1. UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education
UNESCO-KIGEPE-UNDP ROK Workshop on Gender Responsive Budget: a GENIA sub-regional capacity building initiative for South, Southeast and East Asia (3-5 December 2008, Seoul, Rep. of Korea)
Situation of Gender in Education in Asia Pacific Region - Update from GMR
Maki Hayashikawa
UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education
Bangkok

2. Assessing gender disparities and inequality in education
Significant progress has been made in girls education and gender parity in primary and secondary enrollments:
28 countries out of 48 achieved gender parity in primary education by 2005.
Primary GPI in South and West Asia improved from 0.84 to 0.95 (from 1999 to 2006)
Female adult literacy rate increased by 4% points between & :
East Asia & Pacific: +10% points
South & West Asia: +14% points
Central Asia: +1% points
Indeed, the Asia-Pacific region has made significant progress in gender parity esp. in primary and secondary enrollment over the last decade and a half. For example, at the primary level, the Gender Parity Index (GPI) in access steadily improved since 1999, especially in South and West Asia (GPI improved from 0.83 to 0.92). 28 countries out of 48 achieved gender parity in primary level, and 17 countries out of 47 achieved gender parity in secondary level by 2005.
Female adult literacy rate also increased by 13 percentage points in East Asia, Pacific and South/West Asia, while the world on average only saw a 7 percentage-point increase over the same period.

3. Are we really on track?
In 2006, only 59 of 176 countries achieved gender parity in both primary and secondary education. (only 37% in Secondary by 2006)
Nearly half of the regional countries are at risk of NOT achieving parity by 2015 in secondary education, and primary completion remains a challenge.
Of the 75 million children out-of-school, 55% are girls.
59% of out-of-school children in South and West Asia are girls
However, there are also many unfinished jobs.
The Asia Pacific region is home for close to 60 per cent of the world’s children and is characterized by high levels of disparities across and within countries of the region. There are some countries indeed achieving near universal participation in basic education, but also some others esp in South Asian continue to lag behind.
Most regional countries are within range of achieving gender parity in primary education by 2015, but nearly half of the regional countries are at risk of not achieving parity by 2015 or 2025 at secondary education. Primary completion remains to be an ‘unfinished job’, in terms of completion and attainment rate and transition rate to secondary).
South and West Asia, together with Sub-Sahara Africa, reported the lowest levels of girls’ participation with GPI 0.79 in At the tertiary level women remain at a serious disadvantage in the region overall, but particularly in South and West Asia (GPI 0.74) and slightly in East Asia (0.92).
Of the 74 million children out-of-school, 2/3 of them live in our region, and 54% are girls. In South and West Asia, over 66% of the out-of-school children are girls.
There remains a serious gender gap in adult literacy in the Asia-Pacific region. The region is home to the largest number of adult illiterates. 2/3 of the world estimated total of 774 million adult illiterates live in Asia Pacific. Female illiterates account for over 60% in the region. By sub-regions, in Central Asia, female adult illiterates account for 74% of the total, and in East Asia/Pacific female adult illiterates account for 71% for the total adult illiterates. The share of female adult illiterates in the region as a whole has increased between and (GMR 2008)

4. Launched 25 November 2008 Theme: Governance and Equity
-- sub-focus on finance and teachers

9. Serious gender gap in adult literacy remains, with female illiterates accounting for over 70% in East and the Pacific.
Share of female adult illiterates in the region has in fact increased between and by 2%.

10. Looking from a gender perspective:
Boys too…
Disparities to the disadvantage of boys at secondary education are growing, especially in East Asia and Pacific.
Current trends increasingly reveal that gender disparities in the Asia-Pacific region is not only to the disadvantage of girls, but also to boys. Gender disparity in enrollment is found in the regional countries to the disadvantage of boys in East Asia, especially at the secondary level in some East Asia and Southeast Asia countries.
Source: Global Monitoring Report 2009, UNESCO

11. Internal efficiency from gender perspective
Once girls are in primary school, they do better than boys
Less likely to repeat grades: in114 of 146 countries with data for 2006
More likely to reach final grade: in 63 of 115 countries with data equal numbers of boys and girls made it to final grate.
More likely to complete primary school
Example: Afghanistan primary school repeaters were 14% for girls 18% of boys
Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009, UNESCO

12. Gender disparities within countries
Strong association between poverty and gender disparities in primary education, and even more in secondary education.
Income disparities interact with wider social, economic and cultural factors to disadvantage girls.

13. NATIONAL DATA HIDES SUB-NATIONAL DISPARITIES
Gender parity in NER for primary education in South Asia and in Sri Lanka by province, 2005
These two maps tries to show how national aggregated data can hide the sub-national disparities between girls and boys.
An example of Sri Lanka in South Asia, where gender parity on average is the lowest among the sub-regions of Asia Pacific. Sri Lanka is the only country that has reported gender parity in primary education at national level. Yet, when the data is shown at sub-national level, existence of disparities become clear.
An example from Myanmar- national data show gender parity achieved, but when sub-national data are used, clearly, gender disparity exists in both ways, to the disadvantage of girls as well as boys.
Gender parity in NER in secondary education in the Mekong and in Myanmar by province, 2005
Sources: EFA GMR 2008, MMR_ DEPT and DBEs, Sri Lanka MDA draft report

14. PARITY LEADING TO EQUALITY IN OUTCOMES? Estimated Earned Income
PPP US$
Source: Human Development Report 2007/2008, UNDP

15. Gender differences in Mathematics: L
Learning Achievement
Gender differences in Mathematics:
Achievement and self-confidence, TIMSS 2003
Learning achievement: disparities in performance depending on subject areas. Boys outperform girls in math and science (e.g., Thailand, the Philippines), while girls outperform boys in language and social science (e.g., Korea, Thailand).
What is further interesting to note from these charts are the differences in the actual achievement in the test score for maths, and the self-confidence girls and boys respectively have in maths.

