by Laura Darcey
The Covid-19 pandemic led to widespread closures of schools and implementation of stay-at-home orders aimed at curbing the spread of the infectious disease. These measures significantly disrupted learning outcomes for students around the world.
Loss of learning was especially pronounced in poor, rural communities with limited ability to participate in remote learning. An estimated 49% of learners in Eastern and Southern Africa had no access to digital learning due to the absence of electricity, electronic devices, and internet connections 1 . Prior to Covid, historical data from past pandemics had already revealed an inequality: girls are three times less likely to engage in home-based learning than boys. This is due to the already disproportionate burden of girls’ household chores and caregiving responsibilities that are intensified during a pandemic, further limiting their ability to participate in remote learning activities, even for girls who might have otherwise been able to access digital lessons 2 .
But there is a substantial body of evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic did more than limit girls’ access to education and learning opportunities. School closures also limited girls’ social protection and access to essential services, leaving them vulnerable to FGC, sexual violence, teen pregnancy, child marriage, and ultimately, school drop-out.
The impact of school closures during Covid-19
Female Genital Cutting (FGC) – The Covid-19 lockdown was seen as an opportune time for girls to undergo FGC at home with ample time for healing away from the eyes of those who may disapprove. The protection of school had disappeared. Data gathered by UNICEF in nine Kenyan counties showed a 121% increase in the number of FGC cases in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 3 . The effect of school closures was further compounded by pandemic-related travel restrictions, which prevented government officials, law enforcement, and humanitarian workers from travelling to implement child protection programmes.
Sexual Violence – The pandemic significantly raised the risk of violence and abuse against girls, with economic stressors and the lack of alternative spaces or shelters increasing girls’ vulnerability. According to the national protection hotline, sexual violence against girls surged by 230% during the Covid-19 lockdown 4 .
Teen pregnancy – Kenyan adolescent girls who were forced out of the classroom for 6 months during Covid-19, were twice as likely to become pregnant than their contemporaries who finished school in 2019 5 . Cut off from resources at school and under economic stress, many girls struggled to access basic hygiene requirements such as water, soap, and menstrual products. This created a ‘shadow pandemic’ where Kenyan girls were preyed on by older men with spare cash and exchanged sex for money to buy hygiene products. Within the first three months of lockdown,152,000 pregnancies were reported in Kenya, an estimated 40% increase of prior levels 6 .
Child Marriage – In times of financial insecurity, girls will be married off to lessen a household’s economic burden and provide immediate relief in the form of a dowry. Financial insecurity can also lead girls to engage in practices that leave them vulnerable to teenage pregnancy. Engaging in sex outside of marriage is often frowned upon and deemed socially unacceptable, so an unplanned pregnancy may drive families to organise a marriage to protect the family honour. This effect is so extreme, that in times of increased levels of sexual assault, families will pre- emptively marry off their daughters hoping to protect them from assaults and ‘preserve their honour’ 7 .
Following the pandemic, many girls did not return to the classroom. When schools reopened, 99% of boys aged 10-14 reported back to the classroom, compared with 95% of girls. But the disparity was much greater amongst older students, with 74% of boys aged 15-19 returning to school, but only 63% of girls 8 . High rates of dropout were driven by pregnancy and early marriage in girls, and the taking on of income- generating activities in boys, with both groups’ rates exacerbated by families’ inability to pay expensive school fees.
Individual and Generational Benefits of Educating Girls
The World Bank has recognised that there is no investment more effective for achieving economic development goals than educating girls. When girls stay in school, they acquire skills and knowledge that can help them succeed in the labour force. School attendance boosts girls’ self-esteem, agency, financial literacy and problem-solving abilities. Educated girls grow into educated women who can better care and advocate for their children, leading to generational benefits. But fundamentally, staying in school has been found to be a protective factor against child marriage, pregnancy and FGC.
Education delays girls’ entry into the labour market, instead developing their skills, boosting their self-esteem and teaching them about their reproductive health. Educated girls are more likely to delay marriage, and marry someone who is closer to them in age, as well as educated. Girls with a secondary education are 6 times less likely to marry as children. It also protects girls from teenage pregnancy, with research showing that teenage girls with no education or only primary education are more likely to begin childbearing in their teens compared to those with secondary education 9 .
School attendance can also protect girls from FGC. In countries where FGC is practised, 54% of women with no education report they have undergone the procedure, compared to 19% of women who have some level of secondary education 10 . Additionally, according to the International Centre for Research on Women, education can protect the next generation from FGC, as women’s support for FGC decreases as their level of education increases 11 .
Educating women generates improved outcomes for their children. With delayed birth, women are more mature when they become mothers, meaning they are better able to care for their children, reducing the child mortality rate. In fact, children of literate mothers are 50% more likely to live past age 5 12 .
With education out of reach, not only is the personal development of women curtailed, but their ability to acquire skills and qualifications necessary for future employment opportunities is halted. Women are trapped in a cycle where lack of learning begets further financial hardship, making it more difficult for them to send their own children to school, further perpetuating the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
Free Education at NTS
NTS has worked strategically to eliminate barriers to girls in our community attending school presented by poverty. First, school is free with no tuition, hidden fees, supplies or teacher “gifts” demanded. Second, every student is provided with 3 full meals daily, meaning the money girls would have earned as day labourers is covered in the food they are provided. Finally, we work closely with each family to eliminate any obstacles they may find throughout the three years. As a result, our female students stay at NTS, completing their education and moving into economically rewarding careers.
References
1 Oulo, Understanding the Barriers to Girls’ School Return: Girls’ Voices from the Frontline of the COVID-19
Pandemic in East Africa,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352740245_Understanding_the_Barriers_to_Girls%27_School_Ret
urn_Girls%27_Voices_from_the_Frontline_of_the_COVID-19_Pandemic_in_East_Africa
2 Oulo
3 Vice, Female Genital Cutting is on the rise during COVID in Kenya,
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgzm83/female-genital-cutting-is-on-the-rise-during-covid-in-kenya
4 The New York Times, These Girls are Being Cut and Married in Droves,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/opinion/kenya-covid-child-marriage.html
5 SciDev, Kenyan Lockdowns ‘Led to Pregnancies, School Dropouts’, https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-
africa/news/kenya-lockdowns-led-to-pregnancies-school-dropouts/
6 Munala, The Impact of Covid-19 on Girls from Low Income Urban and Rural Areas in Kenya,
https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1594640/v1/ea2df3c4-cf2f-4410-898c-
be61066a25ff.pdf?c=1652561510
7 Educational Development Trust, Emerging Issues for Girls’ Education in East Africa,
https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/17074/EIR_48_Girls_Education_in_East
_Africa.pdf?sequence=12
8 Nation, Girls’ Access to Education Faced Challenges, but Covid-19 Made it Worse,
https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/covid-made-challenges-of-girls-access-to-education-worse-3490060
9 Somani, Importance of Educating Girls for the Overall Development of Society,
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1225&context=jerap
10 Orchid Project, Intersection between female genital cutting and education
https://www.orchidproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Intersection-Between-Female-Genital-Cutting-
and-Education.pdf
11 ICRW, Leveraging Education to end female genital cutting worldwide https://www.icrw.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/ICRW-WGF-Leveraging-Education-to-End-FGMC-Worldwide-November-2016-
FINAL.pdf
12 Somani