59% Of Girls Dropped Out After Covid-19 Pandemic Because They Had Outgrown Schooling.
According to a new report, 59% of girls dropped out of school after the Covid-19 pandemic because they felt they had outgrown schooling.
The Catholic Church’s report, published as part of the St Bakhita Partnership for Education project, sought to investigate the effects of Covid-19 on already impoverished and vulnerable girls in Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia.
One hundred twenty-six girls were interviewed from 15 different Catholic schools across the country.
According to the findings of the baseline survey, while 57% dropped out of school because they were pregnant, 35% dropped out due to early marriages.
According to Javilla Guma, BPE’s chief researcher, the link between Covid-19 and adolescent pregnancy was very clear during the research. School closures exposed girls to predators because they were locked up together
Guma stated that many girls engaged in transactional sex due to financial difficulties.
He claimed that some girls and their caregivers became extremely vulnerable and thus easily exploited sexually.
In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, he spoke on Monday at a regional conference on child protection problems and solutions in and for Africa.
Food shortages accounted for 73% of school dropouts, while financial difficulties faced by parents accounted for 57% of school dropouts.
Thirty-five percent of girls who dropped out of school said it was due to domestic violence.
The BPE is a collaboration between the African Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network and the associations of Catholic sisterhoods in the three countries.
Guma stated that their goal was to ensure that every girl child received a quality basic education, with a focus on the poorest and most vulnerable.
Three countries’ findings confirm unacceptably high levels of violence against girls
Girls were subjected to various forms of violence. Guma said this trend undermined the countries’ progress in empowering them.
“In some settings, over 70 per cent of the girls said they either had been victims of sexual violence or they knew of a girl that had been victimised sexually.”
In Uganda, it was revealed that some parents in Karamoja arranged for suitors to defile their daughters in order to marry them off.
Prior to Covid-19, the majority of respondents in Kenya believed that cases of female genital mutilation and child or forced marriages were decreasing in Kajiado, Samburu, and Marsabit.
“During Covid-19, the cases of FGM were noted to have increased considerably,” he said.
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Bishop Charles Kasonde, president of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of East and Southern Africa, stated that the enormous challenges posed by Covid-19 necessitated deep reflection on how we care for and protect the most vulnerable in our societies.
“How we care for and safeguard children must be at the heart of that discernment,” he said.
Kasonde stated that the entire spectrum of children’s needs should be addressed during and after the pandemic.
59% Of Girls Dropped Out After Covid-19 Pandemic Because They Had Outgrown Schooling
