The opportunities and barriers in the education of women in the Gambia

This paper discusses the education of women in the Gambia and delves into the opportunities and barriers in the education of the women folks gauging it from the enrolments rates, from primary to tertiary level in twelve (12) year duration from 2006 to 2017. This study explores the problems of education in the world, in Africa and Gambia. The research dug into women education conclusively reveal that there are cultural and psychological factors that affect the prospect of women in education. Thus, in many societies, social structures affect women from the individual, organisational, institutional and political levels. This study investigates these societal problems in the context of the situation in the Gambian to identify the pros and cons for women in education from levels of primary enrolment through secondary to the tertiary level. With the application of time series trend analysis in conjunction with the method of correlation analysis on the data collected. The findings came out conclusively that the psychological, socio-cultural and economic factors which must serve as an opportunity for women in their education in most of the cases, serve as barriers for women in their educational prospects in Gambia. The study discusses the problems and the opportunities drawn from the conceptual framework and theoretical background with a focus on the results as they relate to those psychological, socio-cultural and economic factors and made recommendations that can serve as an improvement on the opportunities and eliminate the barriers for women in their educational prospects