16. “Feminine”, “masculine” fields of study
The discrepancy in the achievement level and self-confidence in maths among girls, may explain why female enrolment in certain fields, such as health and welfare, education and humanities and arts, is high while they are significantly underrepresented in other “masculine” fields such as engineering, manufacturing and construction and science.
Source: EFA GMR 2008

17. Parity leading to equality in outcomes?
Seats held by women in national parliament
East Asia
Now, this map of our region illustrates the seats held by women in national parliaments.
Is gender parity in education leading to equality outcomes in the spheres of socio-political participations as well?
Source: GENDER Info 2007

18. Focus on the ‘teacher gap’
Global challenge is focused on the quantity i.e. number of teachers
Very little attention to the quality of teachers
Hardly any attention to gender issues in teacher training, recruitment, deployment and professional/career development
But GMR finds that female teacher is not a just a solution for girls education and enrolment but important for the empowerment of women as a whole.

19. Proportion of female teachers in primary education
Country
% 1999
% 2006
Of which qualified %
(2006)
Cambodia 37 42
n.a.
China 55
Lao PDR 43 46 91
Viet Nam 78 96
Pakistan 45 75
Nepal 23 30
27 (2005)
Thailand 63 60
World 58 62
Source: UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009

20. Proportion of female teachers by level of education (2006)
Country
Pre-primary
Primary
Secondary
Cambodia 96 42 32
China 98 55 45
Lao PDR 99 46 43
Viet Nam 78 64
Pakistan
45 (2004)
51 (2004)*
Nepal
n.a. 30
Thailand 60
World 93 62
37.0
Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009, UNESCO
*Pakistan: national estimate at the secondary level

21. Gender is cross-cutting goal 5 & EFA Strategy #6
Gender mainstreaming is a mandated strategy to achieve EFA as a whole.
EFA Goal 5 – the backbone for the other EFA goals.
Gender is not a separate and special issue: EFA Goals 2, 4, and 5 all addresses the issue of gender disparities and achieving gender equality in education by 2015.
So it is time for everyone to revisit the very goal that is trying to address the current situation. EFA goal 5.
Achieving gender parity in enrolment is only one measure of achievement and by no means the end of the story.
There is a clear recognition among EFA stakeholders today that EFA Goal 5 forms the backbone for the other goals as gender is a truly cross-cutting issue. Gender mainstreaming is a mandated strategy, - the 6th Strategy of the 12 EFA Strategies - and must be the basis for policy formulation and programme development. Gender equality is certainly not just limited to EFA Goal 5.
It is true, that reporting and analysis has been weak in areas that are less quantifiable - such as learning outcomes, quality of teachers, especially of female teachers, curriculum content and learning materials and resources, acquisition of essential life skills, school to work transition, etc - , despite the fact that these are all essential in measuring the overall improvements in quality of education and for policy formulation and its strategic implementation.

22. Impact of “Major Global Threats” on EFA and Gender Equality goal
Rise in poverty leads parents to pull or keep girls out of school if choices need to be made on whom to send to school. But in some countries, poverty may disproportionately affect boys’ education as well (e.g., Mongolia and the Philippines)
Increase in food prices may lead to poor nutrition level of girls, especially when family preference is given to boys in food sharing, decreasing their chances of schooling. (e.g., South and West Asia)
Girls and women are especially disadvantaged in an emergency context and at greater risk of exclusion from education and exposure to unsafe environments, sexual abuse and trafficking (e.g., the tsunami, Cyclone Nargis)
EFA Goals, and particularly goal 5 on gender equality is further challenged today by the “major global threats” to development such as increasing food prices and fuel/energy, rising inflation, likely increase of unemployment, and natural disasters and emergencies situation. These are likely to have serious adverse impact on the progress being made and the projection of achievements to be made in promoting women and girls education and achieving gender parity and equality in education.
Given the cost of education for many poor families, the rise in family poverty level due to rising inflation, unemployment, increasing food prices and fuel/energy, may lead parents to decide to pull or keep girls out of school if choices had to be made on who to send to school. But in some countries poverty may disproportionately affect boys as well (e.g. Mongolia and the Philippines) where boys’ contribution to family income generation is valued more or families dependent on their male children.
Increase in food price may also lead to poor nutrition level of children but especially girls, especially when family preference is given to boys in food sharing, decreasing their chances of accessing or continuing schooling. This is a particularly acute threat for girls in South and West Asia.
Girls and women are esp. disadvantaged in emergencies context and at greater risk of exclusion from education and exposure to unsafe environment, sexual abuse and trafficking.

24. THANK YOU