By Raphael Banda
ZANEC Press
Statement on the International Day of the Girl Child
11th
October. 2023
Zambia National Education
Coalition (ZANEC) is pleased to join the rest of the world in commemorating the
International Day of the Girl Child which falls on 11th October.
This international commemoration
gives us the opportunity to reflect on our achievements and shortcomings in
addressing the challenges that girls are facing in realizing their right to
education.
The theme for this year is “Invest
in Girls’ Rights: Our Leadership, Our well-being”. Investment in girls and women spurs
productivity and economic growth in any given society. Girls and women's
participation in education and leadership positions is essential to achieving
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 in Zambia. Moreover, women and
girls represent more than half of the country’s population and therefore their
full participation
in the economy can increase our development prospects. For
instance, Girls have the right to safety, education, and a healthy life, not
only during these critical formative years but also as they mature into women.
If adequately supported, girls have
the potential to change the world – both as empowered girls of today and as
tomorrow’s workers, mothers, entrepreneurs, mentors, household heads, and
corporate and political leaders. An investment in realizing the power of girls
can help uphold their rights today and offer promises for a more equitable and prosperous future. Achieving gender equality and
women’s empowerment is integral to each of the 17 SGDs. Education is a key
investment in girls because it is also an enabler of other rights such as the
right to participation.
Although we are pleased that
there are more girls that enroll in Grade 1 compared to boys, we are concerned
that girls start dropping out at a fast rate from Grade 4. According to the 2020 Education Statistical
Bulletin produced by the Ministry of Education, we have 105,700 girls who are
out of school in Zambia as a result of the high drop-out rate. Additionally,
16,491 girls got pregnant, and only 7,954 were readmitted representing 48.4% readmission rate. Child marriages due to bad
cultural practices in rural parts of the country also contribute to high
numbers of girls dropping out of school.
It is clear from the statistics
above that more needs to be done by the Ministry of Education and other
stakeholders to keep our girl children in school. Therefore, Zambia needs to
safeguard the rights of the girls and their well-being by mitigating vices such
as teenage pregnancies and early marriages that deprive girls of their
education opportunity. We also appeal to the government to ensure that all
progressive gender legislations and policies are fully implemented such as the
Children’s Code Act No 12 of 2022,
Gender Equity and Equality Act No. 22 of 2015, National Gender Policy,
the Anti Gender-Based Violence Act No. 1 of 2011, and Re-entry Policy among
others.
Finally, we wish all our girls a
happy and successful 2023 International Day of the Girl Child.
For/ZANEC
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