An initiative to keep girls in school by supporting income-generating
activities for their mothers is bearing fruit in Burkina Faso, where
poverty and cultural values still deprive many girls of an education.Pictured: Women teach their daughters in Burkina Faso
"We often buy notebooks and pens for students. It doesn't sound like much, but [lacking those things is] all it takes for some children to stop going to school. It's enough to get a girl married off to a husband."
Mariam Alou is a member of the the Association of Mothers Who Teach (known by it's French acronym, AME) in Sebba, in northern Burkina Faso. The Association was created by the government to consolidate the success of a 2007 campaign to raise awareness of the importance of girls' education; there are now at least 300 AME chapters across the country.
"Mothers must support schools because they know that girls are less likely to go to school," says Marie Claire Guigma, director of promotion of girls' education at Burkina's Ministry of Basic Education and Literacy. "And it's usually the mother's fault, since generally, it is the mothers who keep the girls at home to help with economic and domestic activities."
In Burkina, the school completion rate remains among the lowest on the continent, especially for girls. According to Guigma's ministry, just under 42 percent of students who enter grade one complete their primary education; for girls, this figure is 37 percent.
In the country's northern Sahel region, where the ministry focuses its outreach activities, just 18 percent of girls complete their education.
Guigma's view on who keeps girls out of school is contradicted by her regional counterpart here.
"Women are attentive to girls' education, because men are tending the livestock," says Issa Compaoré, regional director of basic education and literacy in the Sahel.
"Getting girls to stay in school is the challenge, especially in the context of arranged marriages. We know that if the wife can read, it's a first battle won for girls' education."
Source: Brahima Ouédraogo, IPS (via AllAfrica.com)
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