In its 2007 report, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum ranked Yemen last (128) as to the Global Gender Gap and estimated the gap in overall rankings to be 45 percent.

The report measures the volume of the gap between women and men in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment and health and survival.

Gender gap of educational attainment is wider in rural areas where locals see that girls are born to stay at the houses of their fathers, or their husbands once they reach marriage age.

Under the bad and deteriorating circumstances, parents prefer that only male children get education at the risk of their female ones.

"I have two girls and four children. I cannot get enough money to support them and my occupation depends on my daily work. Sometimes you get work and sometimes not. The money I make could not provide them with basic things, let alone stationary, books and other expenses," said Ahmed Abdul Aziz Qasim, a father of six who lives in a small village located in Wadi Al-Sahul, four km to the north of Ibb city.

Qasim added that he is thinking seriously of making his children abandon school to help him in farming and to work as street vendors as is the case with several children in their locality.

"Very few children complete their basic education and fewer pursue secondary school and, later, universities. Female children meet no education at all.  If some families admit their girls in basic education, these girls give education as soon as they complete their sixth grade because there is no close secondary school where girls can continue," pointed out Qasim. 

Several people, especially middle-aged people, see that a woman should not leave her father's house, only to her husband's house when she gets married or cemetery when she dies.

Government efforts

Yemen is working to enhance girl education through the National Program for Girl Education and Basic Education Development Program at the Ministry of Education. Both programs are implemented under generous support of donor countries.

The Yemeni government works also in collaboration with UNICEF to bridge the gap of gender disparity through education. In this regard, UNICEF is mobilizing support to help bridge the gender gap. The organization partners private sector and religious leaders to make more girls join primary education.

According to UNICEF, enrollment of girls into schools runs into a sharp and disturbing drop when it comes to putting girls into schools. This drop is even more drastic with regards to enrollment of girls in rural areas.

Such efforts by the Yemeni government and other partners have helped bring promising results. Through Basic and Education and Gender Empowerment, UNICEF is working with Yemeni Ministry of Education to enhance educational effectiveness meant for enhancing the educational effectiveness and increasing the access to at least 80 percent.

The program is implemented in partnership with Ministry of Education's Girl's Education, Curriculum and Supervision and Training and Projects sectors. Other partners are the Ministry of Endowment, local NGOs, GTZ, Ministry of Information and UN agencies.

The program achievements include improving gross enrolment figures in Basic Education (grade 1 to 9). The numbers grew remarkably from 65 percent in 1998 to 74 percent in 2005.

Likewise, the girls' enrolment has shown better progress. The percentage rose from 45 percent in 1998 to reach 62 percent in 2005; however, it has not been the desired figure.

English Language Teacher Khalid Al-Omari who teaches in one of Al-Qafr schools, admits that there percentage is still too low in rural areas and cites Al-Qafr Al-Ali in Ibb Province as example where, though more educated, very few female students join basic education.

Al-Omari hints that the gap widens right from the 7th grade and higher as most families see that girls at this age should stay and help at houses waiting for the coming of the proposed husband.

"In some secondary school classes, you get one or two female students against 20 male students. I can see that just one in 15 students of my school is female," noted Al-Omari adding that "more efforts should be exerted to ensure that more and more female students join schools."