representative stated that the presence of 12 women in Parliament proved that women were not excluded from decision-making. Women had to be made aware of the importanoe of their presence on legislative bodies. Furthermore, the problem of representation was primarily one of education. 236. On article 8, no information female diplomats had decreased. Rwandese Embassy at Washington. was given on the reasons why the number of The only woman diplomat was serving at the 237. On article 9, the representative only the father could transmit his yet baen changed, stated that the law pursuant to which name and nationality to the child had not 238. Regarding article 10, the repr,esentativs said that boys’ and girls’ schools had the same curricula. The country was trying to promote the education of girls in special girls’ schools, and priests took care of the scholastic education of many boys in seminaries. The representative said that coeducation existed, but gave no indication of how many coeducational establishments there were. Be said that figures were not readily available the progress that had been made in eradicating illiteracy among adult on: women; the drop-out rates for girlsr the percentage of scholarships for males and females; and the percentage of male and female teachers at various educational levels. He said that the Government was encouraging girls to study agronomy. Progress had been made in increasing coeducation at the secondary level. Teaching at pre-school level was taken care of by parents’ associations: the Government was concerned only with the training of prs-school teachers. 239. On article 10, members asked whether positive action or transitory measures were being taken to reverse the tendency that higher education was given only to boys. The representative explained that the question of equality was linked primarily to the question of schooling. Traditionally, women were supposed to take care of the home and men were supposed to take care of all the matters outside the home. When schooling had been introduced, He said that penalties existed women had not immediately taken part in it. for parents who did not send their children to school. There was, however, no Referring to the question of gender-specific approach to the problem. coeducation, he said that mathematics, physics and biochemistry were taught mostly to boys, but currently, both girls and boys could take courses in As regards the high drop-out rate mathematics, depending on their abilities. of girls from school, he said that parents, traditionaily, were in favour of girls helping at home while they would permit boys to go on studying. Furthermore, at the end of their sacondary education, girls preferred to get an unmarried woman was of lesser value. married because, in Rwandese, society, He observed that it was important to fight against such deeply rooted attitudes, saying that progress would take a long time, but it was being made. 240, On article 11, he stated that the social security system did not provide If the professional qualifications of women and men for maternity benefits. were the same, they received the same pay for the same work. Women no longer needed the husband’s consent to accept employment contracts. 241. Turning to article 12, he said that a child was considered the moot Family planning had been introduced, precious r0source a parson could have, -47-