WUNRN
Peru - Rural Girls Face Barriers to Education
By Milagros Salazar
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"It was
a really difficult and dangerous walk," especially when the girls had to
make the trek home at night, the 18-year-old Sena, who is from Tumpa in the
west-central highlands region of Ancash, told IPS.
Although she
managed to complete her secondary school studies, many of the other girls in
her class dropped out, due to the numerous barriers standing in the way of
education for girls in many of
A law was
passed in
"The
only thing it has done is raise awareness and mobilise organisations around the
issue; concrete progress is needed and there is much to be done," Teresa
Tovar, vice president of FLORECER, told IPS.
The
study, based on official figures from 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, shows
that 83.7 percent of 12 to 16-year-olds in urban areas attended secondary
school, compared to 66.4 percent of that age group in rural areas.
And while
there is no difference in the proportion of girls and boys in rural areas who
enrol in secondary school, there is a large gap with respect to how many
complete their schooling.
Only 43 percent
of young rural women between the ages of 20 and 24 had finished secondary
school, compared to 58 percent of young men of that age.
Tovar
spelled out a number of factors that influenced the phenomenon. "Access to
education may have grown, but it is harder for some communities to send a girl
or young woman to study, and they prefer to give the opportunity to a boy or
young man," she said.
Geographic
conditions are another factor. Sena said that several of her classmates who
lived in highlands villages in Ancash dropped out of school because classes
were only given in the afternoon (in some parts of the country, students attend
classes in shifts), and it was dangerous for them to return home after dark.
"A
number of them had to walk a long way, after leaving school at 6:30 in the
evening. So several of them dropped out of school, and now they're
mothers," said Sena, who is studying psychology in Huaraz, the regional
capital.
Every year,
an average of four girls would drop out of her class to start a family.
"They didn't have the same luck I did," said Sena, who smiled as she
talked about winning a prize in 2010 awarded by the Women's Ministry to young
female community leaders.
This month
she visited
The study by
FLORECER indicates that the greatest progress in reaching gender parity in
education has been made at the primary school level.
According to
official figures, 94.4 percent of children between the ages of six and 11 are
enrolled in school, and there are no major differences in terms of gender or
poverty level. In rural areas, the enrolment rate is even three-tenths higher.
But at the
preschool level, there is a significant rural-urban gap: 66.3 percent of urban
children between the ages of three and five are in preschool, compared to 55
percent of rural children.
Interestingly,
while in rural areas girls outnumber boys in preschool, the proportions are
gradually inverted as the children get older, and the inequality takes on
alarming proportions when it comes to indigenous girls and adolescents.
The United
Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, stated in the report "Situation of
Indigenous Children in
But when the
figures are broken down in the provinces with the largest indigenous
populations, gender inequalities are seen when it comes to completing primary
and secondary school, the report says.
In the
provinces of Condorcanqui, in the northern jungle region of Amazonas, and
Purús, in the northeastern Amazon region of
Tovar said
boarding schools, where students spend 15 days at school and then 15 days at
their rural family homes, could be a solution at the secondary level. The
expert explained that this system has been applied on a small scale through
agreements with religious institutions, but that the state has not yet
institutionalised it.
And the
problem is not just coverage, but quality. "Not all teachers are really
familiar with the subjects they teach, and we students have to put up with
their schedules when they miss class to do errands," Melissa Vargas, from
the
Vargas, 17,
attends a special academy to catch up on math and verbal reasoning skills that
she didn't acquire at school and which she needs to enter university, where she
wants to study accounting.
The quality
of education is also linked to the inadequate availability of Bilingual
Intercultural Education (BIE), which is especially essential to indigenous
girls who do not speak Spanish, the FLORECER report warns.
In this
South American country, Amerindians account for an estimated 45 percent of the
population of nearly 30 million. "Mestizos" or people of mixed ethnic
heritage (mainly indigenous and Spanish ancestry) represent roughly 37 percent
of the population; an estimated 15 percent of the population is of European
descent; and there are small black and Asian minorities.
In most
regions of
In Amazon
regions like Huánuco and
UNICEF
reports that nationwide, only 11 percent of students from the country's 44
different indigenous groups attend bilingual schools.
There is
also a shortage of bilingual education in the Andean regions, home to the
country's main Amerindian groups, the Quechua and Aymara. In Ancash, only 26.5
percent of indigenous children receive BIE, in Puno 34 percent, and in
Huancavelica, the poorest region in the country, 40 percent.
In an ongoing
monitoring process, the Ombudsperson's Office found that only 12 Units of Local
Educational Management (UGELs), out of 45 that provided information, identified
teachers who had received specialised BIE training, among the educators that
they had hired.
Another nine
UGELs reported hiring 530 teachers without training in BIE, while 87 teachers
did not even have a teaching degree.
"The
regional education boards, in conjunction with the UGELs, should identify how
many teachers with training in bilingual intercultural education are
needed," Alicia Abanto, head of the indigenous peoples programme in the
Ombudsperson's Office, told IPS. "They should carry out an evaluation, and
they should plan, and guarantee that this right is respected."
Tovar
said: "It is a serious problem in the classroom when indigenous children
don't understand what is taught in Spanish."