DUBAI // Government and religious leaders worldwide have been urged to build and support national policies that promote gender equality in education.
“It’s critical to have the right political commitment,” Irina Bokova, head of Unesco, the United Nations education agency, told a conference in Dubai.
“Messages from political leaders are very important. In some cases we have to work with traditional leaders. In some cases we also need the religious leaders on our side to pass the right messages. Those messages should say that nothing in this traditional belief says that women should not be educated.”
Gender parity and equality is one of the six goals in Unesco’s Education for All 2015 initiative. Women still represent two-thirds of the world’s 774 million illiterate adults.
“This is a waste of talent and human ingenuity that no society can afford,” the Unesco director general said. “No society can develop sustainability using just 50 per cent of its human capital.”
In the Arab States in 2011, there were 92 girls for every 100 boys in primary school and 93 in secondary school, compared with 87 and 88 in 1999. The global average is 97 in primary school and 98 in secondary school.
“There is progress, but compared to the global average, the Arab region is still lagging behind,” Ms Bokova said.
Unesco defines the 22 Arab States as the UAE, Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
High rates of illiteracy are also a problem in many of these countries, where 48 million people are illiterate. “Two out of three are women,” Ms Bokova said at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai.
“This conference, what we want to achieve is to see a very strong commitment to education in terms of putting it on the global political agenda.
“We want to see a very vital, vibrant debate and we are seeing it … about the quality of education and the quality of learning.”
Ms Bokova encouraged private investment and public and private partnerships in achieving gender equality and quality education. She also urged business leaders to join Unesco’s Global Partnership for Girls’ Education, which targets transition from secondary education and literacy.
rpennington@thenational.ae
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- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
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Coffee: black death or elixir of life?
It is among the greatest health debates of our time; splashed across newspapers with contradicting headlines - is coffee good for you or not?
Depending on what you read, it is either a cancer-causing, sleep-depriving, stomach ulcer-inducing black death or the secret to long life, cutting the chance of stroke, diabetes and cancer.
The latest research - a study of 8,412 people across the UK who each underwent an MRI heart scan - is intended to put to bed (caffeine allowing) conflicting reports of the pros and cons of consumption.
The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation, contradicted previous findings that it stiffens arteries, putting pressure on the heart and increasing the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, leading to warnings to cut down.
Numerous studies have recognised the benefits of coffee in cutting oral and esophageal cancer, the risk of a stroke and cirrhosis of the liver.
The benefits are often linked to biologically active compounds including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols, which benefit the body. These and othetr coffee compounds regulate genes involved in DNA repair, have anti-inflammatory properties and are associated with lower risk of insulin resistance, which is linked to type-2 diabetes.
But as doctors warn, too much of anything is inadvisable. The British Heart Foundation found the heaviest coffee drinkers in the study were most likely to be men who smoked and drank alcohol regularly.
Excessive amounts of coffee also unsettle the stomach causing or contributing to stomach ulcers. It also stains the teeth over time, hampers absorption of minerals and vitamins like zinc and iron.
It also raises blood pressure, which is largely problematic for people with existing conditions.
So the heaviest drinkers of the black stuff - some in the study had up to 25 cups per day - may want to rein it in.
Rory Reynolds
