Girls are out of school: Implications and what we can do about it 

Lessons from Sierra Leone and the Ebola epidemic.  

Ana is currently a second year International Relations student at KCL. Her interests include environmental security, social justice and human development.

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the number of children out of formal education, with females being the most affected by it. Not only a drop-out of formal education hinders their professional development but also poses a direct threat to their security and exposes them to gender-based violence in the household, child marriage and pregnancy. Drawing from lessons of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, this article aims to suggest measures to keep girls safe during the pandemic. Moreover, it analyses current initiatives and situates the issue within the broader discussion on women’s rights and gender equality.

Covid-19 is already a year old and has left a tremendous impact in different sectors around the world. Besides the impacts on public health and the economic sector, education has also been dramatically affected, with schools closed for 168 million children for almost a year. (COVID-19: Schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost a full year, says UNICEF, 2021). As per usual in a patriarchal world, social inequalities are not only racialized and classed, but also gendered. Thus, while both boys and girls are out of school, it is the latter who are unlikely to return (Yousafzai, 2020). Moreover, the abandonment of formal education will have a greater impact on girls’ prospects, in both personal and professional areas. In this paper I draw attention on the short and long-term effects that leaving schools have on girls, not only in direct correlation with their persona but also as members of society. Finally, I draw attention to the effects that school closures may have in relation to gender equality, arguing that - if not addressed properly - school closures will mean a step back in the journey for women’s rights. To better understand the implications, I will use the case of Ebola in Sierra Leone. If we can learn from the past, we still may be on time to avoid making the same mistakes.   

The Coronavirus pandemic was not expected. As every catastrophe, no one saw it coming. The healthcare sector was not prepared to deal with the situation, nor was the education system. From one day to the next one, kids were sent home. Little did they know that what seemed a two-week holiday, would become -for some - the end of their school days forever. It is not surprising that girls were more affected than boys by school closure. Gender inequality is still further down the line, and it is women who suffer the most in extreme events. According to Girls Not Brides (What’s happening to girls’ education during the COVID-19 pandemic?, 2020), 743 million girls were out of school when the pandemic began. The Malala Fund (Malala Fund releases report on girls’ education and COVID-19 , 2020) estimates that approximately 20 million more girls will leave secondary school before the pandemic is over. The measures taken were quick and rudimentary: whereas the most developed countries were able to switch to online education and offer valuable standards of education, the less developed regions of the world faced a bigger challenge. Only 12% of the households in the poorest economies have access to the internet. More strikingly, of those 12% households, only 26% of the girls can make use of it (What’s happening to girls’ education during the COVID-19 pandemic?, 2020). If we do the maths, that leaves us with 3% of the girls in the poorest economies having access to education. This unequal access to education lies on the gendered economies present all around the world. Within the classic divide of social reproductive tasks, men are considered the ‘breadwinners’ while women are expected to carry the burden of unpaid social reproduction (Bakker, 2007). Because of this configuration of society and the household, when facing challenging times, it is usually the girl –be it the daughter or the wife – who will be expected to drop out of formal education to stay at home and allow men to develop professionally and ‘win the bread’ (Gender and education - UNICEF DATA, 2020). This unequal redistribution of tasks -and resources, in this case access to education - is rooted in the patriarchal society we live in. Thus, if we want girls to be educated, we need to start by challenging the gendered standards.   

Not only does the lack of education hinder the development of an equitable society in relation to gender, but also it directly threatens the physical and emotional wellbeing of girls. According to Save the Children UK (Warning of child marriage increase during Covid-19, 2020), a further 2.5 million girls will be at risk of marriage by 2025 because of the pandemic—the greatest surge in child marriage rates in 25 years. As many as one million more girls are at risk of becoming pregnant this year alone—with childbirth being the leading cause of death among 15-19-year-old. Around the world, the highest number of girls at risk of child marriage and adolescent pregnancy is in South Asia and East and Africa and LAC, respectively (Warning of child marriage increase during Covid-19, 2020). Moreover, by staying at home girls are at risk of domestic and sexual abuse. Schools offer a safe space for girls who may have distressing situations at home. With that taken away from them, they are unprotected.

The combination of a ‘stay at home’ policy and the decrease in the availability of safe spaces and support resources have resulted in a dramatic increase of gender-based violence cases, with some scholars addressing the emergence of a shadow pandemic of gender-based violence (The Shadow Pandemic: Violence against women during COVID-19, 2021). Despite how discouraging these figures are, some NGOs and international organizations have offered a ray of hope. For instance, through the HAYA joint program, UNFPA has joined forces with the Ministry of Health in Palestine to ensure safe spaces - Gender Based Violence rooms (GBV)- for survivors of violence, who need medical or psychological health (Heaney, 2021). What it is important to highlight is that by making such significant efforts to flatten the curve, governments are neglecting other threats to the health and wellbeing of its citizens, and that includes gender-based violence. Thus, although stopping the virus from spreading is essential, politicians should also rethink their priorities and the long-term effects that the lack of options for victims of gender-based violence may have in the future. Just as in the UK lockdown some children could go to school, a similar policy should be developed with the provision of safe spaces where vulnerable girls and women can go.   

