Teachers trained to make schools inclusive spaces

stacey

April 15, 2016 8:33 PM

Teachers in the Upper West Region have been tasked with advocating for more gender-friendly environments in their schools.

A select group of teachers from the Wa Municipal and Wa West districts in the Upper West Region have taken part in a programme that teaches them new ways to make their respective schools inclusive for all genders.

Dubbed Gender Nkabom, since 2007 the programme has run training sessions for educators about the need for school children to feel comfortable and safe whenever they are in school irrespective of gender.

It is an initiative of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) with support from the Canadian Teachers Federation.

The project seeks to redress the common complaint that girls are often the least comfortable in the school environment. This is especially the case in schools that lack basic facilities such as toilets, urinals and running water, making pupils have to resort to nearby bushes or public toilets outside the school compound.

According to Helena Awurasa, the national gender coordinator for GNAT, the training program was important because it would help change “attitudes and beliefs systems associated with the various roles that society have assigned to men and women and promote an effective working relationship between boys and girls.”

A study in 2014 by the Ghana Education Service found that 10,000 public schools (half of all public schools) did not have toilets. Another study by a non-governmental organisation; Sustainable Development Focus revealed that an overwhelming 95 percent of girls stay away from school during menstruation.

This affects the academic performance of girls, who have to miss school sometimes for up to a week, while their male counterparts attend classes regularly.

Some the areas that were treated at the training programme include; community mobilization for gender, understanding gender concepts, practical and strategic gender needs and writing gender action plans.

Although, according to the United Nations, Ghana has attained the Millennium Development Goal 3 of ensuring gender parity in primary and secondary school, the country struggles to keep these girls in school as the ratio decreases higher up the academic ladder.The teachers who have undergone training are expected to pass the knowledge on to their colleagues and advocate for the change in their respective communities.

stacey

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