Success Stories of Girl-Child Education in Africa

Access to education is a basic human right for all. However, due to various socio-cultural and traditional reasons, the African girl child has over the years been deprived of this basic right and has been left behind by the male folk.

It is in the quest to bridge this gap across Africa that governments, non-governmental organizations, private bodies, and other relevant agencies have taken up the responsibility of putting more emphasis on getting the girl child educated at all costs.

Have these moves yielded any positive results so far? We will find out in this piece, which relays the achievements recorded by African countries in their pursuit of getting the girl child well educated.

In the past, the girl child in Africa was plagued with socio- and traditional sentiments that left her limited in so many areas of life, including education, which put her at the mercy of the men folk through lack of education, early marriages, farmwork, and house chores.

However, over the last decades, several efforts have gone into changing this status quo and meeting up with normal standards of life where every child, whether boy or girl, has an equal right to life and, in particular, education.

These efforts have led to the relegation of traditional and cultural beliefs and, on the other hand, brought about an increase in the number of girls enrolled in schools in Africa.

The various activities and support from local, national, and international bodies have not been in vain, as there have been records of improvements in school enrollment by girls across the continent.

Some African countries have made appreciable progress in girl child education.

While there are still ongoing efforts across the countries on the continent to educate the girl child, some countries are already witnessing rapid improvements and successes from the various programs and initiatives towards this goal.

Listed below are some of the African countries that have recorded appreciable success in achieving their goal of encouraging girl child education on the continent.

Rwanda, which has the highest school enrolment rate in East Africa,

One such country in Africa is Rwanda, which has the highest school enrolment rate in East Africa and has done well for itself in the area of supporting more girls' enrolment.

According to a UNICEF report, Rwandan girls have surpassed boys in school enrolment at all levels, with girls at 98 percent and boys at 97 percent.

The Rwandan government, with much determination, is working alongside foreign partners and organizations like the World Association of Girls Guides and Girl Scouts, whose efforts are seen in terms of funding as well as physical and moral support.

With the new level of focus on girl child education in Rwanda, the girls have come to the realization that they can explore new and better options beyond the traditional gender roles.

More government-funded schools now specialize in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and also encourage more girls' participation.

For instance, the Rwanda Coding Academy admits 50 percent of girls and women and aims to resolve the shortage of engineers through a focused engineering program at the high school level for girls.

Malawi's success story

Elsewhere in Malawi, it is another success story, as combined efforts from both local and international bodies have helped reduce the impact of early marriage and pregnancy, which contribute to high dropout rates among girls in the country.

Through the activities of different international agencies taking up specific roles in areas of feeding, provision of infrastructure, health amenities, and the like, as well as the communities and parents saddled with the responsibility of continuous monitoring and guidance, the country is doing well in increasing the number of girls in schools.

With such a program as the Joint Programme on Girls' Education, implemented by UN agencies and funded by the Government of Norway, girls' enrolments in schools in Malawi have increased tremendously while the school drop-out rate has dropped.

There is also AGE Africa's program for girls in the country, which offers scholarship programs to support the girl child's education by providing uniforms, educational materials, etc. to beat the scourge of poverty, which hinders their enrollment in school.

It has also recorded success with its social program tagged Creating Healthy Approaches to Success (CHATS). The two-year program, which is an after-school life-skills program, targets giving scholars tools to overcome social barriers like poverty, early marriages, and the like, which affect girls' education.

CHATS has made visible impacts because, through its efforts in selected areas of the country, 90% of participants complete secondary school and 91% delay marriage and pregnancy until after their 18th birthday with renewed hopes for a better future.

In Zambia, the future looks bright for girls.

For girls in Zambia, the future looks bright, especially with the government initiative "Zambian Girls 2030 Programme: Realizing My Potential," which provides an opportunity for the most vulnerable girl pupils to be exposed and inspired into a chosen career path.

Before now, many girls in Zambia had their dreams stifled by several social and economic factors, including poverty and a prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) in their communities, but through the initiative, a triad of heads of schools, parents, and community leaders have been successfully created who work as a team to ensure that girls go to school and do not drop out.

Funded by the governments of Sweden and Ireland, the project not only encourages school enrollment for girls but also specifically partners with national institutions such as the Zambian National STEM Foundation and the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) to encourage young women and girls to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The Zambian government has also instituted a national response to address child marriage, which is the major root cause of girls dropping out of school, by launching a multi-stakeholder antichild marriage campaign that seeks to lower the rate and build "a Zambia free from child marriage by 2030".

The program has put in place structures to effectively fight child marriage, including a civil society coalition against child marriage.

As a result of these initiatives, girls in Zambia now have access to break into the earlier maledominated STEM programs, create their own space, and even encourage others along that line.

Sierra Leone's achievement

Having identified the root cause of the high rates of dropout of girls from schools in Sierra Leone as teenage pregnancy and wanting a way out, an initiative of the informal education system through community learning centers was adopted across the country to encourage pregnant girls not to miss out on their studies.

The centers came in the wake of the Ebola crisis, when, according to a UN study, teenage pregnancy surged from 30 to 65 percent in the country

The center had specially trained teachers who taught the girls using accelerated learning approaches, which condensed the regular system between 2016 and 2017.

The success of the informal learning centers got legal backing from the government with new policy frameworks. In 2020, the government approved an inclusive education system that overturned a ban on pregnant girls and teenage mothers attending school and sitting for exams.

In 2021, the policy was further strengthened by a radical inclusion just one thing, it is using the law to fight for the rights of the girl child in education.

Working hand in hand with one another, the NGOs and other partners have consistently engaged the government to ensure that girls access education, have a safe learning environment, and also live free from sexual violence.

With all hands on deck and continuous initiation of relevant curriculum into a shorter time frame to help the girls catch up.

The initiative, which had the support of community leaders and influential community members, yielded positive results, such that in 2015, with the support of international donors, close to 15,000 pregnant and breastfeeding girls were enrolled in community learning centers, out of which 5,000 got back into the formal school policy for the education of historically marginalized groups, including pregnant girls, parent learners, children with disabilities, children from rural and underserved areas, and children from lowincome families.

Sierra Leone has several nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, and international bodies working for the rights of the girl child in the country, and if they have achieved programs, all countries on the continent will get it right with the girl child to give them room to make meaningful impacts on their societies because educating the girl child goes beyond just education; rather, it comes as an empowerment mode to break the cycle of poverty and in turn affect the economy positively