…as the number of girls dropping out of school rises rapidly
Theresa Takafuma/Rutendo Chirume
In 2019, Zimbabwe amended the Education Act, adding Section 68C, that allows pregnant girls to be unconditionally readmitted in schools, a move that gave the country a big leap towards ratification of international instruments in education.
In 2020 Zimbabwe recorded over 6 000 girls who fell pregnant during the first wave of the Covid-19 which saw closure of schools for over a period of three months, directly jeopardizing these girls’ chances to continue with education.
In 2021, the country continued to record a major increase in teenage pregnancies with nearly 5 000 girls falling pregnant in January alone and in February about 1 800 entered into early marriages.
As the world commemorated the International Day of Education (IDE) on January 24 2022, which is celebrated annually to showcase the most important transformations that have been made to realize everyone’s fundamental right to education to build a sustainable and inclusive future, a lot of girls’ future looked bleak.
In a world recovering from a global pandemic, where all hands are on the deck to ‘build back better’, a mantra that has been adopted by all stakeholders in a bid to channel all effort towards a return not only to normalcy but to even better circumstances, policy change seems to be racing against time for implementation.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on IDE emphasized that education should strive to bridge gender inequalities and give significance to the girl child being more at risk of dropping out of school.
“We need education to reduce inequalities and improve health. We need education to achieve gender equality and eliminate child marriages. Yet at least 262 million children, adolescents and youths are out of school, most of them girls,” Guterres said in a statement.
During the recent United Nations Universal Periodic Review, Zimbabwe was urged to increase efforts in the protection of children and to criminalize child marriages.
Situations of girls dropping out of school especially after falling pregnant, are far too common across Zimbabwe and yet often go unnoticed and unaddressed.
In a recent report Amnesty International noted that these girls are then forced to find work, frequently as housemaids, to support their children or their families force them to go live with the men who impregnated them regardless of the circumstances in which they got pregnant.
Patience Mukaro (20) of Masvingo said she could not imagine that she will end up being a mother and housewife at such young age because like any other girl, she hoped to complete her education up to university before settling down.
Mukaro narrated how she saw her world crumbling before her eyes when she found out she was pregnant while waiting for her ordinary level results and lost hope for going back to school because of the responsibilities accompanied with being a mother and housewife as she was already carrying her second pregnancy at the time of the interview.
“I was shuttered when I found that I was pregnant and when my parents found out, they chased me away. That is how I got married and as you can see, I am expecting my second child. It happened unexpectedly but my dream was over,” said Mukaro.
Mercy Ncube, who also became a mother at 16 narrated how she was forced to drop out of school and came to the city to look for a job after finding out she was pregnant.
“I find out that I was pregnant when I was in Form three. When the man responsible for the pregnancy denied it, I tried to conceal it for some time but it was not long until my mother discovered it. Because she had heard that pregnant girls are not allowed at school, she transferred me to a private school, but it was not easy being a pregnant girl in school uniform.
“I was talk of the school. It was too much for me, therefore I dropped out. After giving birth in 2019, I left my child with my mother and came to the city to become a house help so that I could take care of my child. Also, I needed to get away because I had brought shame to my family and in the village people talked about me where ever I went,” said Ncube.
Mukaro and Ncube’s stories are just a drop in the sea compared to the actual number of girls who either turn to domestic work to eke a living for their children or who are then forced into marriage and child bearing at a tender age, which may even cost them their lives.
In 2021, 15-year-old Anna Machaya of Manicaland died while giving birth at a Johane Marange shrine, a religious sect that has been rapped for preying on girls who they deny the opportunity to go further than grade seven in school.
The patriarchal beliefs and perceptions of the marriage institution in Zimbabwe is again a major contributor to the gender divide which has seen more girls dropping out of school after falling pregnant, rendering the Education Act amendment that makes it illegal for schools to expel pregnant girls from school difficult to implement.
According to United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), due to coronavirus pandemic, 11 million girls and young women are at risk of not returning to school with over five million being in primary and secondary school levels.
According to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Zimbabwe is among countries in sub-Saharan Africa with high rate of teenage pregnancies which has resulted in high adolescent fertility rate of 108 per 1,000 among young women aged 15 to 19 which is above average fertility rate of 101 births per 1,000 young women between 15 and 19.
The Research and Advocacy Unit also revealed that 31percent of girls in Zimbabwe are married before the age of 18 and four percent are married before their 15th birthday, despite the fact that Zimbabwe has criminalized all marriages below the age of 18.
In an interview with TellZim News, African Union Centre for Girls and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA) Head of Mission Dr Rita Bissoonauth said although the pace of progress in implementing policies that enable pregnant school girls to return to school in Africa has generally been slow, Zimbabwe was however worth noting for revising the Education Act to allow pregnant girls to return to school.
“Zimbabwe is noted among Member States to have impressively revised its Education Act in 2019 including resourcing for the return of the girls to school, given the speed and swift actions undertaken in 2021. Also, key is Zimbabwe’s actions in the insistence on non-discriminatory and victimization of these girls, as they return to school.
“The pace of progress towards developing and implementing policies that enable pregnant school girls return back to school in Africa has been slow. As part of its Strategic Plan priorities for the period 2021 to 2025, AU/CIEFFA is committed to collecting data and undertaking research to inform African policy-makers and stakeholders on the pertinence of realizing the rights of ALL African girls and young women to quality education and training. With Sub-Saharan Africa region having high numbers of pregnant school girls, approximated at 13 million girls expected not to return to school, urgent action is required,” said Dr Bissoonauth.
She also said AU/CIEFFA has initiated two key interventions; to track legislative and policy progress on the rights of African girls and women in education, through documenting, with a focus on those out of school and the #AfricaEducatesHer campaign.
The campaign is an AU/CIEFFA communication strategy innovation in calling for Member States to allow girls to return to school after Covid-19 and other humanitarian challenges affecting participation of girls in schools.
To ensure effective implementation of laws and policies that enable readmission of survivors like pregnant girls in schools, Dr Bissoonauth said AU/CIEFFA has implemented about six activities to which Member States are meant to learn and replicate, given their contexts.
Other challenges faced when trying to implement the Zimbabwean policy, good as it may be, are lack of policy practices, fear of stigmatization by other school pupils, increased responsibility as the teenage mother has to balance between school and motherhood within the unsupportive school environment due to the state of schools in the country.
Women Action Group director Medina Masiiwa bemoaned the state of many schools in Zimbabwe saying despite the education amendment act, many schools do not have facilities to achieve that goal.
“There is a lot which needs to be done. Currently in Zimbabwe it can be difficult because schools have no proper facilities considering financial and economic hardships in the country. Also, that girl would need counseling in order to stigmatization from other pupils even the teachers,” said Masiiwa.
Communications Director in Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) Taungana Ndoro said the ministry has been doing outreach programmes, encouraging pregnant girls’ readmission in schools, as the numbers increased due to the Covid-19 induced lockdowns.
“We have had quite a number of girls who fell pregnant because of the COVID-19-induced lockdowns. But still because of the policy that we have, this Education Amendment Act, which allows them to come back to school, we have been having community outreach programmes throughout the whole nation to encourage these learners to come back to school to continue with their education because it is not the end of the world,” said Ndoro.
As schools recently opened their doors for the 2022 academic year, the Zimbabwean government is constantly clashing with teachers over poor salaries, and the continuous absence of children in classroom spells more problems especially for the girl child.
