Impacts on girls’ return to school

A UNESCO report shows that compared to other subregions in Africa, East Africa has the highest percentage of learners at risk of dropping out or non-enrolment in both 2020 and 2021. Dropout was a concern across all three countries. The longer the duration of school closures, the less likely a student is to return to school. Reasons for non-return included the need to enter the labour market to contribute to household income, early pregnancy and increases in care and domestic duties. In Kenya, there were initial reports of students failing to return to school, particularly girls, because of early pregnancy, marriage or work burdens.19 In Ethiopia, many schools were not making preparations to reach out to those least likely to enrol and only 5% of schools have handwashing facilities with soap and water.20

Whilst we do not yet have national enrolment data from Somalia, SOMGEP reported that only 80% of the primary students, 66% of those enrolled in accelerated education and 67% of the non-formal education students resumed classes. In Ethiopia, STAGES noted that national enrolment data showed that about one million students from the region did not return to a previously enrolled school. They also noted that child marriage negatively impacted girls’ return to school as they migrated for paid work. Kenyan GEC projects noted that girls’ absenteeism and dropout included early marriage, engaging in activities to supplement income or opting for employment, relocation or migration, pregnancy and being prevented from attending by a spouse. KEEP (Kenya) noted that boys’ most frequently mentioned challenges were child labour, drug abuse, mental health and psychosocial issues.

Project interventions varied across the region. Excelling Against the Odds (Ethiopia) attributes its high return rate of 98% to the close contact and strong relationships that teachers and community workers maintained with girls throughout the school closures. STAGES (Ethiopia) increased its resources to support married girls to return to school. In addition to using the mixed-team distance learning delivery model as a way to identify and follow up with any girls at risk of dropping out, Let Our Girls Succeed (Kenya) used thematic learning material that included content on the different barriers to return to school so that children tackled the topic as they learned.

Ethiopia

Literature review findings: Only 60% of principals and 41% of teachers indicated that their schools were making preparations to support the less likely to re-enrol (Cambridge Africa 2020). In addition, just 5% of schools in Ethiopia (1% in rural areas) have handwashing facilities with soap and water (Malala Fund 2020b).

Project findings:

STAGES national enrolment data shows that about one million students from the region did not come back to school that were previously enrolled. However, GEC project enrolment was high (primary school: 90% of girls, 89% of boys; secondary school: 96% of girls, 93% of boys).

Core interventions:

Excelling Against the Odds supported community workers, community volunteers, principals and teachers to remain in contact with girls throughout the school closures and built on existing relationships with families and girls. They were involved in creating the distance learning worksheets and back-to-school awareness campaigns (radio and community). Emerging results show that there was a high retention rate of students at 97.89%. Teachers reported that school attendance is far better in GEC target schools than in other schools.

STAGES saw an immediate increase in resources to support married girls to return to their education, boosting social and emotional learning support through teaching and the counselling support provided by Girls’ Education Advisory Committees. The project facilitated teams made up of Mothers’ Group members and Woreda Gender Officers to visit the homes of girls who were married during school closures (72 girls), to find out if they might return to school and encourage their families to allow them to do so. Of the 72 girls, 65 have returned to school when they reopened.

Literature review findings:

Thousands of children failed to report back to school, with girls forming the more significant part of these figures (Kimuge et al., 2021).

Project findings:

Educate for Life found that the reasons for increased absenteeism and dropout included girls engaging in activities to supplement household income, relocation, marriage, being prevented from attending by their spouse, opting for employment, or opting out of the project to pursue other family and personal interests.

KEEP cited that the most frequently mentioned challenges amongst girls who did not report to school included early marriage, pregnancy and child labour. In contrast, the most frequently mentioned challenges for boys were child labour, drug abuse, mental health and psychosocial issues.

Core interventions:

Let Our Girls Succeed used a mixed-team delivery model to ensure the return to school (with suspected dropout risk reported). Thematic learning material included content on the different barriers to return to school so that children tackled the topic as they learned. Additional activities included using local radio stations to engage parents in vernacular discussions about return to school. Emerging results from a rapid assessment survey demonstrated daily attendance ranged from 89% to 91%. Class 8 figures show the regular attendance rate for cohort girls was 96.7% (lowest county recording 93%; highest recording 99%).

Somalia

Literature review findings:

Before COVID-19, it was estimated that of 4.5 million school-aged children, only 1.5 million (35% girls, 41% boys) were in school (Mwanjisi 2020).

Project findings:

SOMGEP reported that as schools reopened, only 80% of primary students returned. However, accelerated education saw a return rate of 66% and 67% non-formal education students resumed classes.

Core interventions:

SOMGEP documented improved inclusive retention strategies, particularly for children with disabilities in alternative basic education and accelerated learning programmes. In addition, attendance improved as teachers worked with mentors, CECs, Girls’ Education Forums and parents to follow up with dropout cases to ensure a holistic approach, reaching 18,421 at-risk girls. Emerging results show that headcounts conducted in March 2021 saw 75% of the girls attending class, despite a significant COVID-19 outbreak in Somaliland.

AGES implemented follow-up protocols with dropouts and students with high absenteeism rates (deemed to be at risk of dropping out). Teachers, CEC members and Girls’ Empowerment Forums were engaged in tracking processes. Results show that as of June 2021, 97% of the girls who had missed class reported follow-up actions being taken. According to the respondents who reported follow-up actions being taken, 100% received support from teachers; 43% from female mentors; 36% from CEC members; and 34% from Girls’ Empowerment Forums.

What next?

This paper has reported the emerging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls’ learning, wellbeing and return to school. Projects have reported what they did in response to COVID-19, the activities they implemented and the pivots they made to programming. As we move into the next phase of COVID-19, where COVID-19 case rates are rising in some places, the need to continue collecting evidence and documenting the evolving challenges girls face and what interventions are needed are successful or not is crucial.

The evidence reported here will be revisited in 2021 through projects’ discussion and reporting, resulting in an updated paper. The intention is to find out and document, as schools reopen, evolving challenges faced by girls, what interventions were successful and why, using project data, assessment data and reporting.