How gender assumptions hinder girls in Uganda from accessing a quality education

written by: Joshua Wako

Uganda has made significant progress in advancing girls’ education recently. Policies to improve access and enrollment have been revised, primary enrollment rates have increased positively, and more girls than ever are completing school at all levels. Strategies like the Gender in Education Strategy and the National Policy for Girls’ Education emphasize the importance of gender mainstreaming.

Incorporating gender interventions, measures, and experiences to enhance gender equity in the curriculum and ensure educational equality at all levels, gender-sensitive pedagogy has also been included in Uganda’s new national teacher policy, a crucial step towards gender equality in education and beyond.

In this context where gender inequality persists, the implementation of gender-sensitive and gender-responsive pedagogy has been challenging. There are many stereotypes about how girls and boys are raised and treated, at home, school, and in the professional world. This translates into how they are taught in the classroom, where teachers traditionally have lower expectations and biases against female students.

This situation has led to low participation in school leadership, co-curricular clubs, class activities, and in some cases, significantly higher dropout rates among girls.

As a result, the absence of gender-sensitive pedagogy has also led to a mismatch between what boys and girls learn in school and what is desired by the labor market. For example, there are more boys taking science subjects compared to girls. Students, especially girls, are therefore lacking much-needed 21st-century skills and their achievement results are below standard. Consequently, women are less likely to be employed compared to men because, socially, women are still considered less competent than men.

Gender is synonymous with girls. Some teachers have defined gender-sensitive pedagogy as using teaching methods that focus only on girls. However, it is important to include boys since fathers, brothers, and husbands play an equally critical role in the educational and professional outcomes of girls.

Girls’ issues are not solely the responsibility of senior women. The role of a senior woman – a female teacher responsible for mentoring all girls in a school – is crucial and its benefits cannot be underestimated. However, all teachers, whether they are senior women or not, have a role to play in gender-sensitive pedagogy. Male teachers, too, can encourage girls to aim high and support them in setting and achieving goals.

Gender-sensitive pedagogy is time-consuming. Teachers believe that gender-sensitive pedagogy is time-consuming and would rather spend time covering the curriculum. Teachers are usually rewarded based on how much content is covered and the number of students who pass exams.

This is exacerbated by media promotion of student pass rates. In reality, gender-sensitive pedagogy encourages teachers to use diverse approaches while teaching the same national curricular content and preparing students for their exams. It does not mean more teaching, but different teaching.

Teachers are the ones who struggle with gender-sensitive pedagogy. Teachers have observed that students are resistant to this type of teaching and struggle to convince their students to try something new and different. Sometimes students are hesitant to participate in the new methods introduced by the teacher. Teachers need to learn how to introduce the teaching methods and adapt their students to the changes in the classroom, which can take a lot of patience.

These assumptions about gender and gender-sensitive pedagogy undermine the progress made in girls’ education in Uganda. As a Scholar, I will analyze data collected from teachers and students to explore ways to close the policy and implementation gap in gender-sensitive pedagogy. Educating girls can have enormous ripple effects on the economy and society. As Harriet Martineau, often cited as the first female sociologist, says, “Women, like men, must be educated to be able to act, or their studies cannot be called education.”