The Government has also increased access to secondary schools, with the building of new schools and equipping them with necessary inputs both in urban and rural areas. The number of secondary schools increased from 1335 in 2009/10 to 1517 in 2010/11, 1710 in 2011/12 and to 1912 in 2012/13. A total of 577 secondary schools have been constructed during the first three GTP years.58 The Government has also introduced Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) which can play a vital role in producing and meeting the demand for middle level skills of different industries and support the expansion of micro and small enterprises in the country. In 2009/10 and 2010/11 the number of trainees attending TVET programs were 353,420 and 371,347, respectively. The number of undergraduates participating in tertiarylevel education increased from 420,387 in 2009/10 to 491,871 in 2011/12 further expanding participation in higher education.59 To improve the literacy rate for girls and women, the Government has been implementing programs, including non-formal and adult education. In 2011/12 the number of participants in the adult functional education program was 2.1 million persons (1.3 million male and 810 thousand female). There has been progress in addressing gender disparity at all levels of the educational system. The gender disparities in primary and secondary schools have continued to decline steadily, reaching 0.93 and 0.79 respectively in 2011. Gender parity at the tertiary education level has improved from 0.22 in 1991 to 0.36 in 2010; it is even lower at 0.1 in graduate school. The Government has implemented an affirmative action program and reduced the entrance requirements for women to institutions of higher learning, with 30 % quotas reserved for girls in each field of study. As a result, girl‟s participation has increased from 24 % in 2002/03 to 25.6% in 2010/11. The Government also provides tutorial classes, life skill trainings and financial supports for the students who are in need of such support. Beyond this there is also affirmative action for students with disability and students from emerging regions.60 The entrance requirement is lessened for students coming from less-developed regions of the country, including the Benishangul, Gambela, Afar and Somali Regional States, and for those coming from pastoralist and semi-pastoralist areas of the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples‟ and Oromia Regional States. This, in turn, has resulted in an increase in enrollment from these regions. GTP report Ethiopia 2012/13 P. VI Ethiopian UPR report 60 UPR report 58 59 87