Abstract:
The importance of education in the development of human capital has been broadly acknowledged. It has also been argued that improving access to education is central in the achievement of poverty reduction and other millennium development goals (MDGs) in Africa. Gender inequalities remain manifest in many development sectors in Kenya including the educational sector. The main objective of this paper is to examine current gender disparity trends in education in Kenya. The paper reviews literature to investigate the nature of gender gaps in educational enrolment and attainment.
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision making; and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender. UNICEF says gender equality means that women and men, and girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections. It does not require that girls and boys, or women and men, be the same, or that they be treated exactly alike.
This study focused majorly on education in terms of gender enrollment as a factor that contributes to Gender equality. Since education is the key that unlocks all other opportunities such as leadership roles, economic stability and others, it is important to ensure that all people regardless of the gender enjoy the same opportunities in the education sector.
This study looked into enrolment rates in Kenya with reference to sex and county to monitor the gender enrolment differences in education for each county. This was done by looking into three socioeconomic indicators of education; the Gender Parity Indices, the Net Enrolment Ratios and the Transition Rates.