Giving Girls a Second Chance: A sustainable and replicable model for Accelerated Secondary Education for Girls (ASEG)

• In Event: Educating for the 21st century: experiences from the regional education learning initiative in East Africa

Proposal

In many marginalised communities in Eastern Africa, girls have massive barriers to achieving their full potential. Even those who succeed in primary schools are often forced out during their secondary years due to economic and social pressure, thus undermining the sustainability of education and any planned improvements in basic education in these communities. SDG 4 target 1: states that by 2030: “all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.” If the pressures leading to these girls dropping out are not addressed such targets will never be met because few girls complete education in communities such as the Maasai in Laikipia, the Dinka in Rumbek or the Zande in Yambio, all areas in which AET has been supporting the education of youth, especially girls. Failure to complete their education leads to loss of any opportunities for life outside the home.

The key pressures that prevent girls achieving their full potential include:
1. Early marriage and the fear traditional men have of ‘educated women’.
2. Early pregnancy and stigma leading to drop out.
3. Extreme poverty and low priority given to girls’ education exacerbated by high opportunity costs if such a productive labour force return to school.
4. Demands of caring for home and family and assumptions that that should be the extent of girls’ ambitions.

All four of the above pressures relate wholly or partly to the attitudes of the community. Thus, a prerequisite of any model is to ensure that the community and education stakeholders are fully integrated into decision making and can vary the model should they wish. Getting consent of male decision makers is crucial to the success of the girls’ education. Without such consent, and without the men feeling there is a benefit to them and their society, the program is unlikely to be sustainable past the first cohort. However, with consent, not only does the model become more sustainable, but it can also mark the beginnings of change in communities’ attitudes to educated females.

Once the community and Education authorities are committed, then a learning centre can be established providing girls with an accelerated secondary education with the following five elements geared to meeting the practical constraints that had previously prevented the girls attending formal secondary education. These elements are:
• A learning centre with flexible study hours that fit in with the learners’ other commitments.
• An efficient delivery system supported by good teaching and appropriate learning materials that enables the curriculum to be delivered in two and a half years rather than the traditional four.
• Where necessary, a creche and basic meals supported by the community to help learners meet their parenting and feeding commitments.
• A safe learning environment without stigma.
• No payment of school fees or similar costs.

In addition to the above elements that are intended to remove barriers to continued education, the following are criteria for entry.
• Learners qualify for secondary education. i.e. they have successfully completed the primary school leaving exam. (Many had started secondary and then dropped out)
• Learners dropped out of education at least twenty four months prior to admission on the ASEG program. This is on the basis of ‘Do no harm’ to other institutions.
• A pre entry test to measure if learners’ basic numeracy and literacy skills and general knowledge is sufficient to restart studies. While a fail in this test does not necessarily prevent girls joining the centre, those who lack these basic skills need additional support prior to entry on the accelerated program.

This AET model is based on the belief that successful secondary education for marginalised girls has every chance of achieving sustainable and structural changes in the society and its attitude to girls. In fact, it is the only ‘second chance’ for girls who have had to drop out of the formal system. Once they graduate these girls can take control of their future, can become economically independent and can develop into respected decision makers in their communities. AET already has individual examples of this happening in Rumbek from girls who graduated from that learning centre and is now is predicting similar changes in Laikipia and Yambio based on attitudinal surveys and the progress in learning outcomes so far monitored.

This paper will present the model above and show how it has alleviated the key factors that prevented girls from completing their education and provided a chance to improve quality education. It will also show how the attitudes of the community, especially male leaders, are changing in response to the girls studying at learning centres. It will use community discussions forums as the basis for evidencing these changes in attitudes and will use questionnaires to measure which key factors have been crucial to girls being able to stay in education. The program is very aware that removing the barriers to entry does not guarantee quality performance in the upcoming exams, thus monitoring will identify other barriers to performance and look for ways of alleviating these. This is already on-going in Laikipia. The paper will report on the results of attitudinal questionnaires measuring changes in the learners’ expectations and ambitions for the future and it will report evidence available at this stage on the progress of learners including on going assessment tests measuring learners’ study skills and academic performance against their base line on entry and state what this predicts for their final exams. The first cohort in Rumbek centre has completed and will be used to evidence both the successes and lessons learnt of the approach. Graduates from that learning centre performed at a higher standard than any other schools in the same state. These results and tracer studies of individual graduates will be presented. In addition, the paper will make recommendations on how the model can be replicated and adapted for other contexts, including for urban and peri-urban youth of either sex.

Authors

• Lucy Maina, ZiziAfrique Foundation

• Roderick B. Hicks, Africa Educational Trust