Education | Peru | International Day for Education: only 6.2% of women in rural areas complete higher education | ANSWERS

In the educational field, it is important to underline the significant progress and the effort of the State to reduce the gap in equal access of women and men to education. education, an example of this are the 2018 enrollment and school completion figures, whose national average accounts for a greater participation of the women throughout the entire education system.

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However, the situation of rural women, especially those whose mother tongue is different from Spanish, shows deep gaps of gender inequality. There are serious differences in access and permanence to the educational system, for example, while a woman (between 25 and 34 years of age) in an urban area can complete her higher education in 33.5%, in a rural area the percentage is low to a 6.2% developer.

Along the same lines, unions at an early age and the risk of suffering sexual violence in different situations, such as during the long journeys they have to take to get to school, are some situations that mark the reality of indigenous women, girls and adolescents. rural and impoverished areas.

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A serious indicator of the accentuation of gaps in education, is illiteracy in the indigenous population. According to ENDES 2018, this limitation, in women with an indigenous mother tongue, represents 24.6%, compared to 4.6% of women whose mother tongue is Castilian.

EDUCATION AGAINST COVID-19

The state of emergency generated the suspension of face-to-face classes during 2020 at the national level. Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Education of Peru (MINEDU) implemented the strategy “I learn at home” for the different levels and modalities of education.

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Aprendo en Casa is a free, free access, distance education strategy that proposes learning experiences aligned with the national curriculum so that students can learn from their homes, using various communication channels such as radio, television, internet.

This educational response has contributed to the continuity of the educational service, at the same time that it has revealed new challenges for accessing the educational service in strict relation to the digital gaps in the country.

ACCESS GAP

From digital divide, Internet access has become an essential means to the extent that education has been virtualized and contacts with the immediate environment are now made online. Despite this, there are very few households with a stable internet connection.

Internet access prevails through cell phones and through data packages; but this brings with it other difficulties: the need for an electrical charge in the cell phone and obtaining data packages for its operators (which can be very difficult to obtain in some communities, increasing their cost). Therefore, those who have access to the Internet, recognize it as a great privilege.

The situation of the education in the middle of a health emergency It is complex, according to ENAHO in 2019, 49.9% of those enrolled in the educational system residing in an urban area had internet at home, in comparison, residents of rural areas reach only 6%.

Therefore, currently, there are children and adolescents who cannot continue with their classes due to lack of access to the internet or other means of communication, that is, the highest rate of absences will be found in impoverished groups.

On the other hand, it is notorious that gender stereotypes force girls and adolescents to share their studies with other tasks, which complicates progress compared to men. For example, in the age range between 12 and 17 years, 23.08% of women are engaged in unpaid domestic work, a much higher percentage than that of men, which reaches 14.13%. (Gender Gaps Report. INEI 2019).

Expanding the coverage of educational services and reaching the expected goals in the completion of regular basic and higher education will not depend solely on the investment in education provided by the State. It will also depend on the ability of students to continue in the education system.