School heads, circuit supervisors attend gender sensitisation workshop

Bolgatanga, June 30, GNA - A one-day gender sensitisation workshop for Basic School Heads and Circuit Supervisor has been held in the Bolgatanga Municipality.

It was sponsored by Link Community Development, a British Non-Government Agency (NGO).

Participants were taken through guidelines for observing the interaction of boys and girls in the classroom, the effects of gender bias in quality teaching, identifying stereotype messages in the textbooks used in the schools and how to counteract the effects of such messages to maximize effective learning.

In a speech to close the workshop, Miss Francisca Ateere, Bolgatanga Municipal Education Girl-Child Officer noted that stereotype messages have contributed immensely to girls not being initiative and lacking in self-esteem.

Miss Ateere said the goal of the workshop was to identify gender biases and eliminate them in the curriculum to provide quality education. She bemoaned the biased misconception about girls being weak in Mathematics and Science, and noted that the Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME) clinics have proved this wrong.

She urged heads of schools to let gender sensitivity guide them in administration, tuition, as well as in their dealings with the entire school community.