This campaign saw governments and international organisations – most notably Unicef, the World Bank and the African Union – invest in school enrolment and keeping girls in school.
Progress was achieved in many parts of the world, with the exception of some countries, for example in the Middle East.
The UN subsequently built on the momentum generated by the MDGs – which targeted only developing countries – with a global development frame beyond 2015 for all countries called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Each country was given the freedom to establish its own national framework to achieve the SDGs. In short, they are nationally owned and country-led.
These goals include the “retaining of gender equality” as an individual goal as well as a means of realising other SDGs linked to it.
There is compelling evidence to support that achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment are crucial in attaining other SDGs, such as SDG1 (No Poverty), SDG3 (Good Health) and SDG4 (Quality Education), among others.
One area agreed on is accelerating gender equality in education.
It is argued that when a girl receives an education, she is likely to improve her own life, as well as the lives of her siblings and immediate family members, helping break the cycle of poverty in her family.
This noble and ancient idea, although often ignored by power brokers, is key to promoting development for humankind.
Abdu’l-Baha (servant of God) of the Bah’ai Faith wrote that “the world of humanity is possessed of two wings: The male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly.” We cannot agree more.
Namibia has done well in promoting the universal enrolment of girls and young women in education at all levels, from primary to tertiary.
This has been achieved despite notable barriers such as patriarchal gender norms, inadequate infrastructure, poverty, early marriage and (teenage) pregnancies.
A paper by professor Roderick Zimba, titled ‘Manifestations of Namibian Boys’ Underachievement in Education’, has been widely reported on in the print media.
Zimba’s work highlights gender disparity in academic achievement.
It points to underachievement among boys from grades 1 to 12, as well as the 2012 graduation output at tertiary level (Unam and the Polytechnic at the time).
This prompted some people, including political leaders, to conclude that boys are “in danger” as they are “lagging behind” their female counterparts.
We cannot help wonder how female advancement in education is a “threat” or why it should be regarded a “bad thing” for boys.
One way of looking at the lower enrolment of males is to understand the ratio of males to females in Namibia.
This shows that initially there are more male children compared to females. However, because of high mortality rates among males of all ages, as documented by the Namibia Statistics Agency in 2021, the ‘sex-ratio’ changes to more females than males.
The average sex-ratio of Namibia’s young population, based on the intercensal survey data collected in 2016, showed 96 males for every 100 females.
It therefore makes sense for female enrolments at educational institutions to outnumber those of males, especially if equal opportunities are available to both sexes.
Many who comment on this issue – from Laurent Desire Kabila Street in Auasblick to King Kauluma Street at Oshitenda – claim boys are discriminated against when it comes to studying.
However, we fail to understand how it is discriminatory if males and females have the same study opportunities.
Rather than the chorus of “boys are in trouble”, as if males are superior to females, the question we need to find an urgent solution to is why educational institutions, especially at tertiary level, are experiencing more female graduates than males, despite high enrolment rates among males?
Could it be psychological, behavioural, peer pressure, societal pressures, family responsibilities, or incarceration, among others?
An (empirical) investigation on why males lose interest in education would be a welcome complement to professors Zima and Nambala’s studies on this phenomenon in Namibia.
