Abstract

Education is an enabling and transformative right.Education of the girl child has been a focus of many national and international initiatives specifically because girls constitute the largest group excluded from education in general and from quality education in particular. Gender inequalities still remain in education systems. This qualitative study set to investigate the obstacles girls face in receiving an equitable education. The study was based on Bandura’s social learning theory.The research study adopted a case study design with a purposive sample of 4 school heads, 40 teachers and 24 students Masvingo district secondary schools. Ethical considerations were observed by the researchers. Data was collected through questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions. Collected data was analysed manually through hand-coding and categorising ideas that eventually formed themes to this research study. The study established that the perception that subjects can be categorised into boys’ and girls’ subjects still prevails. Many teachers either consciously or unconsciously perpetuate this stereotype when advising and interacting with pupils. Another finding is that gender inequalities in education are reinforced by textbooks which are mostly written from a male perspective and trivialising women. Sex distribution of teachers was also found to reinforce gender inequalities. In view of this, the study recommends that girls need to be invited to participate in career days to encourage them to consider careers in Science subjects. Revisions of textbooks need to be done to increase representation of women. There should be more gender sensitive courses in schools that assist both girls and boys to develop new orientations about the capabilities of both girls and boys.