EDUCATION Secretary Leonor Briones stressed the need for gender sensitivity education to help bridge gaps in various areas, including health and economic opportunities.

“We must review our own curricula and materials to ensure that they are gender sensitive to give both girls and boys the value of gender focus,” Briones said  during a virtual forum held to celebrate International Women’s Month on March 8.

She said that there remain wide gaps especially in areas of economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

Briones said that since the lockdown in 2020, the Department of Education ensured that education will continue to give girls a better chance.

The DepEd said that according to a study by the World Economic Forum, the 22 countries led by women such as Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Iceland, and New Zealand, responded “systematically and significantly better” to the pandemic than those led by men.

“Countries where women held leadership positions had six times fewer confirmed deaths than governments where men are in authority,” UN Women for Asia and the Pacific Regional Director Mahammad Naciri said.