THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA’S COMBINED REPORT ON THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN & PEOPLES’ RIGHTS & INITIAL REPORT ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA rigorous Sensitisation and awareness creation on the social benefits of women’s effective participation in decision making as well as the training of women in community leadership, networking and advocacy 1.4 Education. The Constitution provides for the right to equal educational opportunities. It is also directive principle of state policy to ensure basic education for all citizens and the provision of adequate resources for the purpose. In addition, the Children’s Act also provides for the right to education. Section 26 of The Women’s Act of 2010 provides for the elimination of discrimination in the field of education. It provides that every woman has the right to basic education and training for self-development. It also provides that the Government shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and guarantee equal opportunity and access in the sphere of education and training. The Gambia education polices 2004–2015 and 2016-2030 aims to promote broad-based education at the basic level for lifelong learning and training and mainstreaming gender in the creation of opportunities for all to acquire literacy, livelihood skills and the utilisation of these skills in order to earn a living and become economically self-reliant members of the community. One of the policy’s objectives is to introduce a School Improvement Grant (SIG) in order to make basic education free in all Government and grant-aided schools. A bursary scheme will be established for girls to cover the cost of uniforms and stationery especially for girls in the rural area. As a result of the measures taken to improve literacy and school enrolment rates, a 5.5% increase has been recorded in the enrolment of girls in lower basic education per-annum between the years of 2010 to 2015. The Gross Enrolment Ratio for girls increased from 89.1% in 2010 to 103.5% in 2015, with girls now representing over 50% of enrolment in formal lower basic schools. The ratio of boys to girls in senior secondary level is 1:1. There has been tremendous progress in expanding access to education for girls at all levels as a result of different projects and programmes that have been implemented including through the implementation of the National Education Policy 2004-2015 and gender mainstreaming strategies contained in the Education Sector Strategic Plan 2006-2015. 132