Safe schools and safer communities – centering the voice and agency of parenting and pregnant girls for equitable education in Zimbabwe

• In Event: Holistic approaches to enabling learning environments in Africa: elevating the voices of children, youth and local stakeholders

Proposal

Tens of thousands of adolescent girls drop out of school each year across Africa or experience discrimination and exclusion because they are pregnant, married, or are mothers (HRW, 2022). It is estimated that in Zimbabwe, one out of three women were married and one out of four give birth before the age of eighteen (UNICEF, nd). Teenage pregnancy in Zimbabwe, as in other countries, has seen a drastic increase during COVID-19 induced lockdown and school closures, resulting in many girls being forced to drop out of school. Even though the landmark ruling in Zimbabwe – the Education Amendment Act 2020 - prohibits discrimination against and exclusion of girls from schools on the grounds of marriage or pregnancy, many pregnant girls and adolescent mothers choose not to return to schools or continue their studies due to the enduring stigma they face in their communities and the lack of a supportive environment. A lost education is catastrophic to parenting girls/young mothers, their children, families and their broader communities.
This paper discusses key lessons from a project that worked with adolescent mothers, survivors of gender-based violence, and girls in religious Apostolic households who faced a range of barriers to return to, and (or) continue their education, in 9 districts of Zimbabwe. Survivors of abuse, including girls who had an early marriage or unwanted pregnancies, and out-of-school girls are nearly invisible and often silenced in many communities. Breakthroughs in shifting a culture of silence only take place when girls have a more direct voice into the structures mandated to protect them, and a trusted network/channel for them to report into. The paper focuses on the perspectives of pregnant and parenting girls and how they protest and influence cultural norms and practices through ‘safe spaces’ created in schools and communities, which enabled them to amplify their voice and engage with multiple stakeholders and duty bearers, resulting in fostering a deeper understanding of their often hidden, but lived realities within local and school communities. In doing so, we argue that they disrupt the often simplistic and hegemonic constructions and understandings of ‘pregnant and parenting girls’ and challenge the ideological narratives that continue to label them as a social or moral problem, while ignoring the structural and systemic inequities that construct teen pregnancy as problematic (Pillow, 2004).
To address the overlapping barriers and inequalities that prevent girls from accessing education, the project took a holistic, child-centred approach and worked with girls, their families and communities to deliver cross-sectoral interventions such as community-based education and vocational training, sensitisation of school systems, mentor/ peer/ family support, childcare support, and financial solutions. The paper will also highlight how the centrality of girls’ voices, their agency and aspirations guided project interventions, and resulted in positive transition outcomes for the girls, be it returning to formal education, accessing flexible learning and (or) gaining vocational and life skills training.

Authors

• Method Walter Ndlovu, World Vision Zimbabwe

• Janelle Zwier-Marongedza, World Vision

• Nisha Thomas, World Vision UK

• Jose Stefan van Oosten, World Vision UK