Educating a Girl Child: How Useful is It?

District Education Officials present, Head Teachers, Teachers, our Children here
today, Ladies and Gentlemen.

There is an old saying that “Train a woman, a nation trained.” This saying
significantly represents the efforts towards educating our girl children in Uganda over
the years. The wisdom behind this saying cannot be overlooked today. It loudly tells us
why it is important to send to and maintain girls in school.

For many years, girls did not enjoy the privilege of attending school. Several efforts
have since been put in place to change this trend. 

Almost 55 years later, there are nearly as many girls as boys in school. But, this is just
half the story.

It is now 69 odd years from the time the first woman attended her first classroom lesson
in Uganda, but we still ponder over the real impact of girl-child education in this country.

It has been a Long Way for Girls’ Education

Girl child education has come a long way through the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 80s, 90s up
to today.

Even with the opening of girls’ schools such as Gayaza Junior and Gayaza High School
(in 1905), Mt. St. Mary’s college Namagunga (in 1942), many girls were unable to go to
school; largely because of prevailing unfavorable societal cultural attitudes of educating
girls.

Those days were a time of difficult cultural attitude that girls were supposed to be
homemakers; girls were supposed to be married off and produce children.

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 The first attempts at promoting girl child education in Uganda were made by the 1963
Castle Commission. The Commission highlighted the need to expand girl’s education in
the country.

However, very little progress was made as the Government Education Plan (1971/2–
1975/6) formed to implement the suggestions did not have the manpower and facilities
to accomplish the job.

Serious reforms to boost girl-child education resumed with the Government Education
Policy Review Committee of 1987 which sought to, among other issues, address
inequalities in our education system. 

The subsequent 1991 publication of a Government White Paper on Education set out
targets against which important programs to attain parity in education would be
implemented. 

One of the key elements of this White Paper was the need to democratize education; to
provide equal opportunities to Ugandan children regardless of age, gender, religion and
other identities.

These reforms led to the introduction of Affirmative Action in University admission,

ensuring that all female applicants get 1.5 points added onto their university entry
marks. In 1997, Universal Primary Education was introduced offering more opportunities
for girls to attend school. 

Where are we now?

Several government interventions such as the National Strategy for Girls Education and
the Promotion of Girl’s Education and several other programs have been implemented
to ensure that more girls access formal education. Through initiatives like the United
Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), the Girls Education Movement, many girls
from poor families have been empowered.

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 The results have been good.   According to the World Bank Gender Gap Report 2016,
the female-male divide in school enrollment has narrowed significantly and in some
cases exceeded expectation. 

At primary level, for instance, the gap is 92 to 90, indicating that there are more girls
attending primary school, while in secondary schools it is 15 to17 and 4 to 5 at tertiary
level.    

According to Ministry of Education and Sports, the net enrollment for girls at primary
level increased from 82.3% in 2000 to 97.2% as today, while that of boys moved from
88.8% for boys in 2000 to 96.3%.

Overall, Uganda  has a strong legal framework protecting the right to education as a
fundamental human right enshrined in the 1995 Constitution.

Uganda has signed and ratified the following important regional and international
conventions protecting the right to education including;

 the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Article 26,

 the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Article 28,

 the Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women

(CEDAW) Article 10, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the
Child (Article 11).

These conventions provide a comprehensive set of good education policies that aim at
ensuring education for all, and efforts are being made to reach the most vulnerable
people, girl child inclusive.

Nevertheless, Uganda has made mixed progress towards gender equality in education.

Female literacy rates lag behind at 49% compared to 69% of males and gender gaps
widen at secondary and tertiary school (OECD, 2015).

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Obstacles to Girl’s Education in Uganda

There are many factors that contribute to women and girl´s education in Uganda and to
girls dropping out of school.

Data from the Ministry of Education and Sports shows that school dropout in the country
is higher at the primary level than at secondary level because of;

 poverty,

 child labor,

 distance from school,

 teenage pregnancies,

 unequal access to education due to gender and cultural factors

 lack of interest,

 pregnancy,

 early child marriages,

 hidden costs at school and,

 family responsibilities.

Research has found that adolescent pregnancy and early marriage remain two of the
main barriers to girls’ education.

According to UNICEF, approximately 35% of girls drop out of school because of early
marriage and 23% do so because of early pregnancy (UNICEF, 2015).

In Uganda, the teenage pregnancy rate is 24% with regional variations. This increases
to 34% in the poorest households.

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In rural areas 24% of girls experience early pregnancy compared with 16% of wealthier
households and 21% of urban girls (UNICEF, 2015).  

Many cultural settings in Uganda consider pre-marital pregnancy among girls both in
school and in communities as shame to the family and it is seen as “taboo”. 

A girl who gets pregnant while still at school may be discriminated on immorality
grounds.

Early pregnancy has been found to end a girl’s education where girls withdraw
themselves from school early or after giving birth.

The practice of early marriage is still prevalent in Uganda and is highly associated with
lower female access to secondary education.

