Amavubi
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 9, 2010
- 30,154
- 13,267
Although these significant achievements have been registered, girls’ education still faces an uphill task. There are noted cases of girls dropping out of school especially as they progress to higher classes. One challenge is girls getting pregnant while still in school and failure to re-enter school after delivering.
In most cultural settings, pre-marital pregnancy among girls is stigmatized both in school and in communities mainly on moralistic grounds, without addressing factors that lead to pregnancy among school girls. A girl who gets pregnant while still in school is “victimised”, seen as a “waste”, “a curse”, “a bad omen” and “a gone case”. Most times school careers of many girls are cut short because of pregnancy either by the girls withdrawing themselves from school or through expulsion with little or no chance of re-entry after delivery. The situation is worsened by an absence of a coherent national policy on pregnancy in school and on re-entry after delivery. This in many situations schools almost all schools expel pregnant girls and as child mothers, they often fail to return and complete their education.
International Imperatives Policies that support on-going access to education for girls who drop out of school after teenage pregnancy have been of a major global concern.
Many international conventions and treaties reinforce the rights of teenage mothers to on-going education. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (1976), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989), all recognize education as a human right and point out that each child has a right to education and proper measures should be taken to encourage regular attendance at schools and reduce drop-out rates.
According to a United Nations Children‟s Fund report (UNICEF, 1999), tens of millions of girls are not getting basic education across the developing world and especially in the rural and poor areas of Sub Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Tanzania is party to international goals that facilitate the right to education such as the Education for All declaration (EFA), the declaration of UN Literacy Decade 2003 -2012, the MDGs 2 and 3 for achieving universal primary education and gender equality and empowerment of women.
This situation has attracted public attention and more than 180 nations have committed to addressing this challenge by pledging that every boy and girl will receive a quality basic education by 2015. Although the above target has been established and endorsed as one of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the attainment of this goal is still challenging.
Subsequently policy makers will need to make effort to address the economic, social and cultural barriers that keep large number of girls in poor countries out of school so as to reach the goal of universal education for children.
It is clear that girls are disadvantaged in education and therefore deserve special attention as they drop out more easily than boys for various reasons, including early marriage, teenage pregnancy, tradition and violence and sexual harassment in the school setting.
In order to prevent girls dropping out of school because of pregnancy, the CRC committee recommends measures to ensure that pregnant teenagers are given the chance to complete their education by not excluding them and by developing special programmes (Mieke, 2006).
The CRC committee has put much emphasis on the right to education and on the elimination of the interpretation of pregnancy as a disciplinary offence
Correspondingly the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child Organisation of African Union (OAU, 1990) Article 3 outlaws discrimination in education on the basis of gender, race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status.
It further indicates that State parties should take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and reduction of dropout rates; take special measures in respect of female, gifted and disadvantaged children, to ensure equal access to education for all sections of the community. Consequently, the State parties shall also take all appropriate measures to ensure that girls who become pregnant before completing their education shall have an opportunity to continue with their education on the basis of their individual ability.
The EFA (EFA) World Education Conference, Dakar 2000, and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), have brought gender education to the forefront of attention. The Dakar 2000 declaration reaffirms that education is a fundamental right for all people, women and men, of all ages and primary education must be universal (United Nations, 2000b). The focus of the Dakar 2000 conference was on delivery of the Jomtien Vision and six specific goals were identified. Of the six goals, three explicitly mentioned girls and women and addressed certainty of access to education, improving literacy levels for women, and the elimination of gender disparities, that is, the gender gap between girls and boys (UNESCO, 2000a).
The millennium summit of the United Nations in New York in 2000 expressed a number of founding values which included freedom, equality, solidarity, and tolerance. Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), all of which affirmed the specific equal rights of women and men were set out. Each MDG had specific targets and indicators that were intended to set a time by which there would be evidence that the target and the goal might be met. Gender and schooling were explicitly mentioned in two targets and formed part of five indicators (United Nations, 2000a). Notwithstanding the efforts to reach gender parity in enrolment, UNESCO (2000b) showed that, between 1990 and 1998, the gender gap reflected by gross enrolment ratio had increased in Sub Saharan African countries. Then it maintained that as students move up the educational ladder the gender gap between the participation rates of girls and boys increases. Moreover the Global monitoring report (UNESCO, 2003) established that of the 104 million children ages 6-11 who are not in school each year, 60 million are girls and 40% of them live 12 in Sub Saharan Africa, while 35% live in South Asia. The same report noted that the gender gap in primary school completion is greater than 10%, and this wide gender gap means that millions of more girls than boys are dropping out each year. The African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC, 2007) maintains that while much current effort in many countries in Sub Saharan Africa is geared towards realizing universal primary education (UPE), not much is being done to expand access to secondary education, especially by the poor who form the majority in this region. As such, secondary education remains a dream to many children in Sub Saharan Africa.
The Human Rights Watch (2004) report also showed that, despite governments‟ reaffirmed ambitious commitments at the Millennium Summit in 2000 to ensure that every child around the world is able to attend and complete primary school by 2015, and although school attendance has increased in many parts of the world, education remains beyond the reach of many millions of the worlds‟ children, especially girls. It further established that in more than thirty investigations carried around the world, there were significant and systematic barriers that undermined children‟s ability to learn, causing them to drop out. This ultimately violated their rights to education
In Tanzania, girls are often expelled from school when they are found to be pregnant. According to a 2013 report by the Centre for Reproductive Rights, over 55,000 adolescent girls were either forced to drop out or were expelled from schools because of pregnancy between 2003 and 2011.
