Who runs the world? GIRLS!

Viola Mzungwana
Imagine the life of an ordinary girl child only consisting of five years of schooling?

That image worries most leaders the world over because it directly screams: a�?education for girls could be for a few lucky ones.a�?

Across Africa, according to the United Nations Education and Scientific Organisation (Unesco), 28 million girls between the ages of about six and 15 are not in school and many will never even set foot in a classroom.

Here in Zimbabwe, Camfed a�� a non-profit organisation dedicated to eradicating poverty in Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women has been pivotal.

In 2012 alone, the association responded to a cry that 50 percent of all girls who finished primary school education intending to go to secondary dropped out.

Through the then ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Camfed availed US$19 million to target at least 24 000 disadvantaged school girls.

Educating the girl child is a collective effort. As such, one of the most serious learning institutions in this regard, which even tracks down its female studentsa�� success stories out in the world is Herentals Group of Colleges.

Herentals has almost 30 learning centres countrywide. Therefore, it is the largest learning institution in the country in terms of geographical spread and student enrolment.

Last week the group released a statement outlining how female students at its centres countrywide fared against their male counterparts.

For the Grade 7 exams, which tend to be the yardstick or cornerstone of secondary school education, out of 50 pupils who sat for the Grade 7 national exams, 60 percent of the high fliers were girls.

a�?Out of the 50 pupils who obtained four to eight units from our three primary schools, 30 were girls,a�? reads the groupa��s statement.

Despite calls from other people such as educationist, Dr Caiphus Nziramasanga, the author ofA� the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training Report- that Grade 7 exams should be scrapped, if statistics released by Herentals Group are anything to look at, the examinations at this stage should be used to identify budding intellectual talent with the girlchild in mind.

a�?The move to secondary school brings a lot of changes a�� different classrooms and different teachers for each subject.

If the transition between primary school and secondary school is not well-managed, children with learning disabilities or other special needs problems can end up feeling isolated and vulnerable. Their emotional health suffers and so does their academic performance. We at our colleges do more than teach, we prepare them for the bigger world,a�? said Kudakwashe Remba an executive member of Herentals Group of Colleges.

The female component of the school pupils at O-level also did better than the boys.

Of the students that got more than five O-levels, 58 percent were female.

a�?180 out of the 306 students who had five O-levels were female students,a�? reads the statement.

The real stars of the show that had distinctive passes were also dominated by women.

a�?70 out of 115 students with five As at O-level wereA� female students,a�? the group said.

The Zimsec pass rate for 2015 nationally, improved by five percent of that of 2014. However, boys did better than girls holistically. As such, Herentals is one of the learning institutions whose girls beat the boys.

At advanced level, girls still did better than their counterparts.

a�?There were 23 female studentsA� out of the 43 students with a minimum of 15 points and 110 females out of 196 students had at least two A- level passes,a�? says the report.

This could be the reason why Herentals Group of Colleges is at an advanced stage of opening a boarding school for girls.

a�?The College has some plans of establishing a state of the art Girls High Boarding School to support the girl child,a�? said Remba.