In 2013, Uganda was ranked 16 th among 25 countries with the highest rates of early
marriages, with 46% of girls marrying before 18 years, and 12% before they are 15
years.

In regions where girls are married before the legal age of 18, female secondary
education is lower (OECD, 2015).

Why Educating a Girl Child is Very Useful

Educating a girl child is one of the most important investments that any country can
make in its own future.

Education has a profound effect on girls’ and women’s ability to claim other rights and
achieve status in society, such as economic independence and political representation.

In the first place, having an education can make an enormous difference to a woman’s
chances of finding well-paid work, raising a healthy family and preventing the spread of
diseases such as HIV and AIDS.

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• Women with at least a basic education are much less likely to be poor. Providing
girls with one extra year of schooling beyond the average can boost their
eventual wages by 10 to 20 per cent.

• Women are mothers of the nation.

 An infant born to an educated woman is much more likely to survive until

adulthood. In Africa, children of mothers who receive five years of primary
education are 40 per cent more likely to live beyond age five.

• An educated woman is 50 per cent more likely to have her children immunized
against childhood diseases.

• If we had reached the gender equality goal by 2015, more than 1 million
childhood deaths could have been avoided. A mother’s education determines the
health and wellbeing of the child.

• For every boy newly infected with HIV in Africa, there are between 3 and 6 girls
newly infected. In Uganda, children who have been to secondary school are four
times less likely to become HIV positive.

 Girls’ education has long been recognized as a human right. It is a girl right to
have access to education as any other human being.

 Girls and women care for the family in both good and bad times. They look for
food, dig and prepare for the family.

 Girls and women are responsible for the heath care of family members especially
children.

 A woman is a manger and decision maker of the home.

 Therefore she needs all skills necessary to make a successful and happy home.

 If this country had more women in leadership and jobs than men, there would be
no corruption.
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It is therefore very important for girls to have the same or even greater access to
education as boys in Uganda.

So, let us also look at policies that support girls’ education in Uganda and how they help
further girls’ education.

Policies to Support Girls’ Education

Uganda´s extensive legislative framework on gender equality has brought about real
and substantive improvements in women´s rights and well-being over the past decade
(OECD, 2015).

Deliberate efforts have been made to promote gender equality by focusing on

increasing enrollment of girls in school at different levels as well as attempting to retain
them in school by implementing a number of policies such as;

Universal Primary Education (UPE) launched in 1997 and,

Universal Secondary Education (USE) launched in 2007 among others (UNICEF, 2014).

The Constitution of Uganda (1995) also provides a right to quality education to all

persons.

Additionally, Uganda is a signatory to a number of International commitments,

specifically the Dakar Framework (2000).

The Penal Code (Amendment) Act abolished corporal punishments and outlaws
defilement (MoES, 2015). The Children´s Act (2008) requires all duty bearers, parents,
community members and teachers to ensure that children under care are safe and
protected.

Successfully campaigns and interventions to keep girls in school include;

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  Go-Back-to-School campaign was launched in 2013 by UNICEF to help girl
dropouts to rejoin school and the program registered a number of success
stories.
 Promoting the National Strategy for Girl´s Education (NSGE)

 Promoting Girl´s Education (PGE) scheme and the Equity in the Classroom (EIC)
program which aims to facilitate equal participation of girls and boys in the
classroom.

Policy Weaknesses

Despite all this, girl child education has not been without challenges. With about 20% of
all girls that enrol in primary school unable to complete their education, there is concern
over the significantly high drop-out rates of girls at this level and beyond. 

According to a 2010 UNESCO’s Global Monitoring Report on marginalization only 31%

of all girls that enrolled for secondary education were able to complete O’ level
education compared to 39% for boys.

Early pregnancies, poor sanitation facilities in schools and absence of support

mechanisms especially for girls have contributed a lot to girls dropping out of school.

The situation is often worse in our rural areas.

On average, young girls drop out of school between ages of 12 and 15, to find
boyfriends and husbands. This is often blamed this trend on poverty. 

A number of gender equality programs initiated to support the girls were either poorly
attended or no longer functional.

This is due to poor support from the districts on lack of sufficient facilities.

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The policy on affirmative action does not favour the unique circumstances of girls in
rural areas who are unable to access higher education because of their difficult
circumstances.

The policy needs to be more responsive to the needs of such girls.

It is also a problem that the education policy does not spell out measures to deal with
parents that ‘sell off’ their young daughters into marriage. 

Though gender equality policies have gone a long way in increasing enrollment, more
needs to be done to sustain girls in school.

A lot remains to be done, particularly in equipping schools with critical facilities to

support the stay of girls in schools. 

However, we should thank the Government that continues to devise means of

supporting the girl children in school, with efforts such as strengthening of the roles of
Senior Women in schools.

We hope that such measures will be able to support the girls in their needs.

I thank you very much for attentively listening to me.

Betty Mbatudde

Principal Education Officer

Bukomansimbi District