DEAR DIARY: Every girl has a right to education

I had said it in the past that every child has a right to study and create a better future. Teen pregnancy is a big issue, which featured prominently in the country this week. It is a sad reality that many young girls are pregnant. Denying that reality is quite a big mistake. Condemning someone for getting pregnant at a young age when they don’t actually even understand their bodies is quite unfortunate.

We should support all the children through school since education would be the basis of good life for them after being robbed of their innocence. Already, many pregnant girls drop out of school as they try to find menial jobs to support themselves and their babies. These jobs include hawking in the scorching Dar es Salaam sun with babies strapped on their backs. This is because, without a secondary school certificate, a diploma or degree, good jobs are hard to come by. They end up in poverty, which becomes a difficult cycle to break away from as a nation.

And there are cases where other teen boys make their female counterparts pregnant, what happens in this case? This is a very sensitive issue that should be looked at carefully. Imagine a nine-year old being shunned from school just because she got pregnant? Yes, eight year olds can get pregnant these days. Whenever they go back to school, they are stigmatised, forcing them further psychological torture.

The torture is enough trauma for them, so we should let them back to study. Case studies have it that they return to school with new determination knowing that they have a dependent thus they work extra hard.

And we should not forget that education is a human right and not a privilege. More so, if you educate a girl, you educate the whole nation and reduce poverty. For those of us who believe in God, “we should hate sin but not the sinner.” We don’t support premarital sex as a newspaper, but depriving someone education is so wrong in many ways as it come with long term consequences.

Many of these girls’ congnitive functions are not fully developed to stay at home and be mothers. Knowledge is power and taking that away is devastating. According to Unicef, education saves and improves the lives of girls and women. It allows women greater control of their lives and provides them with skills to contribute to their societies. It is this education that produces all the other developmental and social benefits.

Janet

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