#BringBackOurGirlsTOSCHOOL
There is not a single day I do not think about them. Exactly two months ago, over 200 school girls were abducted in Chibok, Northern Nigeria. Today they are still missing. And I still feel as outraged as many of you do.
And as we think of them, we must not forget the scores of other children who have not had a chance to go to school—and do not make the headlines. In West and Central Africa, one out of four school-aged children will never enter a classroom, a new report by the Unesco Institute of Statistics and Unicef shows.
Globally, more than 57 million primary school-aged children do not attend classes —over half of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. What keeps so many children excluded from school across the continent? What prevents so many children from seeing a classroom, given that ’free education’ became a reality in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa—including my home country, Benin?
The report Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children finds that the girls from poor families, living in rural areas —especially if they are heads of household—have significantly less opportunities to go to school. Also, conflicts and natural disasters also compromise learning, causing extensive damage and disrupting schooling—sometimes for weeks, even for years.
While the abolishment of school fees has led to a sharp increase in the number of children enrolled in schools in many countries ‘free education’ is never entirely free. Supplies, books and other indirect costs can easily make access to school simply unaffordable.
Getting out-of-school children into school is more than building more classrooms and deploying more teachers. In order to reduce the number of children excluded from the education system, our African governments must commit to #BringbackOurGirlsTOSCHOOL.
Even when all the barriers to access are lifted, the quality of the learning taking place in the classroom remains an issue. Those who enter school often drop out without acquiring adequate skills and never complete primary or lower secondary school. High repetition rates lead to large proportions of adolescents who are held back in education systems that are inappropriate for their age.
Everyone wins when girls have access to education. An educated girl is likely to increase her personal earning potential and prepare herself for a productive and fulfilling life, as well as reduce poverty in the whole community. Investing in girls’ education also helps delay early marriage and parenthood. Our booming economies in Africa need more female engineers, teachers and doctors to prosper and sustain their growth.
Throughout Africa, I visited a lot of schools where Unicef and its partners are working to get every child, especially girls and other marginalized groups, into learning. With my own eyes, I witnessed how simple programmes—such as scholarships, mentoring, a second chance to education and the provision of sanitary pads—can make a difference in the lives of girls and keep them in school.
As I watch African school girls on their way to school, I often wonder where I would be today if I had not had the opportunity to access education when I was a child. Would I be able to write this piece if my parents hadn’t made all the needed sacrifice to let me learn, grow and strive? Probably not.
Most of us take access to school for granted. I don’t. For many children in Africa, it is still a luxury—perhaps the most indispensable and reachable luxury for Nigeria and the whole continent.
The author is Unicef Goodwill Ambassador and co-founder of the Batonga Foundation which empowers young women and girls in Africa through secondary school and higher education and aims to remove the obstacles that prevent girls from attending school (Batongafoundation.org).
