Addressing challenges faced by girl learners in South Africa

SANITATION and access to hygiene products, teen pregnancies and sexual assault are but a few of the barriers to education for girl learners, researchers at the Legal Resources Centre said as it focused on the challenges that girl learners face in South Africa.

- ZELDA VENTER

As part of Human Rights Month, the centre has shone the spotlight on the difficulties that girl learners face, both in the school environment and in accessing education.

The discussion shows that the obstacles girl learners face are multifaceted and that, although some progress has been made, the implementation of existing plans to alleviate this has been insufficient thus far.

Researchers Amy-Leigh Payne, Charlene Kreuser, and Muyega Mugerwa-Sekwabe found that there have been important developments in addressing the barriers to education for girl learners in South Africa.

The Girls’ Education Movement has, for example, worked at a grassroots level to promote equal access to education for girls, enhancing the quality of education in rural areas, building safer schools, reducing violence against girls, and providing gender-responsive school material.