Saudi Arabian girls will be allowed to play sport in private schools for the first time in the latest in a series of incremental changes aimed at slowly increasing women’s rights in the ultraconservative kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s official press agency, SPA, reported on Saturday that private girls’ schools are now allowed to hold sport activities in accordance with the rules of sharia law. Students must adhere to “decent dress” codes and Saudi women teachers will be given priority in supervising the activities, according to the education ministry’s requirements.
The decision makes sport once again a stage for the push to improve women’s rights, nearly a year after two Saudi female athletes made an unprecedented appearance at the Olympics. (via Saudi Arabia to allow girls to play sport at private schools | World news | guardian.co.uk)
UK invests £12 million in girls’ education in Zimbabwe via Camfed
Zimbabwe’s Education Minister formally launched a £12 million investment in girls’ education … that will enable 24,000 girls from the poorest rural families to enrol in and complete secondary school.
The investment from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) represents a major achievement for Camfed, which began in Zimbabwe in 1993 by supporting just 32 girls in two districts. The latest investment allows Camfed to provide four times as many secondary school bursaries as it currently offers and will increase its reach to 28 districts.
South Sudan: WFP Girls’ Ration Increases School Attendance
School officials in South Sudan say a monthly take-home food ration from the World Food Programme (WFP) has helped to reduce the number of female students dropping out of school.
[…] WFP supports girls through what is known as the “Girls’ Incentive,” which is designed to encourage girls’ enrolment in school and keep them attending class regularly.
[…] The girls from grades 3-8 who are allowed by their parents to attend classes for at least 20 out of 22 days in a school calendar month receive a 9.9 kilograms of cereal and 3.6 kilograms of vegetable oil. The food serves as an incentive to the parents, who generally prefer to send boys to school, while girls stay home to work, help their families with cooking or are married off early in exchange for bride-price.
More than 65% of girls over 15 in Ghana’s Northern Region have received no formal education (compared with the national average of 21%). This is why our support continues to be pivotal to these communities. DFID Ghana will be working with communities in the north, Camfed and the Government of Ghana to ensure that these 70,000 girls remain in and complete secondary school through targeted incentives by 2016. The support includes school fees, uniforms (made by local tailors which helps provide the community with work), and school supplies. (via UNGEI - Ghana - What does education mean to girls in Ghana?)
EU Provides Nobel Peace Prize funds for Education in Northwestern Pakistan
Islamabad/Brussels, 8 May 2013 – The European Union has provided € 300,000 from its Nobel Peace Prize money to UNICEF to support its educational activities for children affected by a lack of security in parts of northwestern Pakistan. The agreement was formalised today in Islamabad, between Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Pakistan and Dan Rohrmann, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan.
These funds, made available through the European Commission’s Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO), will enable UNICEF to provide access to education for 3,000 children, including 1,500 girls in 30 schools currently operating in the Jalozai Camp, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan still failing in education of girls
Despite regular election campaign promises to deliver, economic and cultural concerns holding back action.
(via Pakistan still failing in education of girls - Asia - Al Jazeera English)
Pregnancy, early marriage, school fees, risk of sexual violence? What are the barriers for girls and boys going to school? As the education community envisions post-2015 Millennium Development Goals, IREX surveyed its pool of teacher-leaders alumni around the world to get a better picture of the ways gender impacts education. What impacts girls’ participation in school the most? What particular factors affect boys? Over 200 secondary school teachers from 45 countries responded to our questions. Here are some of the findings from our snapshot survey. (via What Do Teachers Think? Global Gender & Education Survey Results | IREX - Civil Society, Education and Media Development)
Zimbabwe’s Education Minister formally launched a £12 million investment in girls’ education on Wednesday that will enable 24,000 girls from the poorest rural families to enrol in and complete secondary school.
School officials in South Sudan say a monthly take-home food ration from the World Food Programme (WFP) has helped to reduce the number of female students dropping out of school.
[…]
The girls from grades 3-8 who are allowed by their parents to attend classes for at least 20 out of 22 days in a school calendar month receive a 9.9 kilograms of cereal and 3.6 kilograms of vegetable oil. The food serves as an incentive to the parents, who generally prefer to send boys to school, while girls stay home to work, help their families with cooking or are married off early in exchange for bride-price.
“We have witnessed a real increase in the number of girls that have enrolled and stayed in school since we started providing food through the (girls’) incentive,” says Lokang Augustine Okocha, the director of studies at Redeemed Generation Academy in Torit, the capital of Eastern Equatoria State.
![At least 28% of South African schoolgirls are HIV positive compared with 4% of boys because “sugar daddies” are exploiting them, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said.
He said 94,000 schoolgirls also fell pregnant in 2011, and 77,000 had abortions at state facilities, The Sowetan newspaper reports.
[…]
“It is clear that it is not young boys who are sleeping with these girls. It is old men,” The Sowetan quotes him as saying.
“We must take a stand against sugar daddies because they are destroying our children.”
(via BBC News - South Africa: ‘Over 25% of schoolgirls HIV positive’)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/b66f1ff761a8e99c8bd70976d1bb46b8/tumblr_mjpdhxIHT31qb8rnio1_500.jpg)
At least 28% of South African schoolgirls are HIV positive compared with 4% of boys because “sugar daddies” are exploiting them, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said.
He said 94,000 schoolgirls also fell pregnant in 2011, and 77,000 had abortions at state facilities, The Sowetan newspaper reports.
[…]
“It is clear that it is not young boys who are sleeping with these girls. It is old men,” The Sowetan quotes him as saying.
“We must take a stand against sugar daddies because they are destroying our children.”
(via BBC News - South Africa: ‘Over 25% of schoolgirls HIV positive’)
