Girls Education in Africa
Raise your awareness about girls education in Africa!
Eva Chakalis
Problems with Cultural Beliefs in Africa
Why are boys more likely to go to school?
Families in Africa are a lot more likely to send their sons to school over their daughters. One reason for this is that girls tend to get married early, to older men. Girls tend to drop out of school in order to get first pick in marrying the wealthier men. Even though it is the family's fault that girls drop out of school, it doesn’t help with the fact that communities are encouraging women to be provided by men and to not provide themselves with money. Another reason girls continue to drop out of school is because there are no role models for little girls to look up to. Nothing will improve without role models. All one person has to do is stand up for what they believe in; but there’s one problem with that. Who will that person look up to? We need role models in Africa to help improve this.
Organizations working to help
Some organizations and groups are working to encourage families to send female children to school. Some headmasters of parent-teacher communities such as Ms. Gama and Lameck are working on things like making families more interested in their childs education. They are telling young girls that is is better to provide yourself. Other organizations such as AGANET are working with village chiefs to prohibit rules against getting married under the age of 18 and penalties to men getting married to female children. This will help improve the average amount of girls being sent to school. One other organization, UN-JPGE is to help make schools easier to access and a safer and more friendly environment for girls. This will also encourage girls to go to school. These are a few of the many organizations working in Africa to get girls to go to school.
What can we do?
These companies, groups, communities and organizations are in fact, making a difference for girls in Africa. They are all making the community realizes that it isn't okay for girls to lack education and they are making girls excited about the chance to learn. They are helping to fix mistakes schools are making about children's education and ensuring that girls go to school regularly. They also encourage girls to try their hardest when they do get the chance to go to school and get the best grades possible. These are all things that have majorly improved in Africa and in the future could make education there even better.