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 Access to Education Tremendous success has been registered in expanding access to education across all levels. Schools have been brought nearer to within 3 km-5 km from the communities. Building schools closer to the homes of the students enhances access and contributes to the safety of the girl child. Under the Third Education Sector Project Phase 1 (1998-2006) and Phase 2 (2006-2011), the Ministry of Basic Education was able to build classrooms throughout the country supported by different donors to improve access to quality education for all Gambians (see table 3). Additional resources from the EFA/FTI have greatly contributed to the provision of additional classrooms and provided the impetus to accelerating access to basic education. It has helped to close the gender gap through the development of appropriate policy, provision of sex disaggregated data and gender information, capacity building of senior management and provided the needed finance to close the funding gap. Generally, resources are more equitably distributed and better utilized for programme implementation. At the tertiary level, the Gender and Development course run by the Management Development Institute (MDI) contributes to the building of a critical mass of persons with knowledge and skills in gender mainstreaming, thus facilitating gender analysis and gender monitoring in the various sectors of governance. The University of The Gambia (UTG) has also introduced gender studies as a compulsory subject in all faculties. The UTG has contributed in no small measure to the access of girls to higher education. In 2008, girls’ enrolment constituted 21.58% of the total as compared to 10% when the university was first established.13 To enhance access for girls and young women, a number of programmes have been initiated such as the ACCESS PROGRAMME run by the University of The Gambia, the RIFT (Remedial Instruction for Female Teachers) by The Gambia College and the extra mural classes by the GTU. Adult and Non-Formal Education: The Community Skills Improvement Project (CSIP) sponsored by the African Development Bank continues to deliver training for women and out of school youths with the view to enhancing self-employment ventures and entrepreneurship development. The project targeted 40,000 women and youth in 250 communities but was able to reach 32,377 (80.94%). The total number of participants who are now classified as literacy 13 PRSP 11, Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs, 2006. 134