Women's Rights are human rights - Segregation in education

Flair continues its series on women's rights as discussed by the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and presented in the booklet 'CEDAW for Jamaicans'.

In some Jamaican schools, boys are encouraged to pursue technical subjects, girls are encouraged to pursue domestic subjects and the timetable is created in such a way that a student has to do one or the other.

This situation reinforces gender stereotypes that certain subjects are for boys (metalwork/technical drawing) and for girls (home economics and cosmetology).

Girls and boys have the RIGHT to choose the subjects that they want to pursue. The time-table and curriculum should not create any restrictions on this choice.

While in the August 2006 report on Jamaica of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Thirty-sixth session commended the Government of Jamaica on its achievements in the field of girls' and women's education, it remained concerned with the persistence of structural barriers, such as de facto gender-based segregation in the field of education.

This is an excerpt from an article published in the Jamaica Gleaner on Monday, April 14, 2008. You can read the entire article at the Jamaica Gleaner website.