CEDAW/C/GC/36 that provides a direct pathway to tertiary education. Highly differentiated education systems therefore maintain socioeconomic inequalities from quite early in the lifecycle and well before students complete their education and enter the labour force. 59. In such a differentiated education system there are also marked differences in the material resources allocated to schools to support de livery of the curricula. Schools in communities of lower socioeconomic status are generally more poorly endowed both in terms of material resources and teacher quality compared with those of higher socioeconomic status, with students in the latter better p ositioned to benefit from parental subsidies to offset insufficient public funding. 60. Between and within school types, students are also differentiated on the basis of perceptions of appropriate subject options for each sex. In academic schools, girls ar e often clustered in programmes in the humanities and underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, while, in vocational schools, women and girls predominate in areas such as food and nutrition, cosmetology and clerical studies. The stratification of students and knowledge ultimately leads to girls being propelled into what are socially regarded as low-status occupations. Such stratification has the potential for further reinforcement in single -sex schools, where often the only subjects deemed suitable for the particular sex are offered. As a result, a school for girls would not offer instruction in woodworking, or building and construction. Facilitating the realization of the right of girls and women to the same quality education as that offered to boys and men entails providing for the full range of academic and vocational subjects in schools and not reinforcing segregation of the curricula by sex. 61. A critical technical and vocational area in which girls and women are underrepresented is in information and communications technology. Sixty per cent of people in the world, most of them girls and women, are denied the right of access to the transformative power of the Internet. To overcome the digital divide between men and women in the use of new technologies and to provide women with equal access to information and employment opportunities in those industries, schools need to address the barriers that result in their exclusion. 62. Article 10 (g) of the Convention provides that State s parties are to ensure that girls and women have the same opportunities as boys and men to actively participate in sports and physical education. However, on the basis of prevailing stereotypes, positive outcomes for the empowerment of women and gender eq uality in that sphere are constrained by discrimination in all areas of sports and physical activity. Sex segregation persists, and the participation of women in decision -making is limited at both the national and international levels. In addition, the val ue placed on women’s sports is often lower, resulting in the inadequate allocation of resources to support their participation, as well as the lower remuneration of women athletes. Media representations of women in sports also influence prevailing stereotypes. Violence against women, exploitation and harassment in sports also reflect traditional male domination in the sporting arena. 63. The Committee recommends that States parties take the following actions to ensure that education systems allow for equal opportunities for both sexes and for free choice of courses of study and of careers: (a) Reform and standardize, as necessary, the education system to ensure the equitable distribution of all educational resources in all schools regardless of the location or population served; (b) Eliminate ideological and structural barriers in co-educational schools, in particular at the secondary level, including such barriers as school timetables that are arranged so that only subjects segregated by sex are offered 16/23 17-19774