Women in Oman playing an active role in society

Energy Sunday 16/October/2016 21:26 PM
By: Times News Service
Women in Oman playing an active role in society

Muscat: The Sultanate is keen on empowering the Omani woman and helping her to play an active role in her society.
The statistics published by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) show that as of mid-2015 , females constitute 49.5 per cent of the population compared to 50.5 per cent for males.
Statistics also show that female illiteracy rate declined by 6.2 per cent during the period from 2011 to 2015 compared to 2.4 per cent for males.
Illiterate women represent 68 per cent of the illiterate population in 2015 with the bulk of them in the age category from 50 to 54 and the age category 60 to 64 years (33 per cent ).
The 14 illiteracy centres have 848 students, 97 per cent of them are females.
The public education, the male and female students admission level in basic, general and post basic education schools are identical. Still, the number of female students in the grades 1-6 is higher than males.
Gender parity
In recognition of the Sultanate’s efforts in this field, the World Forum for Parliamentarian Women provided an appreciation certificate in gender parity in basic and post basic education.
The Sultanate also achieved the second goal of the Millennium Development Goals namely providing basic education to males and females.
28 per cent of the total number of females are studying management and business inside the Sultanate compared to 19 per cent studying outside the Sultanate.
The number of female at the vocational training centres increased from 43 per cent in 2012/2013 to 50 per cent in 2014/2015. Women also constitute 41 per cent of the total manpower in the government sector ( 28 per cent of the total number of civil service employees in the government sectors).
Women also represent 23 per cent of the total number of manpower in the private sector. They also represent 22 per cent of those occupying middle and senior management positions.
While 29 per cent of the those benefiting from Al Raffd Fund financial subsidy are females, 43 per cent of those getting businesses from the financial subsidy projects are also females. As for ‘Sanad’ centres owners, 70 per cent of the centres are owned by females compared to 30 per cent by males.