Stakeholders move to curb girl child abuse in Zomba

Stakeholders to an advocacy meeting on promoting girls education in Zomba have agreed to fight early marriages and school drop-out rate.

Speaking during the meeting on Wednesday, Rachel Maunda from Go Girls Club said teachers who are found guilty of impregnating school girls do not face stiff punishment, but are just transferred to other schools.

“With such lukewarm punishments, the trend will only continue. The end result is that it is girls who suffer,” she said.

But St Anthony Zone primary education adviser (PEA) representative, Dominic Phiri, denied that teachers that impregnate girls are transferred.

“It used to happen in the past but, we are now working with various stakeholders to address such issues when they occur. Sanity has returned and it is everybody’s responsibility to ensure that girls complete their education,” he said.

Thondwe Youth Skills Development Organisation (Thoyodo) programmes manager Alex Banda said proper investigations will be carried out to find the truth of the matter.

“We would like to influence the head teachers or PEAs to implement the teachers’ Code of Conduct where stern action should be taken against the offenders,” he said.

Participants to the meeting included village heads, parents and teachers associations, members of the school committees, councillors, members of Parliament (MPs), village development committees, and mothers and male champion groups. n