Although their research “revealed no national-level law, regulation, or policy explicitly requiring the expulsion of pregnant students”, they found a widespread belief among teachers, school administrators and education officials that this practice is required by law.
Expulsion from school has a big impact on the lives of these girls. It decreases their likelihood of earning a good income. Besides, they are also often faced with stigmatization by their peers, parents and wider communities.
Concerning the policy environment, the analysis found that the process of ensuring re-entry of pregnant girls already has a long history in Tanzania. One of the factors that has hampered this process was the delay in the approval of the revised National Education and Training Policy.
Many respondents showed support for the re-entry component in the draft revised Education and Training Policy. However, some of them expressed concern that this would increase sexual activity among students.
Some of the respondents advised raising the awareness of communities on the importance of the re-entry component.
Good progress was made in the policy environment, both at national level and in the districts. At national level, the new Education and Training Policy was launched by Tanzania’s President in February 2015. Furthermore, important steps were made in 2015 to develop the guidelines explaining how pregnant girls will be supported in returning to school, by reviewing draft guidelines which were formulated in 2009.
Key Drivers of Teenage pregnancy
Discussions with the different stakeholders placed the key drivers of girls pregnancy in schools under four main categories: One is the socio- economic situation that the girls find themselves in; two is the lack of parental and school guidance; three is men’s abuse of their power and masculinity and four is the lack of life skills on the part of the girls.
The socio-economic Situation
- One of the reasons that came instantly on the question as to why girls get pregnant was poverty. In many cases it was noted that the lack of basic requirements tends to expose girls to risks of pregnancy. Some girls are living in child headed households where they do not get anyone to cater for them hence exposing them to the risk of pregnancy
- The high death rate due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic has led to the increase of orphans who lack basic needs thus specifically making girls vulnerable.
- The poor housing structures where parents share the same room with children was also indicated as a key factor
- Day scholars are also known to be more at risk than those in boarding schools where for example boda boda riders lure them with transport offers
- Also, the distance between the school and home is full of temptations- full of bars, idle youth, boda boda riders and all categories of men.
The fact that the majority of parents do not talk to their children, especially girls of issues of sex. Parents are apparently increasingly failing on the responsibility to provide the basic necessities and so the girls who are not strong hearted end up exchanging sex for money. Apparently, parents are not guiding children through the stages of life. Children end up being educated by their peers including those who left school and this hurts girls more as they become vulnerable to sexual abuse and hence premature pregnancy.
Men’s Abuse of the Power and masculinity
Girls are at risk of sexual abuse- rape, defilement and enticement- by males of all kinds; fellow students, teachers, neighbours, relatives (including biological parents) and men in the community such as traders, shopkeepers, politicians, religious leaders and Boda boda (Motor cycle) riders. In the majority of cases, the pregnancy involves men that are much older than the girls and in positions of authority.
Apart from students who may be their peers all other categories of men either use persuasion or force but all of which is tantamount to defilement since they are using their power over the young girls as females. This essentially means that men are abusing their power as people of authority to lure young girls into premature sex. This is emphasised the fact that there should be stern mechanisms to bring the culprits to book, since they are ruining the future of the young girls hence violating their right to education.
Rape and defilement are particularly common in societies that have experienced disruption...
Girls’ Lack of Life Skills
Simply put, life skills are social competencies necessary to help children to reach their full potential. These include among others: high self esteem, assertiveness, decision making, communication and generally relating with others to achieve greater success in life. Life skills are necessary especially for young girls who, due to the gendered socialisation lack essential skills to negotiate through life’s challenges. It was noted that girls are normally lured with money and other material things from older men who take advantage of them. They end up engaging in sexual activity at an early age....
Lack of adequate data on girls who are getting pregnant while in school at district and school level meant that the issue of pregnancy is probably underestimated in terms of the likely effect it has on girls education.
Policy Directions and Proposals
The idea that keeping girls in school has huge dividends on the country’s development is non-contestable. Education of girls and women has the beneficial impact of lowering infant mortality and morbidity, of improving family health and nutrition, lowering fertility rates and generally improving household welfare.
In general, there is no agreement on the issue of retention of pregnant girls in school and enormous controversy surrounds this aspect.
An absence of a particular policy on this issue and the question of pregnancy in school leave a significant policy gap that needs addressing. There is fear that lack of consensus and policy direction will make some to retain pregnant girls while many other do not accept
Essentially keeping breast feeding mothers in school like retaining those who are pregnant are perceived as tricky. This is seen as a very sensitive issue in schools not only in terms of the agenda to be foreign but cultural setting and resource implications coupled with peer triggers
It is hereby suggested that there is a need to sensitize the parents, school administrators, teachers as well as students to avoid stigmatizing the child mothers.
Facilities like rest rooms and day care centers should be provided in schools to ease the situation of young mothers. The mothers should also be financially supported to meet their new responsibilities.
There is also need to make the school environment friendly for the retention of pregnant girls or re-entry of the young mothers. This can be through:
- Counselling services to schools to change attitudes of teachers, pupils and students. This should also be targeted at addressing stigma related to school girl pregnancy. Guidance and counseling sessions should be clearly indicated on the school time table where issues of sexuality should be addressed among others aspects.
- Providing guidance and counselling to expectant girls and mothers to cope with their pregnancy and childcare situations as they study
- Teacher re-orientation and training so that they can handle issues of pregnancy in school appropriately
- Sensitization of the public and especially foundation bodies as some may be too conservative to accept pregnant girls in school.
