Give girls second chance to study *Thank God, Uganda has become a Civilised Country!!
We thank Minister Kiddu-Makubuya for starting this policy. He joins the ranks of the best, i.e. Prof Abel Rwendeire and Brigadier Barnabas Kili. * Posted Saturday, November 12 2011 at 00:00 In Kasese this week, more than 400 school-age girls were registered as child-mothers (Daily Monitor, November 10). This underscores Uganda’s dismal record of posting the highest number of school dropouts in East Africa, with only 25 per cent of 100 pupils who join Primary One completing Primary Seven (UNESCO Report, 2010). But positively, as the PLE got underway last week, at least 26 pregnant girls from several schools in Kamuli District were allowed to take their exams, as well as three others, who had just delivered! Five boys who had prematurely become husbands also turned up for the exams! This week, more than 40 schoolgirls in Maliba S.S. were recorded as young mothers! We must embrace this unique, radical reformist, and noble-minded move to allow these young girls pick up the pieces. We must break the cultural shackles that bind and blight the future of our young girls who get entangled in adolescent troubles. We must not waver in our quest for provision of universal education and promoting gender equality by ensuring our girls learn side-by-side with our boys. It is delightful to note that 83 per cent of the total number of children (446,928) who sat for PLE this year are UPE candidates, despite the questionable standards and completion rate. Each of these children, especially the girls, in their many unique ways, will go a long way in making so many impressive contributions to Uganda’s development. The multiplier effect of girls’ education on improved livelihoods is indisputable. It is largely true, as reflected in the mantra of one renowned African philosopher of education Aggrey Kwegyir of Achimota, Ghana, whose famous catchwords in education have evolved into the famous maxim: “If you educate a boy, you educate an individual, but if you educate a girl, you educate a nation.” Share This Story Share<http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.monitor.co.ug%2FOpEd%2FEditorial%2F-%2F689360%2F1271176%2F-%2Fa3hj2w%2F-%2Findex.html&t=Give%20girls%20second%20chance%20to%20study%C2%A0-%20Editorial%C2%A0%7Cmonitor.co.ug&src=sp> The few young mothers and fathers that we have saved to complete primary education will no doubt help greatly in our pledges to attain the Millennium Development Goals, among them eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, reduced child mortality, improved maternal health, and combating HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases, and ensuring Environmental sustainability.
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