Teenage pregnancy has often dealt a mortal blow to the educational aspirations of girls in Africa. But, laws compelling schools to re-admit these young mothers could hold the key to solving this problem.
The matter has come under discussion this week at a conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, which is focussing on ways of improving girls’ education in sub-Saharan Africa. The three-day meeting opened on Wednesday, June 23, and has attracted more than 200 delegates from 27 countries.
“We need governments in Africa to institute re-entry policies providing for the girl-child to go back to school after pregnancy. These policies must incriminate school heads who refuse to re-admit the girl when she returns from delivering,” said Penina Mlama, Executive Director of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (Fawe).
She claimed that in Zambia alone, 2 230 girls had been forced to drop out of school last year because they fell pregnant.
At present, just a handful of countries in Africa have instituted laws that make it compulsory for schools to re-admit young mothers. The experience of these states has highlighted the need for officials not only to pass the relevant legislation — but also ensure that it is implemented.
“Where such laws exist, authorities must make sure they are enforced. It is my belief that this will drastically reduce the gender gap in education,” said Mlama, citing Kenya as one of the countries where the political will to implement the law had been lacking.
However, Kenyan Education, Science and Technology Minister George Saitoti queried this claim.
“We have such policies in place and we are making use of them,” he said. “This means a pregnant girl is allowed in class. When she is due she goes to deliver, and is accepted back to school after that.”
Delegates to the Nairobi meeting have heard that of the 42-million children who do not attend school in Africa, about 60% are girls.
According to Fawe, sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world which is in serious danger of not fulfilling a target set under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2015.
The MDGs were adopted by world leaders at the UN’s Millennium Summit in September 2000, in a bid to reduce poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women.
But, teenage pregnancy is not the only factor that undermines an African girl’s chances of completing her education.
Poverty is also of major concern, as it prompts parents to keep their children at home to assist with domestic and agricultural chores. The children might also be sent out to work, to earn extra money for the family.
More than 200-million children around the world are said to be engaged in various forms of child labour, 68-million of them in Africa.
In the event that a little money is available for school funds, it is often the sons of a family who receive preference. Parents may believe that their daughters are destined for marriage and motherhood, and have little need of an education.
The provision of free primary education has traditionally been viewed as the best way of overcoming this hurdle. But, delegates to the conference warned once again that simply passing the relevant legislation would not do the trick.
Free education is “a good thing”, remarked Gambian Education Minister Ann Therese N’dong-Jatta. But she added that monitoring mechanisms had to be put in place “to ensure that girls as well as boys enrol. This will require support of all kinds from development partners.”
Kenya’s experience is a case in point. Although the East African country introduced free primary education last year, about 1,5-million children remain out of school according to the UN children’s fund, Unicef. As IPS reported recently, this group includes many disabled children who have found that schools are not equipped with the facilities to meet their needs.
In addition, the Nairobi meeting has highlighted the need for an insightful approach to helping girls cope with the changes brought on by adolescence.
A 2001 study conducted by Fawe in Uganda found that poor sanitation facilities in schools tended to discourage attendance by girls who had started menstruating. The girls’ feelings of awkwardness and discomfort about the physical changes that accompanied adolescence also led to them dropping out of school.
Josephine Watuulo, an education consultant from Uganda, said that these findings had prompted the creation of a pilot project targeting 100 schools in five districts across the country. Under the project, girls are provided with sanitary towels, while teachers have been trained to discuss menstruation and related issues with them.
Watuulo said an effort had been made to improve sanitation at the schools, and in some cases build separate toilets for girls and boys.
“Since adopting these measures, Uganda has noted an increase and retention of girls in school,” she added.
The conference has been convened by Fawe, with assistance from Unicef, the World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat, amongst others. — IPS