Breaking down barriers to girls' education

By Farida Eliaka, Advocacy, Communications and External engagement Director

At the age of 16, Esther had to stop her studies without ever having the possibility to go back to school. She told us, "I'm angry especially that I don't go to school anymore and I didn't progress in my studies, I'm angry, everything I had planned for my studies is completely upset, I'm angry! It started when he came to the house, he slept with me when he didn't tell me in advance and that was when my mother was away," she said.

In the Northwest of DR Congo, in Gemena, where she lives, many people do not believe in educating girls beyond a certain age. That changed when the Education Outloud (EOL) project was launched and added to World Vision's programmes in South Ubangi province.

"Assessing protection standards opened my eyes and helped me to see things differently," she admits. "Now I believe that girls belong in the classroom."

Since then, she plans to re-enrol in school next year, and has become an advocate for girl’s education in her community. Esther's story is not the only one in this part of the country. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, girls face incredible barriers to their education. Unfortunately, many girls in a similar situation are not so lucky.

Girls' education: Challenges and solutions

Some of the main barriers to girls' education include poverty, gender-based violence and social and cultural attitudes about the role of women and girls. Like Esther, many girls in remote communities in the DR Congo are victims of their families belief that it is a waste of money to send girls to secondary or even primary school. Others give in to cultural or financial pressure to marry young. Still others have to drop out of school to support their families through prostitution.

The law states that every child, regardless of gender, has the right to an education. Moreover, educating girls not only helps them to realise their individual potential, but also to break intergenerational cycles of poverty and disadvantage.

World Vision believes that girls who receive an education are less likely to marry young and more likely to lead healthy and productive lives. They earn higher incomes, participate in the decisions that affect them most, and build a better future for themselves and their own children.

But investing in girls' education is not just about keeping them in school. It's about making sure they are safe in school and have all the resources they need to learn and excel at the same rate as their male peers - including, in today's world, digital resources. According to the results of standards assessments conducted in 33 EOL-AMEI beneficiary schools and 3 communities, these confirmed that 80% of quality education standards are not being met in the project area. And according to a survey conducted by World Vision in Gemena, at least 22.5% of girls under the age of 18 are married early. The same source reveals that at least 46.7% of underage girls have children without being married. Many of them never returned to school during their pregnancy or after giving birth for several reasons, including the non-acceptance of girl mothers in school.

Hope for the Education Out Loud (EOL) Project

After the launch of this project on 27 April 2022, the first interface meeting was held on 8 July. It was an advocacy meeting between decision makers at the provincial level and the beneficiaries of the services to enable pregnant girls and teenage mothers to access, continue and complete their studies without discrimination in the schools of the town of Gemena, South-Ubangi province.  "I got pregnant and my parents decided to abandon me. I was forced to leave school. Afterwards, I started working as a prostitute. I was living a miserable life. Thanks to World Vision, I became useful again. I have been trained in cutting and sewing. But I am asking for support to continue my studies," said Micheline, one of the teenage mothers who is receiving training in cutting and sewing from DIVAS/ CRS, a centre supported by World Vision.

 Stereotypes about the impossibility of pregnant girls to continue their studies are one of the causes of the non-enrolment of girl mothers. Efforts in terms of encouragement are being made to achieve this and the authorities are now involved and serve as a role model to encourage girl mothers.

"I don't agree with all those who say that girls' weaknesses during pregnancy can prevent them from going to school or continuing their education. I myself was a girl mother, I got pregnant at the age of 17.  My parents were very supportive so that I did not drop out of school. I gave birth and was able to continue my studies until I reached the degree level. Today I am a Provincial Minister. I ask all the parents in the room who are listening to me to do as my parents did, never to drop your daughter off when she is knocked up by accident, this would encourage an early marriage which I forbid and condemn in my jurisdiction as Minister of Gender, Family and Children", said Marie Thérèse Thontwa, Provincial Minister of Education, Social Affairs, Gender, Woman and Child during the meeting. On behalf of the provincial government, the Minister promised that a decree for the protection of girl mothers will be signed and all stakeholders will be called upon to implement it.

In the exchanges, the recommendations turned on the practices to be promoted to sensitise the community to put an end to all discrimination against girl-mothers. Awareness campaigns for parents and school authorities were included in the agreed action plan.

The EOL-AMEI (Education Out Loud-Adolescent Mothers' Education Initiative) project is implemented in the Gemena cluster. It is an advocacy and social accountability project that aims to highlight the barriers that prevent pregnant girls and adolescent mothers from returning to school through community empowerment and the engagement of international institutions and organisations at local, national and transnational levels. AMEI is implemented by World Vision UK in consortium with 5 partners including 2 from DRC: World Vision DRC and CONEPT DRC,