Basic Education authorities are having the third briefing on how to apply the "gender"' approach in classroom practices.

Given that certain cultures still hold that girls are meant for marriage while boys go to school, young girls of school age do not always have the legal protection and the necessary care that they deserve in classrooms. Some young girls are victims of sexual harassment, rape, early pregnancy and many forms of discriminatory practices in the classroom. Within these backdrops, the Ministry of Basic Education is currently on its third sensitisation briefing on "Gender and Development Issues" with focuses on childhood education in school.

Lydia Effiom, an expert from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and the Family said at the occasion that most often when people talk of gender, they think it is about women but this is not so as gender is about women and men. Hence, to talk about "Gender and Development" one has to be interested in the equal promotion of man and woman in the national quest for development. As such, the Ministry of Basic Education is taking the commitment to reduce disparities between the sexes, make the integration of women's problems into the development of Basic Education a major concern.

Opening the workshop, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Basic Education, Olinga Meke said teachers have to know the type of words to use in the classroom which will interest pupils (boys and girls). He highlighted the importance of bringing together teachers, parents and experts from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and the Family in a bid to inform and sensitise educators on the necessity to consider the rights and duties of the young learner and apply the gender approach in classroom practices.