Girls and women face gender-based violence in schools and university, but a considerable number also find school to be a safe haven when they face abuse and poverty at home. Post-COVID education needs to rely on more sustainable and holistic measures that go beyond just accessing education, but also address the obstacles encountered by girls and young women in accessing quality education and completing the school cycle.

COVID-19 is a human, economic and social crisis affecting everyone, and Africa, like the rest of the world, has not been spared.

With the rapid rise of coronavirus infections, African governments have adopted measures to curb the spread, including closing spaces of worship, markets and educational institutions.

Close to 250 million African children out of school

By April 6, 2020, 53 African Union Member states had shut down their institutions of learning. This left over 20 million learners out of school at pre-primary level, 160 million at primary, 56 million at secondary, and 8 million at tertiary level, with no access to continued learning and teaching facilities across the continent.

The African Union International Centre for Girls and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA), in line with its mandate, organized two multi-stakeholder webinars on Addressing Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on Girls and Women’s Education.

The aim was to discuss the wide array of initiatives undertaken at grassroots, national and regional levels as educational responses to COVID-19, and come up with concrete recommendations to ensure that learning does not stop.

In his welcome address, Dr Mahama Ouedraogo, Director, Human Resources, Science & Technology Department at the African Union Commission, highlighted that with shuttered schools, African girls are at increased risk abuse, sexual violence, trafficking, social exclusion and forced labor.

Schools typically provide safe spaces for girls. When they are in school, they are less likely to be forced into marriage and be abused sexually. During this pandemic, however, schools are not there to protect girls.Dr Mahama Ouedraogo, Director, Human Resources, Science & Technology Department, African Union Commission

Additional risks faced by girls

Girls and women face gender-based violence in schools and university but a considerable number also find school to be a safe haven when they face abuse and poverty at home.

During the webinar, representatives from civil society, religious leaders and young women underlined how this situation had caused many young women to stop learning.

Many of them have had to return to the agricultural fields to help their families, have become unpaid domestic workers and are exposed to transactional sex and/or prostitution.

This crisis has also increased discouragement among girls and young women, clouded their hopes of success with heightened pressure from their parents to drop out of school, enter the labor market or get married.

Representatives from ministries of Education in AU member states shed light on their approaches to ensuring girls continue learning during the pandemic. Efforts have been deployed to disseminate reliable messages on TV, radio and social media to address education and health concerns of learners, parents and guardians.

Learners without internet or radio have received hard copies of teaching and learning resources. Radios have been distributed to parents and caregivers in remote areas, as teachers are actively engaged in radio learning programs to facilitate distance learning.

In many African countries, GPE is supporting continuity of learning, including the delivery of distance learning, especially for the most vulnerable, teacher support, safely re-opening schools, and strengthening resilience of education systems.Subscribe to our blog alertsEmail

Rethinking education post-crisis

Although the efforts being made are commendable, there is need for more sustainable and holistic measures that go beyond just accessing education but address the obstacles encountered by girls and young women in accessing quality education and completing the school cycle.

Before the epidemic, and according to UNESCO estimates, 23% of girls were out of primary school compared to 17% of boys. By the time they become adolescents, the education exclusion rate for girls was 39% in comparison to 36% for boys (UIS, 2019).

There is need for more governments to develop post COVID-19 strategic plans for reopening schools, plans that take into account the needs of girls and young women.

The lockdowns have shown the need for governments to invest in nationwide ICT infrastructure in schools, including strategic crisis management plans and funds geared towards education, to make it easier for a smooth continuation of education during times of crisis.

Keeping track of students who don’t return to school

In concluding the webinar, I underlined that as schools reopen, school administrators and teachers should make sure girls and young women are re-enrolling and returning back to the classroom.

Member states and development partners need to continue sharing experiences and best practices during and post the COVID-19 pandemic and reinforce the importance of girls and women’s education to the development of individual nations and the continent within local communities.

Ministries should be tracking the numbers of children affected by school closures and provide gender disaggregated data to ensure they can act if a significant number of girls and boys do not return to school.

The post Addressing the impact of covid-19 on girls and women’s education in Africa appeared first on Dr Rita Bissoonauth.

