendance. The paper then goes on to consider the case of Botswana, where, within the context of the goal of UPE, the government is investing vast resources in the expansion and improvement of the primary school system. Yet substantial numbers of children, boys in particular, continue to be withheld from school. After an analysis of the demand factors which prevent children from attending school in rural Botswana, the paper concludes with a discussion of the additional policies the Botswana government might find necessary to employ in order to achieve full UPE.     

Girls and Science: Does a core curriculum in primary school give cause for optimism?

The low numbers of students, particularly girls, pursuing science after the age of 16 continues to give cause for concern, despite the inclusion of science as a core subject in the curriculum of primary schools in England and Wales. This article explores the perceptions of primary pupils with regard to science since its introduction as a compulsory component of the curriculum. The findings tend to replicate those of earlier studies, indicating that primary pupils, both girls and boys, view science positively while at primary school and look forward to science at secondary school. However, results show that, within science, girls' and boys' preferences are different. Girls have greater preference for biological topics while boys demonstrate a wider range of interests. Furthermore, the introduction of the National Curriculum appears to have had negligible effect in broadening the interests of girls. It is argued that intervention strategies are needed in order to make all fields of science attractive to girls and that this should begin in the primary phase of education.     

Uncoupling the Articulation Between Girls' Education and Tradition in Tanzania

This article explores theoretical and historical problems associated with representations of gender and race in the Third World. Using a feminist cultural studies approach, the author examines representations associated with the concept of African tradition that have shaped colonial and post-colonial education policy for girls in Tanzania. Archival materials from missionary, colonial, and African sources reveal the multiple and often conflicting views of tradition conveyed through programmes intended to increase African girls' participation in school. The uses of tradition in colonial policy making are compared with its meanings in contemporary educational programmes for girls in an attempt to further feminist scholarship and action around the issue of girls' education.     

Teachers' views of teenage sexual morality

This paper examines the discourses of morality drawn on by secondary school teachers in England to describe their attitudes to pupils' developing sexual identities. Although teachers recognized their own formative role in the sexual socialization of pupils and identified homophobic attitudes among boys, they were ambivalent about how far they could intervene in homophobic bulling in school. However, they failed even to recognize the widespread misogynistic bullying of girls by boys as a problem. Teachers expressed anxieties about girls' ownership of sexual knowledge and sexual agency while perceiving boys to be sexually immature and less ‘responsible’. We explore possible reasons for teachers' neglect of misogynistic bullying and their labelling of girls as sexually precocious. We argue that the discourses shaping teachers' attitudes to sexual morality and sex education were largely embedded in a form of liberal individualism that impeded them from confronting the structurally reproduced relations of gender domination.     

Secondary Schools for Norwich Girls, 1850-1910: Demanded or benevolently supplied?

This article uses archival material from the city of Norwich to trace the development of girls' secondary education from 1860 to 1900. It examines the provision of differentiated education for girls of differing social status in the context of national legislation and the local labour market for women. Also considered is the issue of causality in the supply-demand equation for girls' education, relating this to issues of gender-determined access to education that underlie the study of developing education systems both past and present. I conclude that the growth in the provision and use of education for girls in Norwich during this period mirrors that of other parts of the nation, seeming to have been little influenced by local economic and political forces, or an initial local demand. Instead, a national campaign carried on by women activists at the national level for the improvement of education for girls, together with the provision of schools offering an extended and higher quality academic education for girls by the Girls' Day School Trust, the Norwich School Board, and private individuals, appears to have overcome local disincentives to educate girls and created a demand for secondary schooling for them.     

Girls and Primary-School Science Education: Sexism,Stereotypes, and Remedies

Most research and the development of curriculum interventions relating to girls' opportunities in science education have concerned secondary and tertiary levels. Increasingly, however, evidence and opinions are being reported to the effect that differences between the sexes which appear to be associated with girls' opting out of science already exist when pupils enter secondary education. The encouragement of science and technology in primary schools is frequently proposed as a likely remedy for inequality between the sexes in science education [29, p. 287]. But is this necessarily so? The science education girls now receive leads the vast majority of them to reject it. We must ask what kind of science experience is likely to help and what kind likely to hinder the equal success of girls and boys. We need to know what evidence there is as to the effect of various types of science education and what are the possibilities of expanding access to the better models.     

Gender-related effects of computer and information literacy education

In the school year 1993-94 a new subject, Information and computer literacy' (ICL), was introduced in lower secondary education in the Netherlands. This article reports on a study of the effects of the curriculum materials used and of teaching behaviour in ICL lessons on changes in girls' and boys' attitudes towards computers, knowledge about ICL , and future plans. A second question focuses on the gender-linked ideas about the subject developed by pupils during ICL lessons. Students appear to enter the classroom with gender-linked patterns of behaviour and attitudes, but education plays an important role. After the course the differences in knowledge between girls and boys have diminished. However, the course was not able to remove gender differences in attitudes. Moreover, for students who worked with a non-genderinclusive method, gender differences in attitudes increased. The events and experiences in the classroom contribute to the extension of gender-specific repertoires of pupils.     

Gender and Sex Education: A study of adolescent responses

This is a study of sex education programmes and focuses on the reactions adolescents had to the sex education they were offered. The findings suggest that girls and boys respond differently to the sex education schemes, and that boys react more negatively than girls. The conclusion is that there is a need for new strategies, both to reach the boys effectively and to protect space for the girls' interests. We argue for the provision of some single-sex work in the sex education area of the curriculum, especially in the early years of secondary school.