Girls Self-Boarding Education: A Key or a Hindrance to Success?
In 2017, youth make up more than half of Malawi’s population. As they do in many African countries, youth in Malawi face diverse problems when growing up and transitioning into adulthood, including poor education facilities, social inequalities, early marriages, high unemployment rates, and uncertainties about their future. These problems are usually exacerbated by a lack of sufficient resources in impoverished settings. Being born in Malawi myself, I have experienced many of these challenges, which sometimes left me feeling hopeless and tempted to give up.
I grew up in a rural area and commuted to primary school on narrow, bushy routes for close to an hour. I usually went to school with a group of others up to five years older than me to conquer our fear of passing through some dangerous routes and over rivers. Making the journey as a group helped us look forward to going to school every day, but I still longed to live closer to a better schools. Fortunately, my family moved from that area to a city, which afforded me more opportunities to access a stronger education. However, not every Malawian girl is so lucky.
We shifted from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, but young people in my beloved country of Malawi are still struggling with the same longstanding challenges. Working in one of the rural districts in Malawi as a Global Health Corps fellow this year has brought to my attention the extent of the risks that young girls face with respect to unfavorable education situations and travelling long distances.
Although self-boarding is not legally supported by the government of Malawi, it is the expected course of action for most young girls and boys who travel long distances to school. Parents and teachers have accepted this practice to the extent that some communities have started building girls’ hostels close to schools. Although self-boarding is meant to increase the probability that girls will finish school, a study which sampled three secondary schools from the district I am working in found that it brings more harm than good by increasing the number of dropouts among girls.
The study found that self-boarding girls are at a higher risk of experiencing early pregnancies or early marriages as they engage in sex work to sustain themselves while away from parents. It also found that boys and girls tend to share housing and chores and live as families. Although this may seem like a blessing in disguise, these housemates often end up engaging in unprotected premarital sex because of lack of parental advice and supervision. Girls in self-boarding lack the parental care that is so important for adolescent development. In most circumstances, teachers either pay no attention or are overwhelmed by the duties involved in supervising self-boarders.
Where I live, we share a compound with two teenagers who live alone. I learned from a colleague that the two girls are “self-boarders” who move to the compound only when school opens since they live very far away in another rural area with no decent schools. They rely on monthly assistance from their families to pay for necessities. I started to see the girls pass my house every morning around 6 A.M. on their 30 minute walk to school. I later noticed that they would entertain some men visiting on motorbikes.
One night, I decided to talk to the girls about their future and the importance of school. They shared that only one teacher out of eight at their school is female. Their school does not have sexual and reproductive health related courses or clubs to teach young people about their sexuality and rights. Without full awareness of their options and the risks, the girls engage in risky behaviors, using their bodies in exchange for basic necessities. In such circumstances, these girls do not have the power to use protection or consult someone for assistance.
Educating young girls on sexual and reproductive rights is not only the job of female teachers or parents, but also of others who have gone through similar experiences. In my experience growing up, I was lucky to have close connections who would always call and openly discuss such issues, empowering me by making me aware of my options and the potential implications.
I decided to meet one of the girls’ teachers, who shared that 15 girls dropped out last term because of unplanned pregnancies. As we continued to discuss this challenge, I was invited to the school as a guest speaker during the final class farewell ceremony. I was excited to talk to the students about risky behaviors and staying safe. Although my voice alone would not solve the root causes of the problems, I believed it could plant a seed. The invitation also entailed setting up a youth club at the school to address sexual health.
As Dr V. Chandra-Mouli’s TED Talk on Why We Shouldn’t Shy Away From Sexual Education highlights, educating young people about sex leads to healthier behaviors and increased autonomy and confidence. The health sector must work collaboratively with schools to provide comprehensive health education.
Together parents, teachers, and young achievers can give self-boarding a new meaning. Education is and will always be a key to success. As such, it should not constrain girls, but rather it should empower them, now and for the future. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure more girls stay healthy and excel in school.
Noriah Katungwe is a 2016–2017 Global Health Corps fellow in Malawi.
