Bhaktapur: The Department of Education (DoE) has directed all District Education Offices (DEO) to form ‘Girls’ Education and Gender Equity Networking Committees (GEGENC)’ in respective districts and a gender focal point at each community school.

Rajya Laxmi Nakarmi, chief of the DoE’s Gender Equity Section, today said they have recently written to all 75 DEOs to form such committees.

She said, “The district committees are meant to look into student enrolment from gender perspectives and formulate programmes for equal participation of both girls and boys in the classroom.”

According to Flash Report-I, which the DoE had prepared in November 2010, of the total enrolment at the school level, girls’ enrolment, as per School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP), constitutes almost 50.1 per cent, that is 50.5 per cent at the primary level, 49.9 per cent at the lower secondary level, 48. 8 per cent at secondary level, 50.7 per cent at higher secondary level, 50.2 per cent at basic level (Grade I to VIII) and 49.5 per cent at the secondary level (Grade IX to XII).

The government has also provided Rs 6,000 to each district to hold meetings and prepare strategies and programmes to promote girls’ education and gender equity.

As per the Gender Equity for Girls Education Strategies, a network comprising government bodies and NGOs was to be formed at the central and district levels to monitor enrolment in schools.

Source: The Himalayan Times