Analysis of the State’s legal obligations in reducing the gender gap witnessed during transition to secondary schools : a focus on the Girl child

Date
2017-01
Authors
Obat, Juliane Verra
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
The research analyses the obligation of the state in reducing the gender gap witnessed during transition to and retention in secondary school. The focus is on the girl child. The state’s obligation is a broad spectrum encompassing the right to fulfil, respect and protect the right to education.1The attention is on the girl child since indicators show that despite enrolment of girls being slightly higher than boys in primary school, there is a shift when transitioning to secondary school.2The gender gap widens, increasing the probability of boys graduating secondary school double the number of girls.3The research methodology involved qualitative data analysis, where the causes of gender gap were explored and data collected from both primary and secondary sources including the constitution and statistics from international organizations such as UNICEF. Gender disparities widen in secondary school with the most witnessed in upper secondary class 4. The causes of such disparity vary from socio-cultural factors to educational institution issues. Socio cultural issues include ethnicity and Social Economic Status (SES) of an individual. Ethnicity affects gender parity where some ethnic groups uphold certain practices such as early marriage, which affect the girl child education. Educational issues may include the curricula and school related violence such as physical and sexual abuse against the girls in the institution. Using indicators such as literacy rates and transition to other levels of education can help track any gender disparity in the education sector. There is need to improve accessibility and availability elements of education to tackle the disparity witnessed since the above aspects are the ones that hinder secondary education for the girl child.5There is need to continue with gender mainstreaming while involving different stakeholders especially at the grass root levels since they are able to help in implementation and monitoring strategies and policies by the government.
Description
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the bachelor of laws degree, strathmore university law school
Keywords
legal obligations, gender gap, girl child, Female Genital Mutilation, Social Economic Status
Citation