Some say that history is cyclical. Whether or not that is true, is another debate. What is true is that this is not the first health crisis experienced. In 2014, highly contagious and dangerous Ebola hit Sierra Leone. As in the current pandemic, schools were closed. By looking at the effects school closures had on that context, we can learn some lessons from covid, and avoid history repeating itself. Five years after the Ebola epidemic, the long-term effects of girls being out of school are evident (Bhatti, 2020). As in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, girls who drop out of school are less likely to re-enrol, especially in rural areas where the risk of child marriage or child labour is higher. In the case of Sierra Leona, 16% never went back to school. They became workers or became pregnant, with an increase of child pregnancy of 7% (Rasul, Smurra and Bandiera, 2020). Although some measures like clubs or radio education were implemented during the Ebola crisis (Washington, 2020), five years after we know that it was not enough. There are however some differences between Ebola and COVID. COVID is more contagious than Ebola was. Thus, measures like afternoon clubs as safe spaces were not possible at the beginning of the pandemic due to the substantial risk of infection. While Ebola was an epidemic concentrated in the developing world, COVID has, by contrast, affected all developed countries. Thus, more resources have been invested into research (Jakes and Stevis-Gridneff, 2020). Massive testing has now become available, and it can offer a solution to the risk of infection. Moreover, the vaccine has already been developed. The light is at the end of the tunnel. But is it really for developing countries? A fair share of vaccines and tests is imperative and a moral obligation. Only by complying to those, we may save girls.    

 Nonetheless, whether vaccinated or not, girls should return to school. And that is not going to be an easy task when a year has passed. Initiatives such as the UN Girls Education Initiative and the Malala Fund aim to fill that gap. For example, the Malala Fund is working towards the re-enrolment of girls in school and the provision of a safe space, partnering with local NGOs. While initiatives like this one are essential, there is a limit to the efficacy of non-state actors. The capacity of NGOs to keep helping girls is constrained by financial limitations, as these organizations depend on private funds. Moreover, there are legal limits on what an NGO can achieve. It is for these reasons that a joint effort between local governments, international institutions and non-state actors is needed. Although resource investment is highly needed in science to put an end to the pandemic, policymakers must dedicate time and attention to the present. By the time everyone gets the vaccine, it may be too late for some girls, who may be already married and breastfeeding their new-borns.   

References 

Bakker, I., 2007. Social Reproduction and the Constitution of a Gendered Political Economy. New Political Economy, 12(4), pp.541-556. 

Bhatti, J., 2020. The Lessons of Ebola: 2014 Epidemic Drove Many Girls Out of School Permanently. [online] Al-Fanar Media. Available at: <https://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2020/11/lessons-ebola-2014-epidemic-drove-many-girls-out-of-school-permanently/> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

Girls Not Brides. 2020. What’s happening to girls’ education during the COVID-19 pandemic?. [online] Available at: <https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/educating-girls-during-covid-19/> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

Heaney, C., 2021. Providing Safe Spaces for Survivors of Violence, Even During COVID-19 - UN Women Article - Question of Palestine. [online] Question of Palestine. Available at: <https://www.un.org/unispal/document/providing-safe-spaces-for-survivors-of-violence-even-during-covid-19-un-women-article/> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

Jakes, L. and Stevis-Gridneff, M., 2020. World Leaders Join to Pledge $8 Billion for Vaccine as U.S. Goes It Alone. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/world/europe/eu-coronavirus-vaccine.html> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

Malala Fund | Newsroom. 2020. Malala Fund releases report on girls’ education and COVID-19 | Malala Fund Newsroom. [online] Available at: <https://malala.org/newsroom/archive/malala-fund-releases-report-girls-education-covid-19> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

Rasul, I., Smurra, A. and Bandiera, O., 2020. Lessons from Sierra Leone's Ebola pandemic on the impact of school closures on girls. [online] The Conversation. Available at: <https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-sierra-leones-ebola-pandemic-on-the-impact-of-school-closures-on-girls-137837> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

UN Women. 2021. The Shadow Pandemic: Violence against women during COVID-19. [online] Available at: <https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gender-equality-in-covid-19-response/violence-against-women-during-covid-19> [Accessed 5 April 2021]. 

Savethechildren.org.uk. 2020. Warning of child marriage increase during Covid-19. [online] Available at: <https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/media-centre/press-releases/covid-19-places-half-a-million-more-girls-at-risk-of-child-marri0> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

UNICEF DATA. 2020. Gender and education - UNICEF DATA. [online] Available at: <https://data.unicef.org/topic/gender/gender-disparities-in-education/> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

Unicef.org. 2021. COVID-19: Schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost a full year, says UNICEF. [online] Available at: <https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/schools-more-168-million-children-globally-have-been-completely-closed> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

Washington, J., 2020. Experts Apply Lessons From Ebola to Ensure Girls Return to School Post-Pandemic. [online] The Fuller Project. Available at: <https://fullerproject.org/story/experts-apply-lessons-from-ebola-to-ensure-girls-return-to-school-post-pandemic/> [Accessed 4 April 2021]. 

Yousafzai, M., 2020. After Covid-19, millions of girls may not return to the classroom. We can help them. [online] The Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/14/covid-19-global-education-crisis-girls-impacted> [Accessed 4 April 2021].