CEDAW/C/GC/36 Stratification of schools and knowledge (article 10 a) and b) 58. Generally, education systems are highly differentiated in ways by which students are sorted, particularly at the point of transition from the primary and secondary level, into schools and/or streams that stress either vocational or academic training, and, in some systems, once placed, movement between the two is challenging. Socio-economic status strongly influences student placement into these different types of schools. Students of high economic status are more likely to attend academically-oriented schools offering high status knowledge that provides a direct pathway to tertiary level education. Highly differentiated educational systems, therefore, maintain socio-economic inequalities quite early in life and well before students complete their education and enter the labour force. 59. In this differentiated education system there are also marked differences in the material resources allocated to schools to support delivery of the curriculum. Schools in lower socio-economic communities are generally more poorly endowed both in terms of material resources and teacher quality vis-à-vis those in higher socio-economic communities, with the latter better positioned to benefit from parent subsidies to offset insufficient public funding. 60. Between and within these school types, gender is an additional basis on which students are differentiated based on perceptions of appropriate subject options for each sex. In academic schools, girls are often clustered in the humanities and under-represented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM subjects) while in vocational schools females predominate in areas such as food and nutrition, cosmetology and clerical studies. The stratification of students and knowledge ultimately lead to girls being propelled into what is socially regarded as low status occupations. This stratification has the potential for further reinforcement in single sex schools where often the only subjects deemed as suitable for the particular sex are offered. Consequently, a girls’ school would not offer woodwork and building and construction. The facilitation of girls’ and women’s right 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 without at the same time reinforcing sex segregation of the curriculum. 61. A critical technical and vocational area in which girls and women are underrepresented is in the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills. Sixty percent of people around the world are denied the right to access the transformative power of the Worldwide Web with most of them being girls and women. In order 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 related industries, schools need to address barriers that result in their exclusion. 62. The Convention (article 10 g) also calls on States parties to ensure that girls and women have the same opportunities to actively participate in sports and physical education. However, based on prevailing stereotypes, positive outcomes for women’s empowerment and gender equality in this sphere are constrained by discrimination in all areas of sports and physical activity. Sex segregation persists and women’s participation in decision making is limited at both national and international levels. Further the value placed on women’s sport is often lower resulting inadequate allocation of resources to support women’s participation as well as lower remuneration. 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 career choices: a) reform and standardise, as necessary, the education system to ensure an equitable distribution of all educational resources in all schools regardless of location and clientele served; b) eliminate ideological and structural barriers in coeducational schools, particularly at the secondary level, for example, cross time-tabling of sex-linked subjects and teacher attitudes that prevent girls from making free choices in terms of subject choice and course options; 14