Chronicle Editor
Fungai Muderere, Senior Features Reporter
OUT of the total population of students enrolled in education globally, Unesco estimates that over 89 percent are currently out of school because of Covid-19 closures. This reportedly represents 1,54 billion children and youth enrolled in school or university, including nearly 743 million girls.
Over 111 million of these girls are reportedly living in the world’s least developed countries where getting an education is already a struggle.
These are contexts of extreme poverty, economic vulnerability and crisis where gender disparities in education are highest.
In Mali, Niger and South Sudan — three countries with some of the lowest enrolment and completion rates for girls — closures have forced over four million girls out of school.
While the world is beginning to understand the economic impact of Covid-19, the negative effects are expected to be widespread and devastating, particularly for women and girls.
One opines that in the Global South, where limited social protection measures are in place, economic hardships caused by the crisis will have spill-over effects as families consider the financial and opportunity costs of educating their daughters.
While many girls will continue with their education once the school gates reopen, others will never return to school.
Being at school can help to protect girls from pregnancy and marriage and it will be energy sapping to wake up one day and realise that media outlets are now punctuated with stories on that schools have been left empty as an abandoned nest.
Whether one has lived or is living through a crisis, education is a lifeline, offering protection from violence and exploitation and providing girls with skills and hope for a brighter future.
In that regard, Covid-19 education responses by different governments must therefore prioritise the needs of adolescent girls’ at the risk of reversing 20 years of gains made for girls’ education.
In Zimbabwe, the government has revealed that schools will resume classes mid next month, following hard on the heels of universities, whose doors are set to be reopened from June 1.
Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Cain Mathema said “schools will be opened three to four weeks from now”.
While it must be applauded that, to prepare for the resumption of studies, the Zimbabwean Government is set to hire 6 000 teachers as part of a comprehensive plan for the safe and smooth opening of schools in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of governments, policy makers and practitioners all over the world are therefore encouraged to take lessons from past crises to address the specific challenges faced by girls.
While the magnitude of the Covid-19 crisis is unprecedented, we can look to the lessons learnt from the Ebola epidemic in Africa. At the height of the epidemic, five million children were affected by school closures across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, countries hardest hit by the outbreak. And poverty levels rose significantly as education was interrupted.
In many cases, school drop-outs were caused by an increase in domestic and caring responsibilities and a shift towards income generation. As suggested by one of the analysis done by Plan International, this meant that girls’ learning at home was limited.
In villages with established “girls’ clubs” and existing sensitisation efforts to promote girls’ education, fewer girls experienced adverse effects and were more likely to continue their learning.
Several studies found that the closure of schools increased girls vulnerability to physical and sexual abuse both by their peers and by older men, as girls were often at home alone and unsupervised.
Sexual exploitation in the context of selling sex for food and other essentials was also widely reported as vulnerable girls and their families struggled to cover basic needs. As family breadwinners perished from Ebola and livelihoods were destroyed, many families chose to marry their daughters off, falsely hoping this would offer them protection.
In Sierra Leone, adolescent pregnancy increased by up to 65 percent in some communities during the Ebola crisis. In one study, most girls reported this increase was a direct result of being outside the protective environment provided by schools. Many of these girls never returned to the classroom, largely due to a recently revoked policy preventing pregnant girls from attending school.
Ebola was flashed the drain and the naked truth is that Covid-19 is here. However, human kind cannot allow history to repeat itself for it be will very detrimental to the future of girls in every breath and length.
A renowned leader in development and gender equality, Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen has worked for over 25 years in international development, human rights, change management and diplomacy, has underscored that governments need to protect progress made in favour of girls’ education through these six gender-responsive, evidence-based and context-specific actions that include leverage teachers and communities, adopting appropriate distance learning practices, considering the gender digital divide, safeguarding vital services, engaging young people and ensuring school return for pregnant girls and young mothers.
Leveraging teachers and communities will entail efforts by governments to work closely with teachers, school staff and communities to ensure inclusive methods of distance learning are adopted and communicated to call for continued investments in girls’ learning. In that regard, community sensitisation on the importance of girls’ education should continue as part of any distance learning programme.
In contexts where digital solutions are less accessible, governments can consider low-tech and gender-responsive approaches. For example, they can send reading and writing materials home and use radio and television broadcasts to reach the most marginalised.
In such an effort, leader in development and gender equality leaders feel that there will be a need to ensure programme scheduling and learning structures are flexible and allow self-paced learning so as not to deter girls who often disproportionately shoulder the burden of care.
The government’s education Covid-19 responses should not be blind of the gender digital divide and Albrectsen feels that in “ contexts where digital solutions to distance learning and internet is accessible, ensure that girls are trained with the necessary digital skills, including the knowledge and skills they need to stay safe online.”
A Plan International analysis upholds that girls and the most vulnerable children and youth miss out on vital services when schools are closed, specifically school meals and social protection. Consequently, when schools re-open governments should consider making academic institutions access points for psychosocial support and food distribution, work across sectors to ensure alternative social services and deliver support over the phone, text or other forms of media.
By engaging young people as one of the gender responsive, evidence based and context specific actions, there will be a need for the powers that be to “give space to youth, particularly girls, to shape the decisions made about their education. Include them in the development of strategies and policies around school closures and distance learning based on their experiences and needs.”
Also, providing flexible learning approaches will be ideal for girls to not be deterred from returning to school when they re-open. This includes pregnant girls and young mothers who often face stigma and discriminatory school re-entry laws that prevent them from accessing education.
As if that will not be enough, research further suggests that automatic promotion and appropriate opportunities in admissions processes that recognise the particular challenges faced by girls can also positively impact on governments efforts to prioritise the girls needs in different education systems.
The systems will also need to take into consideration that catch-up courses and accelerated learning may be necessary for girls who return to school.
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