AMMAN - Although girls are consistently higher achievers at the academic level, they lag far behind as active members of the labour force, according to a recently released report.
The report, ?Higher Education at a glance in Jordan?, indicates that unemployment rates for women between the ages of 25-29 (seven per cent) are lower than men in the same age group (13 per cent), because of the high percentage of women not seeking employment.
Unemployment among women from that same age group who are not enrolled in educational institutions and not seeking employment, which, according to the study excludes them from being part of the labour force, is as high as 77 per cent.
The in-depth analysis, produced as a Higher Education Indicator (HEI), is part of the Higher Education Information System which was developed through Al Manar, a Canadian-funded project at the National Centre for Human Resources Development.
It includes data on students enrolled at Jordanian universities, graduates of these institutions, as well as faculty members and administrative employees.
Gender issues have been highlighted throughout the study, which compiled information over a year-and-a-half and tracked trends from 2001-2005.
The research group, which used several relevant sources including concerned ministries and universities, called for an appropriate system of data collection after facing difficulty finding accurate and updated information.
According to the HEI, unemployment rates soar from seven per cent to 18 per cent among women who are higher education graduates, one per cent higher than that of men in the same category.
The report also revealed that the majority of women earning a higher education degree, enrolled with the objective of seeking jobs.
While the Kingdom?s workforce is composed of a majority of workers with only a basic education, the study indicates that those who obtain higher education degrees earn much higher salaries.
At the bachelor?s degree level, for example, Jordanians have a career advantage in earnings - 63 per cent higher for men and 82 per cent for women, which is quite comparable to salaries at the international level.
?The advantage is better for females than for males, which is also the case for UK and Hungary,? the report states.
Earning ratios increase with age, indicating that wages level out with age for those without higher education. This is strongly pronounced among women, which reflects discriminatory pay scales for males vs. females with lower levels of education.
The HEI also revealed that among 18-year-olds, 79 per cent of girls passed the Tawjihi compared with 63 per cent of boys.
Since admission to tertiary education is solely dependent on the results of these examinations, girls compete better than boys for admission.
Thus, the number of girls studying at the bachelor?s degree level is much higher than boys, but this figure drops sharply at the PhD and master?s levels.
The limited flow of females continuing into graduate level education is attributed to social and financial factors.
National average
As for a national average, boys are ahead of girls in the total number of years spent in school (10.6 years vs. 9.5 years in 2005), indicating a higher share of females in the illiterate category. But there is a higher percentage of girls in secondary education (grades 10-12) than boys.
The proportion of females in total educational attainment is increasing as the population gets younger, according to the findings.
The analysis also found that the overall national average for the number of years the adult population spent enrolled in school improved from 9.5 to 10, while the proportion of the population that completed the 10 years of compulsory education is higher than those who achieved secondary or tertiary combined.
To benchmark at the international level, the HEI notes that an average of around 10 years compares well with Greece, Italy and Turkey, and is higher than Mexico and Portugal but lower than the overall average of OECD countries (12 years).
The almost 100-page report covered four sets of indictors and focused on the following aspects: Educational attainment and overall human capital in education, rate of inflow and outflow of student population, financial and human resources invested in tertiary education, and educational environment with emphasis on human resources available to students.
The NCHRD is in the midst of compiling another report for 2006-07, according to the research centre.
By Linda Hindi
© Jordan Times 2008
