Mulanje, August 20, 2015: The Mulanje Chapter of the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) has registered its concern over increased girls’ school drop-out although the organization is continually providing comprehensive bursary support to vulnerable girls in the district.
Chairperson for Camfed’s District Committee, Gossam Mafuta who also happens to be the District Education Manager revealed the concern during a local leaders’ sensitization meeting held by Camfed with an aim of sensitizing Chiefs across Mulanje on the importance of encouraging girls in education.
During the deliberations of the meeting, it was noted that although girls are blamed for failing to excel in education, most of the times the girls face a lot of challenges that defeat their morale, hence the increased drop-out rate.
Among other things Mafuta said lack of parents’ determination to educate the girl child seems to be the main reason why most girls are dropping out of school although Camfed provides them with all the necessary education materials such as school uniforms, shoes, learning materials and sanitary wears just to sample a few.
“What we’re saying is that parents in the communities do not seem to accept girls as children per say; which is why you would find that a family that bears only girls would go on and on and on bearing children in order to just have a boy. In the same way when it comes to education, the family would rather educate a boy who is younger than an older girl for obvious reasons that they don’t have confidence in the girl child to succeed in life in terms of education,” said Mafuta.
Faced with the obvious fact that some parents shun from educating a girl child because they feel they will be disappointed when she gets pregnant after they have invested a lot in her, as girls face a great deal of barriers to get through education, the Chairperson said “Then that is a good reason why all of us should join hands in supporting the girl child through eradication of all such challenges in our communities and not giving up on her.”
Adding weight to the Education Manager’s sentiments, Senior Chief Nkanda of Chambe conceded that most parents in their communities do not value education to all girls and boys as compared to how they value traditional events such as Chinamwali, adding that the development has been worrying the traditional leaders for a long time.
“You’ll see that sending a child to an initiation camp, for example, is very expensive: Parents have to pay huge sums of money and chickens to the chiefs and the counselors, they provide food, they buy new clothes for the children, they pay for the performances that take place on the final day, and so many more that when you add up such expenses you’ll find that they spend sometimes over K30,000 and even more; but when a child from that very same family is selected to a Community Day Secondary School that costs K15, 000 a year, the family will say, we’re poor we can’t afford it,” Senior Chief Nkanda lamented.
According to statistics provided by the District Education Manager’s office, there is a rapid girls’ school drop-out rate in the district including those on Camfed bursary, with reasons revolving around sexual relationships where 90 percent of the population drops out after being impregnated.
In response to this, the District Office for Campaign for Female Education has lined up a number of activities aimed at reducing the nuisance, one being the local leaders’ sensitization meeting.
