The last decades of the twentieth century saw many concerted efforts in research into gender issues all over the world. In Africa, international bodies and educationalists began in the 1960s t look into the way girls and women were faring in Education. Their findings were depressing. By 1970s pro-female initiatives by some African governments to encourage enrolment of girls in schools were started. Consequently, low enrolment figures indicated in the earlier years (1960-70) were in the 1990s shown to have improved. In Malawi statistics indicated that girls comprised 54% of the pupils enrolled in 1990, an increase from 44.8% in the previous years. While in Zambia, Kenya and Nigeria females constituted nearly 50% of the children enrolled in grade one (FAWE 1996). This paper sets out to explore these trends of gender in education in Africa, but specifically singles out and uses Kenya as an example. The paper looks at such questions as: to what extent do the latest figures match practice and reality on the ground? Do these figures mean that gender has adequately been dealt with? Is gender research still relevant in Africa in the twenty first-century? An argument is advanced to suggest that the figures belie actual reality; that gender disparity still persists despite the efforts of some Governments and policies put in place. (It should also not be forgotten that in some countries mainly Franco phone the figures are still quite low). The paper therefore aims to encourage teachers and researchers to recognise prejudicial practices which may still disadvantage girls particularly within classrooms, even where policy and statistics suggest that equality has been achieved.]
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