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local Wednesday 21 september 2022

During a meeting of the United Nations in New York

Prime Minister of Aruba elaborated on gender equality in

education in Aruba

ORANJESTAD – Prime minister of the prime minister commented.
Aruba, Evelyn Wever-Croes took In Aruba, the national plan for edu-
part in a panel together with, cation is based on the Sustainable
among others, Malala Yousafzai Development Goal number Four,
on the subject “Call to action to which is aligned to the principles of
advance gender equality and girls equality. Aside from this, recently
and women’s empowerment in the first National Gender Policy
and through education”. Here, the was finalized with the goal of ad-
topic “leaving no one behind” was dressing gender inequality and to
also discussed. The prime minister ensure access to quality education
explained everything Aruba is do- for one and all.
ing on gender equality and inclu- In this context it is important to fo-
sivity. cus so that male children will not
be excluded when coming up with
As was previously announced, this efforts for gender equality, same
week the prime minister is in New for female children. Contrary to
York to attend the General Assem- this, education based on equality
bly of the United Nations. In this benefits girls, boys and society.
context there are various meetings
of interest for each country, and Finalizing, the prime minister said:
during these, Wever-Croes is pro- “If we ensure better education and
viding information on what Aruba a fairer society, a country will pros-
is doing regarding education dur- per more. In Aruba we are commit-
ing the “Transforming Education ted to this and we hope to be learn
Summit 2022”. As an initiative to address this, Aru- only in Aruba. Globally more wom- from others and work together to
ba launched the “STEM the GAP en pursue advanced education achieve necessary changes. This is
Primarily, Wever-Croes gave a Project” through Supernova, in or- compared to males, thus this loss something that as leaders we owe
brief explanation on how Aru- der to create more interest and to of interest is a concern all around to our future generations. As was
ba dealt with education during encourage more female children the world. In this context it is impor- mentioned, girls are in the group
the Covid-19 pandemic. Aruba to continue an education in STEM tant to see what the possible origin of those most affected during Co-
kept schools closed for only three (Science, Technology, Engineering might be for this situation. Norms vid-19 pandemic, and if we don’t
months, after which schools were and Mathematics). and expectations of certain gen- take this into consideration now
opened once again. The reason der also have an impact on male during recovery, we run the risk of
behind this was because Aruba re- Prime minister Wever-Croes contin- children, their motivations and losing everything women fought
alized that women, older persons ued saying that this situation is not wishes to study in different ways, for and achieved.”q
and children were those who were
disproportionally affected by the
pandemic.

Regarding gender equality in edu-
cation in Aruba, the prime minister
shared some data. In Aruba, the
amount of female and male chil-
dren who can read and write is al-
most the same. Around 97 percent
of the group of people older than
15 years is considered literate and
there isn’t much difference be-
tween men and women in this.

While Aruba is making efforts to
eliminate the gap between differ-
ent genders in education, it was
noted that there are more females
registered in secondary school and
university. Women have twice as
much chance to follow advanced
education. The percentage of
women who continue studying af-
ter secondary education was 21
percent in 2016, compared to 11%
of men.

However, it was noted that there is
a difference when looking at STEM
studies, when it is only a small frac-
tion of females who participate in
this type of study.