Kewe Thiam is the only girl in her village to have completed high school. |
KEUR OMAR TOUNKARA, 2 Oct 2006 (IRIN) - Kewe Thiam is the
exception to the rule that most Senegalese girls don’t make it to high school.
Sitting with a group of her peers, Thiam’s is the only female hand that
shoots up, along with those of a dozen boys, when asked who among them goes to
school.
“The girls here want to go to school, but their parents don’t
have the means. They can’t afford the inscription fees or the supplies,” says
Thiam, 20, speaking for the girls around her who haven’t had the opportunity to
learn French, the language of instruction in Senegal.
Thiam is the only
girl in her village to have completed high school. She is about to enter her
final year in a two-year accounting programme offered in Kaolack, the largest
nearby city and approximately 90 minutes away by road.
As in many
villages in West Africa, education is still a distant dream for many girls. The
United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) says that in Senegal about 40 percent
of girls 7-12 years old lack access to basic education, and those who do enroll
are likely to drop out. Sixty percent of Senegalese girls are illiterate.
Senegal’s Ministry of Education reported that 80.6 percent of girls began school
during the 2004-2005 school year, yet only eight percent finished high
school.
Early withdrawal
In the intervening years, many
factors come into play that pluck girls from their desks and books and into the
adult world, where they are often not equipped to deal with the lives handed to
them.
“Many parents are ignorant of the importance of education and pull
their daughters out of school at some point,” said Anta Basse Konte, president
of the scientific commission of the Forum for African Women Educationalists
(FAWE) in Senegal.
FAWE is a pan-African organisation that aims to
improve access to school for girls and strengthen retention rates. The
organisation conducts sensitisation campaigns, speaking to parents about the
importance of keeping their daughters in school. It also provides financial
assistance and scholarships.
Konte says that even a large city like
Dakar, Senegal’s capital, has pockets of resistance to sending girls to
school.
“We did a study and found that in certain suburbs underage
marriage is a big problem. These are more traditional zones where there is a
very strong religious influence that promotes this practice,” she said.
She said that in some communities the local marabouts, Muslim Senegalese
religious leaders and teachers, have been urging parents find husbands for their
daughters – some as young as nine. Generally, a young bride’s new domestic
duties put an end to her education.
“Parents fear that their daughters
will fall pregnant out of wedlock because there is a great deal of shame
attached to that,” said Konte, explaining why some parents agree to early
marriage.
She said that one school in particular has been suffering
tremendous losses from its classrooms because the local marabout performs yearly
collective marriages, sometimes marrying off between 100 and 200 young girls at
a time.
Economics is another reason for early marriage. Parents might
view their daughters as financial burdens and consider how a dowry might help
family finances.
“Often it just comes down to poverty,” said Konte.
For this reason, girls will also be pulled from school to work, often as
domestic workers or merchants. Or, they will take the place of their mother in
the household to care for younger siblings because both parents need to work.
Konte said this is very common in fishing villages and in agricultural areas.
Poor access
Accessibility is also a factor in education.
UNICEF says that 35 percent of schools in Senegal do not offer the full primary
cycle, making it difficult for girls to reach schools offering higher grades.
Parents either can’t afford to send their daughters to distant schools or fear
losing control of them if they are far away.
This has been the case in
Keur Omar Tounkara, where a local primary school has only existed for four
years. Young girls can now attend school, but older ones who missed out stay in
the village, spending their days cooking, cleaning, tending to their siblings
and retrieving water from the well.
Thiam said she had to push and work
hard to get as far as she did.
“I found ways to get by. My family came
together and pooled their money so I could afford to go. And I studied day and
night to get good grades,” she said.
She hopes to work at a bank when
she completes her accounting programme, a job that she says will provide her
with a decent salary and allow her to help her family.
“Parents often
only think in the short-term and don’t think about school as a long-term
investment that will provide their daughters with better paying jobs, greater
autonomy and more control over their lives,” said Konte.
She said her
organisation is funding the university education of 10 girls studying abroad. It
is also trying to encourage girls to pursue studies in mathematics and science
by offering bursaries that include supplies such as laptops, she
said.
Konte stresses the importance of creating a cycle of
change
She said she hopes that if girls have role models they will be
motivated to continue their educations, and if parents witness some success
stories they will be more inclined to keep their daughters in
school.
“Right now girls have very few intellectual models,” Konte said.
“It is just normal to drop-out.”
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