Invest more in girls

 INCREASING education opportunities for women and girls will empower them to improve their quality of life and address gender imbalances, the PNG Education Advocacy Network says.

Network executive director Priscilla Kare said investing on the education for women and girls contributed to reducing poverty and allowed them to be involved in political and national development debate.

In a statement on International Women’s Day, Kare said despite gains in education, the literacy level of women and girls in PNG was still very low.

Kare said: “According to PEAN’s Education Experience and Literacy Assessment surveys conducted in five provinces, the percentage of males classified as literate is 4% to 5% higher than females.

“Primary and secondary school attendance rates for most age groups are higher for males than females in both Chimbu and West Sepik where our surveys were conducted. 

“Females are at least three times more likely to never attend primary school than males.”

Kare said adult literacy programmes were important in improving girls’ education because many parents who made decisions for their children were illiterate. 

“Empirical evidence shows that children with educated or literate parents are more likely to go to school and stay in school than children whose parents are illiterate,” she said.

“Addressing child illiteracy starts with the parents’ literacy level.”

Kare said while government policies and programmes had been developed to address gender imbalance and promote sender equality, the mechanisms were not adequately funded or resourced to improve the literacy status of women and girls.