Government and its partners in education are exploring ways to increase the number of girls enrolling in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). Currently, the enrollment of girls in TVET is at 40 per cent, which worries members of National Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE) – an initiative which seeks to ensure gender equality and women empowerment. At a meeting that brought together stakeholders on Thursday to discuss the priorities to be implemented in the area of gender equality and women empowerment throughout the year, promoting TVET was high on the agenda. The priorities are aimed at supporting the National Strategic Transformation Plan – an initiative which seeks to fast-track the implementation of the country’s development agenda up to 2024. “There is an issue of low enrollment of girls in TVET. We explore ways on how to make sure that our women and girls are part of TVET and create job efforts,” said Bena Musembi, the Co-Chair of the Cluster, who is also the Country Director of Care International Rwanda. She highlighted the need for women’s capacity building in various areas such as ICT, finance and business in order to enable them participate in the budgeting, planning and monitoring processes. According to Jacqueline Kamanzi, the Executive Secretary of the National of National Women’s Council (NWC), there is need for more women to join TVET schools for them to meaningfully contribute to the country’s development path. She said more emphasis would be put on agriculture and tourism as well as event management among other areas. “We want women to think business and do business, we want women to create jobs through various segments and we are prioritising He4She commitment as well,” she said. Other interventions Throughout the year, it is expected that apart from encouraging girls’ enrollment in TVET, 30,000 women will be mobilsed through the National Employment Programme (NEP) interventions to pitch ideas for funding. Partners also committed to strengthen and promote gender equality and ensure equal opportunities for all Rwandans through dialogue in over 1,500 secondary schools and 40 higher leaning institutions. The dialogue will revolve around gender equality promotion and reproductive health as well as how to curb teenage pregnancy in schools. According to official figures, in 2016 alone, over 17,000 teenage pregnancies were recorded. “Bringing partners together, we are going to see how we are going to partner in all these priority areas, different partners have different interventions and the ministry and the entire gender machinery want to coordinate efforts and deliver in a synergy,” Kamanzi noted. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
