THE runner-up of the recently held ‘Teachers Category’ Award at the Secondary School Poster and Essay Competition on Women’s Leadership and Political Participation, Gwenly Tutuo strongly encourages local female students to become parliamentary leaders.
“Girls have the potential to be leaders in their own way. Teachers are the right people to start encouraging female students to look ahead, think big and practice the potential they have to lead in schools while they are still young,” she told Solomon Women.
In the political history of the country; Solomon Islanders have twice elected two women parliamentary leaders: Former Member of Parliament (MP) for East Central Guadalcanal constituency, Hilda Kari and current Member of Parliament (MP) for VATUD constituency, Freda Tuki.
Gwenly Tutuo is female teacher from Jones Adventist College (JVC) in Western province; who entered the competition based on the essay topic – promoting the importance of increasing women representatives in parliament, provincial assemblies and in senior government offices.
She described her entry into the competition as an opportunity to constructively share her thoughts on the importance of women participation in the Parliament.
“What motivated me to participate in this competition is because I have seen many female teachers and students in schools that have the potential to be parliamentary leaders in the future but they have not realized it themselves. So the idea to join this competition is to push forward to support women leaders for the future.
“Therefore, am very privilege as a teacher to be able to enter such important essay competition; it is very important for me to personally share my experiences on what has really happened in schools and how schools should play a major part to advocate women’s voice,” Gwenly added.
In the teachers’ category, posters and essays were asked to discuss key factors to consider in order to successfully implement the Temporary Special Measures (TSM) or discuss if the school curriculum is promoting the importance of increasing women representation in parliament, provincial assemblies and in senior government offices.
Various professionals from the media, SINU, MWYCA, MEHRD, SI artists association, CSO and some teachers marked the poster and essay entries.
The competition aims to encourage reflection and to provide an avenue to discuss issues surrounding women’s leadership and political participation at the secondary school level.
There are numerous obstacles to women’s political participation and representation in all societies, including in the Solomon Islands.
History, institutional design, and cultural barriers such as deeply rooted traditional gender roles; all have roles in limiting the access of women to appointed and elected in government positions. As an initiative to start addressing these barriers and facilitate engagement and discussion amongst the next generation of policy makers, youth and children, as well their teachers and parents, SIEC in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Human Resource and Development initiated and rolled out this initiative in 2016.
The Competitions (2016 and 2017-2018) have been supported by UNDP through the Strengthening the Electoral Cycle Project of Solomon Islands (SECSIP II). SECSIP II is implemented by UNDP in partnership with the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission (SIEC). It receives financial support from UNDP, the European Union and the Government of Australia.
