Educating girls and women in Africa: pan African conference on the education of girls, in co-operation with the Government of Burkina Faso

Abstract

During the past decade progress has been made in the development of educational opportunities for girls and women, but it is also true that women still lag far behind men in education and employment and ate virtually absent from decision-making activities. With only a year to go before the third United Nations Conference on Women is held in Beijing, China, in 1995, the commitments made by national and international bodies during heir many meetings and discussions have still failed to produce the results expected. The achievement of education for( all by the year 2000 remains out of reach, particularly for many African countries. Today, of a world total of 948 million illiterates, two-thirds are women. Of 130 million children with no access to education, 81 million are girls. According to the 1990 statistics for developing countries, women make up less than 20 per cent of the literate population. Boys' participation in education is in most case superior to that of girls, in some...