Who bears the blame when girls drop out?

For 18-year-old Eluby Mayelo of Mlonda Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Nsabwe in Thyolo, being in school today is an achievement, as most of her age mates dropped out. She is in Form Four at Makapwa Community Day Secondary School (CDSS).

“It is survival of the fittest,” she begins the story adding, “There is only one CDSS and the community hardly recognises the importance of educating a girl-child. It knows women as child-bearing machines.”

Despite the desire to get educated, it is not easy to access schools. For instance, Mayelo and others learning at Makapwa CDSS walk an average of eight kilometres to the school. It is even harder for girls who, according to societal setup, have to do household chores before school.

“I am surviving because I developed a working system. I wake up at 2am to study for two hours. Then I leave my room to fetch water and do some chores. To be in school in time, I have to leave home by 5:30am,” she explains.

Due to the undulating topography of the area, Mayelo endures the pains of climbing hills and crossing valleys with paths buried in deep bushes, engulfed with fear that some men can take advantage of the situation to rape her or meet wild animals.

Mayelo, who is the last born in a family of seven, laments that while it is harder to brave the cold weather during the winter season, it is even harder during rainy seasons as the paths are muddy, forcing her to walk barefoot to avoid damaging her only pair of shoes.

Although she interacts with teachers every day, Mayelo dreams of becoming a nurse in future, maybe because her school has no female teacher to inspire her into the profession.

Says Mayelo: “Who do I look up to as a role model here? It is even harder to approach male teachers when I have problems because they may think I am seducing them.”

Graciano Mpaso, a head teacher at Makapwa CDSS, concedes that it is a survival of the fittest scenario for most girls at the school.

“The environment is not attractive. Girls need to be motivated. If we had female teachers, they could have been role models and also play a role in influencing them to remain in school. Imagine we lose more than three girl students each academic year,” he explains.

Benedicto Kondowe, Civil Society Coalition (Csec) executive director argues that lack of female teachers at a school is a recipe for drop outs among girls.

“When female students are confronted by male teachers, they feel unease and some eventually drop out. So, technically, we have what I call inbuilt push factors for girls to drop out because the environment is not conducive for the girl child,” says Kondowe.

As if that is not enough, Makapwa CDSS has no library or staff room. Students like Mayelo rely on class notes only, as the school does not have enough reference materials for students.

No wonder, girls at the school perform poorly in national examinations. For instance, out of 45 students (34 boys and 11 girls), who sat for the 2015 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations, 22 got a certificate with only four being girls. The highest, a male student, scored 30 points. The first female student scored 35 points, according to Mpaso.

Opened in 1991, Makapwa CDDS has just one block with two classrooms. The headmaster says these classrooms are used by Form Twos and Fours while students in Forms One and Three learn under trees.

Mayelo finishes her classes at 3:30pm and gets home around 6pm. At home, has to help her mother on house chores. By the time she finishes these chores, Mayelo says she is tired and goes straight home to sleep ready for another day.

Walking deep into Nsabwe area gives you a real picture of what being a girl means to the community. Girls as young as 15 are in marriage.

“Girls envy marriage life, some even challenge each other on who will bear children first. So they drop out of school to bear children. If my parents were weak minded, they would have married me off by now,” she adds.

In 2002, another girl, Janet Makombe now 31, dropped out of school while in Form Two at the school to have a child. She says she envied her peers who had children.

Today, Makombe regrets the decision and the pregnancy that came thereafter. She says the husband dumped her in 2006 and married another wife.

“In 2007, I went back to school and I wrote my MSCE the same year while carrying my second pregnancy, but I failed,” says Makombe.

Between January 2011 and March 2013, Makombe worked in Blantyre as a maid. She quit due to low pay. She now owns a house and depends on farming for a living.

The story in T/A Nsabwe is just a mirror of the situation across the country as government statistics show that between 2014 and 2015, 8 898 girls and 6042 boys dropped out of secondary school, costing tax payers about K740 million.

Despite the Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) paying for all education necessities for some girls in Thyolo to the tune of K100 000 per student per year, 110 beneficiaries dropped out between 2013 and 2014. Two of these were from Makapwa CDSS.

In addressing these challenges, government has demonstrated commitment through ratification of several international treaties. This is also testified in the 2013 National Education Policy which makes education compulsory.

However, ratifications and having policies or legal frameworks are not enough to keep girls in school. Paying fees and other necessities for girls is commendable, but without addressing many other issues that affect their daily lives is like expecting to harvest sorghum after planting millet

Government needs to ensure that girls like Mayelo walk short distances to schools, schools must have enough learning space,  hostels and materials as well as enough teachers, female teachers inclusive.

Again, the African Union (AU) Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa (2015) warns that daughters of uneducated mothers are likely to drop out of school, marry young and repeat the cycle of poverty.

The 2014 government’s Monitoring Learning Achievement In Primary Education  report also reveals that children whose parents have gained higher qualifications are more successful during tests, than those whose parents never went far with school.

This calls for government and its stakeholders to provide people around Makapwa CDSS and many other parts of the country  with adult literacy classes so that they appreciate the value of investing in girls education.

Government must also ensure equity and inclusion so that everyone has an equal opportunity to obtain access to education as urged in the 2030 Education Goal.

There is need to pay particular attention to vulnerable groups who are disadvantaged by factors such as gender, poverty, geographical location, ethnicity, language, age or disability.

One thing is for sure: Child marriage lies at the intersection of a broad set of problems facing girls, who are disproportionately affected by harmful cultural and religious beliefs and practices. Addressing it therefore, must remain  the core of government’s priorities.