The Senegalese teacher unions have completed a survey of schools to identify the progress made and challenges faced in achieving gender equality in schools as part of their EFAIDS Programme.
Backed by the Ministry of Education and buoyed by the commitment of the five teachers unions that comprise COSSEL (the Senegalese Committee of Education Unions for EFA and against HIV/AIDS), teams of researchers audited 278 primary and secondary schools across all eleven regions of Senegal to document the situation of boys and girls.
The findings confirmed that girls would benefit from increased support to overcome barriers to school attendance. Factors such as difficulty of access of schools in rural areas, household and family commitments, and traditional customs complicate girls’ participation in school. By undertaking this research, the Senegalese unions now have definitive evidence with which to lobby the government to ensure gender sensitive practices and structures are adopted in schools throughout the country.
In the meantime, schools responded well to training based on the EI EFAIDS Publication ‘Building a Gender Friendly School Environment’ and are eager to make concrete steps towards achieving equality of access to education. From undertaking the research it became obvious that schools would benefit from maintaining more detailed records so that statistics on enrolment, attendance and achievements are more easily accessible.
In the aftermath of the survey, COSSEL is not only committed to advocating for gender equality in the Senegalese system, but also to increasing the impact of EFAIDS training. Trainers need to make as many teachers as possible aware of factors affecting quality education. Research also showed that the constant relocation of teachers undermined their efforts to address issues such as gender and violence in their schools.
Through the EFAIDS Programme, the Senegalese unions will continue to support teachers to overcome these barriers. In early June, COSSEL brought together the principals of the schools surveyed together with union activists to provide follow-up training, focusing on the manual ‘Leadership in the HIV/AIDS Response”.
Five teacher unions, SNEEL-CNTS, SUDES, SYPROS, FIDUEF and UDEN cooperate under the EFAIDS Programme as COSSEL. See the EFAIDS webpage for background information on the EFAIDS Programme in Senegal. The EI Resource ‘Research Matters’ was used by COSSEL in planning their research and the resource ‘Building a Gender Friendly School Environment’ in their training.