5/5/2006
UN-Sponsored Arab Regional Forum Focuses On Supporting Girls’ Education

Arab media professionals, human rights organisations, academia and United Nations agencies began a meeting in Dubai this week aimed at improving access to quality education for Arabic girls. While there have been advances in the Arab world, an estimated two-thirds of the 70 million illiterates are women and girls.

UNICEF said that eliminating gender disparity in education requires action on a number of fronts, such as training teachers who are aware of gender and child rights; identifying women teachers who can become role models and developing learning environments that are sensitive to health, nutrition and sanitation issues. While access to education for girls has improved dramatically over the past few decades and in most countries, nevertheless “great challenges remain,” with many children – especially girls – still excluded from education, and many more enrolled in school but learning too little.