As we commemorate International Women’s Day (IWD), we ask: Where does Africa stand in ensuring that investments in education, particularly for girls, create conditions for peace?

Conflict still constitutes one of Africa’s most significant challenges at the beginning of this new decade. The rise of extremism and conflicts over natural resources are fuelling instability. This in turn undermines the development process in Africa. And education, one of the pillars of progress, is severely affected.

The effects of conflicts are highest for women and girls

In times of conflict, education is on the front line. Everyone is affected, but especially women and girls. They are already marginalized by cultural and social burdens. Girls are two and a half times more likely to be out of school when they live in conflict-affected countries, and adolescent girls are nearly 90% more likely to be out of secondary school (Global Education Monitoring Report, 2018)

In a context where our societies are still struggling to restore human rights for girls and women, the outbreak of a conflict combined with the structural marginalization of women in communities can only become an explosive cocktail for the future of Africa.

Fully aware of the urgent need to ensure continuity of education in emergencies for girls and boys, African leaders and partners came together in Addis Ababa last month to look for sustainable solutions during the 4^th High-Level Dialogue on Gender Equality and Education.

Under the theme “Silencing the Guns to ensure Safe Schools and Learning Outcomes for Girls and Women’s and for Africa’s development”, African Union Member States, development partners and civil society organizations seized the opportunity to highlight the need to secure schools and ensure access and retention in education systems for girls and young women, especially in conflict and fragility contexts.

The President of Ethiopia, H.E Sahle-Work Zewde, highlighted that schools are often the first to close but last to reopen if they ever do.

“Very often, what was considered at the beginning as a temporary break often becomes a permanent one. […] Schools should be safe and happy places where young girls and boys can benefit from a quality education.”H.E. Sahle-Work Zewde

Education must be protected against conflicts

One proposed solution to secure education for girls and young women is the adoption and implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration, the inter-governmental political commitment to protect students, teachers, schools, and universities from the worst effects of armed conflicts.

To date, only 27 African countries have endorsed the Declaration. Meeting participants acknowledged that, once the Declaration is endorsed by all African countries, it will help promote a “safe and conflict-sensitive” education taking into account the reality of girls’ education in these situations.

This is vital for Africa because a prosperous and sustainable future is not possible without peace and education. In this regard, the African Union Commission recommends that actors work together to achieve quicker and better results. The African Union leadership hailed the collaboration with partners, such as the Global Partnership for Education, Norway, Canada, Save the Children, UNICEF and UNESCO and reiterated the AU commitment to working with them to sow the seeds of peace through girls’ education in Africa.

Opportunities offered by these partners can go a long way in securing learning outcomes for girls in conflict situations, such as the accelerated support in emergency and early recovery situations, a funding mechanism established by GPE to address the rapid funding needed for education in countries experiencing humanitarian emergencies. This funding will unlock up to US$250 million to address the needs of refugees, displaced populations and host communities and create resilient education systems that can respond to emergencies.Subscribe to our blog alertsEmail

Incentivizing action for girls’ education

To accelerate the objective of better access and learning outcomes for girls, participants suggested that there is a need to put in place incentive policies. Some of these policies may include free secondary education, appropriate school infrastructure, alternative education programs, substantial budget allocation, gender-responsive programs and curricula, or access to information and communication technologies in remote areas.

As the President of Ethiopia said: “there is an urgent need to develop alternative education methods to avoid “education gaps” that can be very harmful for girls and other children in emergency situations”.

To also echo Julia Gillard’s Op-ed in the UK Telegraph: “Ensuring every girl receives a quality education will reap dividends for the safety, security and prosperity of all of us, and for the next generations…the swiss army knife to solving a multitude of the world’s problems.

It’s clear from the statements of these two formidable female leaders that Africa is not alone in the challenges it faces. The AUC is working with its friends to advance the girls’ education and gender equality agenda to redress imbalances.

Because as we all know, educated and empowered girls are a powerful protection from threats confronting the continent now and in the future. Hence the need to silence guns towards a generation that which makes women’s rights a precondition for an equitable society.

On this International Women’s Day, it is high time for all of us to stand up and claim our rights, make our voices clearer and louder, “enough is enough”.

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