Africa Education Watch, a Civil Society Organization in Education, has revealed that 40% of basic schools in the country have no place of convenience for pupils to use. The rate of 40% is above Africa’s average rate, which is 30%. This, the think tank notes, poses a threat to children’s education, especially the education of the girl child.
It noted that 24% of girls who start school do not complete junior high school as a result of factors such as teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy, it said, is expected to rise from its current rate of 14.2 to a much higher rate due to the closure of schools as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement issued Sunday, October 11, 2020, to mark International Day of the Girl Child 2020, Africa Education Watch called on African Governments to provide separate toilet facilities and changing rooms for girls in all basic schools, by entrenching separate toilet facilities and changing rooms for girls in school designs.
It also urged Governments to make adequate provision for girls who get pregnant to be readmitted as well as provide nurseries and crèches in public schools for the children of teenage girls.
International Day of the Girl Child
International Day of the Girl celebrates the importance, power, and potential of girls around the world.
It is also a day to highlight girls’ needs and the particular problems they can face, and drive efforts that meet these needs and fulfill their rights – not benevolently for them, but in partnership with them.
While much progress has been made in the last two decades to ensure every girl is able to grow and develop in good health, there is much still to do. For example, 12 million girls are married before age 18 each year. One in five girls globally has experienced sexual violence. In Eastern and Southern Africa, nearly 80% of new HIV infections among adolescents are among girls.
The 2020 theme of International Day of the Girl is “My voice, our equal future.” This is a striking call to recognize girls’ inheritance of the still-unfinished Beijing Agenda, their expertise on the challenges they face especially for their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and their limitless capacity as change-makers,”
