Campaign to enhance girls' education

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Yemen's Ministry of Education launched an extensive summer campaign on 26 May to raise awareness of girls' education.

The campaign targets seven out of 21 governorates, in addition to Socotra, Yemen's biggest island in the Indian Ocean.

The campaign has been launched through a UNICEF initiative - Business Partnership for Girls' Education - formed in 2006 with private sector partners.

More than 30,000 stickers and 400,000 flyers will be distributed in the targeted areas. About 1.5 million short mobile messages will be sent to subscribers, especially those in rural areas.

More than 10 million water bottles will carry "Let Me Learn" messages on their labels. Also, 50,000 notebooks will be given to schoolchildren at the beginning of the next academic year.

According to UNICEF, Yemen is facing a serious challenge to bridge the education gender gap: 63 girls for every 100 boys were in primary school in 2006.

Abdul-Salam al-Jawfi, Minister of Education, said at the launch ceremony: "Females represent 51 percent of Yemen's 21 million population and 75 percent of the population live in rural areas. By looking at these figures we understand that girls' education faces a lot of problems."

Photo: Mohammed al-Jabri/IRIN

Female education in rural areas remains very limited

Al-Jawfi said his ministry needed the support of donors, the private sector, local councils, and civil society organisations to bridge the education gender gap.

He added that educated women could help tackle Yemen's development challenges, which include water shortages, population growth, poverty and deteriorating health conditions.

"Uneducated women cannot evaluate the importance of water. Only an educated woman can understand health issues," he said.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report for 2007, Yemen ranked bottom out of 128 countries.

A report, Women's Status from a Gender Perspective 2007, issued by the National Women's Committee, a government body, in March 2008, stated that 51 percent of girls aged six to 14 were not enrolled in elementary schools. Furthermore, the rate of enrolment for girls was 54 percent against 72 percent for boys.

Development challenges

Fawziah Noman, deputy minister of education for girls' education, told IRIN that the low female education level had an adverse impact on development.

"The high female illiteracy [rate] is due to the high school dropout [rate] and low enrolment. This in turn leads to their weak participation at the social, economic and political level," she said.

Photo: Mohammed al-Jabri/IRIN

There are 63 girls to every 100 boys in primary schools in Yemen, according to UNICEF

Noman added that in rural areas, women took on big burdens as they performed a very important role in agriculture, grazing, gathering wood and fetching water. "But these are not considered work in terms of the economy. Female education contributes to the enhancement of the economy," she said.

Early marriage also affected education as it led to girls leaving school. "We suffer from female dropout and enrolment in the rural areas," she said.

Mutahar al-Abbasi, deputy minister of planning, said Yemen was classified among the off-track countries in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

"MDGs cannot be achieved unless efforts are made in girls' education. The main problem facing girls' education is the rapid population growth," he said.

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