Assessing the Progress Made by African Countries in Meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on Eliminating Gender Disparity in Education

Abstract

Target 3 of the Millennium Development goals states Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015. In adopting the Millennium Development Goals, African countries pledged to eliminate gender disparity in primary, secondary and also tertiary education by 2015. This article details the progress made by African countries towards achieving this MDG target since the baseline year of 1991. There has been notable positive trend in closing the gender gap at primary school level. However eliminating the gender disparities at secondary and tertiary levels has been slow and remains a major challenge in many African countries. Other outstanding challenges include addressing the high dropout rates of girls from all the levels of education, the high gender disparities in education still evident in rural and remote areas, limited availability of data, and poor social security and social protection systems. The article suggests recommendations to help accelerate the progress towards closing the gender gap.