AU Outlook on Education Report: Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) 2009

The goal of this priority area is to ensure girls' and women's empowerment through education, while enriching the education system with positive aspects of African cultural values. The indicators for measuring progress in achieving this goal include: gender parity index, which measures access of girls/women and boys/men to the education system; primary school-aged girls who are out of school; female illiterates; female students enrolled in science, engineering and technology at the tertiary level; female teachers by level of education; existence of African language policy; existence of African languages in education as a subject and a medium of instruction.
For the purposes of this report, only the first five indicators, for which data are internationally available, will be analyzed. Data for the other two indicators need to be obtained from national sources, which are currently not available.