Unending Roadblocks to Girl-Child Education
- Category: Gender
- Date 03-10-2004
- 325 views
On 26th September 2004, Sunday Citizen (p. 5) reported a primary school pupil who was acquitted, having been accused of becoming pregnant while still attending school, and sentenced to six months in prison or to pay a fine of 10,000. (See: “Court revokes sentences against ex-schoolgirl”). This case exposed those strange circumstances must have played a leading role in shaping the initial conviction and sentencing of the schoolgirl!
The Human Rights department in Morogoro, so it was reported, rightly impressed it on the magistrate that the girl was a victim of injustice. Thus the magistrate observed that the victim was punished from the beginning through failure to continue school on the account of being pregnant. The man who impregnated her had committed a crime that forced her to quit school.
The ruling may appear to be favourable to the girl, but still it did not reinstate her in school. It is as if her ultimate dropping out school was itself a fair punishment to a pregnant schoolgirl, and that sealed her fate.
Girl-child education has become a subject of contention and interest today. Gender disparities and deliberate exclusion and victimisation of female children in society in preference of boys has been a deep-rooted practice, encouraged by traditional attitudes and culture that favour male children and draws female children to the periphery. To such an extent that even the law to protect and empower a woman both in the school system and social affairs remains hard to come-by.
The current efforts to correct the unfair treatment that has seen women remain underdogs in society have been pointedly advocating for the education of the girl-child, with the popular adage “to educate a woman is to educate the nation”. A child whose mother has attained a sound educational level is much more likely to attend school than otherwise.
Education is a fundamental human right. It is also associated with better health outcomes, higher economic status, protection against HIV/AIDS, increased productivity and other aspects of social progress.
Education is possibly the most important development tool worldwide; the reason universal (compulsory and free) primary education is a leading factor among the much acclaimed millennium development goals. Education equips children with the knowledge, necessary to solve the development challenges that face a nation.
However, the girl-child is faced with problems created by a mixed bag misfortune, discrimination, accidents, simplicity, and foul play. The young pregnant schoolgirl is only a single incident that has come to light, but there are thousands of others, in countless versions, that cannot be noticed. The one thing to ponder is: Why does the girl child remain a victim?
My premise is that by merely dismissing a pregnant girl from school, another negative step in the empowerment of women has been registered and national development undermined. This is not to blame the school authorities at all.
Nevertheless, the school system, Ministry of Education, or women activists need to contemplate how to equip girls with the skills necessary to adapt to challenging social situations, and how to focus their attention on the one and only tool of their redemption - education. Serious and protracted life-skills training is the way forward.
An incident like the one above is one of the countless hurdles ranged against the girl-child at every turn in her life. Already, many parents are inclined to give their sons priority when sending children to school. Where equal opportunities and potentials exist, but resources scarce, girls are “normally” asked to step aside for the boys to continue up the education pipeline. While it is likely that both girls and boys enjoy equal access to education at primary level, largely because it is probably free, the number of girls gradually and steadily fizzles out along the educational ladder. The unfavourable education system for girls also accounts for the rampancy of female domestic child labourers (house girls) in every family that affords to pay them any humiliating amount. Trafficking in human being and sex slavery are targeting the female child too.
In situations where late enrolment in school is inevitable, girls are affected more because it may result into them being married before even completing primary education. Conditions in the school system can be so hostile to the learners, much more for girls who face outright discrimination and sexual harassment not only from men who are looking for a marriageable girl, but also from teachers and fellow pupils.
Apart from isolated cases where a boy is withdrawn from school by parents and given a wife for family or cultural reasons, it is a common practice for girls to be persuaded either by force or manipulation to abandon school and get married when still in primary school. It is even worse at secondary level, whereby anyone – including teachers – openly engages a student (usually a girl) for casual sex or marriage. This does not only explain why many teachers are married to their former students, though in some cases the relations might have developed later; it also underscores why many girls are likely to get married before attaining a certificate, even when conditions appear favourable.
Again, a university female student is entirely out of reach of a secondary school boy. Yet, a male university student easily advances on primary and secondary school girls and they (girls) find it gratifying and “cool”. Yet many boys stay safe at primary and secondary school level.
Often, girls are often ill prepared to negotiate healthy relations as a safeguard – if not to anything else – to HIV/AIDS.
The obvious result of sexual harassment of school children also boils down to early pregnancies. There is no known school, which accepts (comfortably) to accommodate pregnant girls. Girls are usually pregnant through circumstances over which they have little or no control and many drop out of school, citing other shortcomings to avoid the stigma of pregnancy.
At home, parents are more willing to accept and tolerate a schoolboy who impregnates a girl than they would do for their daughter who becomes pregnant. She “brings shame” on the family and may be punished by death or ostracism. That is not to mention the health hazards that come with early pregnancies. Some even attempt abortion and its attendant risks. And the women’s emancipation remains a far cry.
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Peering Eye, Sunday Citizen