*Yea so, I had big, and I am talking BIG plans for this post. But as with most things, I got overly ambitious and a seven part series just ain't gonna happen. So a condensed, somewhat stream of consciousness summary below...and if you were so stoked to uncover these mysteries that a this light treatment won't do, get in touch with in a couple months and you can read my sure to be thrilling thesis.
Remember that time when I told you IT was complicated? And by IT, I mean developing quality and equitable education systems in post-conflict contexts. Well I wasn’t kidding. Hence the seven part series I intended to embark on (before I got lazy/busy). There are about a bazillion challenges to implementing a comprehensive, dependable, and quality education system in countries. Many of these challenges are experienced by the majority of countries in differing degrees but each can be broken down further into challenges and potential solutions that are unique to specific contexts. Hopefully breaking up the myriad of interrelated challenges to improving education opportunities and outcomes for Liberian girls will help shed light on why it is nearly impossible to encapsulate the major reasons why girls education into punchy sound bites that fit inside of catchy You Tube videos and advocacy campaigns, matter how compelling the Girl Effect (www.girleffect.org) videos. But, in the interest of expediency - a bulleted list of the major barriers to getting girls to get in school, stay in school, and thrive in school:
· Poverty: This is fairly obvious and affects all the other barriers. Grinding poverty makes it hard to prioritize uniforms and school shoes over finding something to put in your kids belly. Poverty rates are in flux in Liberia but it is generally accept that between 50-80% of the population is struggling to fulfill their daily needs. For some this means a meal twice a day but for most this means only eating once a day. If your worried about where your next meal is coming from, worrying about how to buy a copybook so your child has something to write can seem frivolous.
· Legacies of war: This is complicated and varies by person and location. Almost 75% of the population was displaced during the years of fighting. For the lucky, this means they were displaced but got to go back to their original house or plot of land and resume their life. But many many more are permanently displaced, lost their land rights, or their communities were so destroyed both socially and physically that there is nothing to go back to. Girls are disproportionally affected by war related poverty because they are seen as needing to be in the home or in the field to earn and income, while only boys have the luxury of being important enough, or seen as smart enough, to make school worth the families time. And even others are just too scared to have their girls walk too school because of the high rates of gender based violence and the continued possibility of ritual killings in some parts of the country.
· Legacies of war: This is complicated and varies by person and location. Almost 75% of the population was displaced during the years of fighting. For the lucky, this means they were displaced but got to go back to their original house or plot of land and resume their life. But many many more are permanently displaced, lost their land rights, or their communities were so destroyed both socially and physically that there is nothing to go back to. Girls are disproportionally affected by war related poverty because they are seen as needing to be in the home or in the field to earn and income, while only boys have the luxury of being important enough, or seen as smart enough, to make school worth the families time. And even others are just too scared to have their girls walk too school because of the high rates of gender based violence and the continued possibility of ritual killings in some parts of the country.
· Low Capacity of the Education Sector: This is a polite way to say low levels of education and competency, but also very very related to mad amounts of rampant corruption that is treated with impunity at every level of the sector. I am talking Minister of Education down to the volunteer teachers. If there is a way to personally gain, it is being done and if you are not skimming you are seen as very very stupid. The impunity with which corruption is treated here has a lot of root causes but some are related to the historical manipulation and state encourage dependency - it is easier to control the masses if you are paying off the bosses and holding them down - and a cultural of survival that took over as a result of 14 years of war and an even longer time of fear and oppression. There is an elaborate system of kickbacks here that boggles the mind.
· Traditional Gender Norms: This is the classic reason that underlays all others. People will say "our girl is not in school because we are poor" or "education brings man business and she will get pregnant" but these reasons are colored by deep held beliefs about the place and value of men and women in society. Like many societies, girls are seen as intended for the home - farm work, house work, caring for children, caring for men, obeying and following the lead of others who "know better." Boys are seen as productive labor that is to be sent outside the home and sometimes even village to earn a living. Much like Europe and America in the early 20th century, girls are just not seen to be as intelligent or capable as men - so why bother educating them? Also, many families here are large with foster children folded in so even if a family does value education, there is only enough money to pay school related costs for one or two children. The family chooses the child most likely to use education to benefit the child. Girls get married off and "are for another family", ergo boys go to school.
· What’s health got to do with it?: Healthy kids are happy kids. Proper health and nutrition are prerequisites for learning and thriving in school yet many children are woefully under-nourished due to intestinal worms and chronic malaria. Learning algebra is hard for healthy kids, learning algebra when your brain has not fully developed because it has never received enough nutrition or has been ravaged by cerebral malaria is even harder. In addition, an utter lack of sexual and reproductive health education (because of taboos and also because there is no one willing or able to teach it) means that children do not understand even the basic functions of their bodies. This gets kids in trouble, and especially girls in trouble. This is compounded by a culture that overwhelmingly accepts the right of a man to fully abandon his children and take multiple mistresses while girls are left to support kids on their own, with little education and no skills.
· The Schooling to Skilled Work Gap: This is a major barrier for both girls and boys. Basic education is undoubtedly important and needed. But the current state of education is so dire in Liberia (due to underfunding, corruption, low capacity, lack of teachers, etc.) that education does not necessarily mean someone has the skills to be employed. It does not even necessarily mean someone can read - many 12th grade students graduate reading at a 5th grade level. Furthermore, even educated people lack skills that are needed in the present economy. People (the few that are lucky) are graduating college with history degrees when the country needs engineers or health professionals. Therefore there are masses of unemployed yet "educated" young people and even more uneducated and unemployed youth forced to struggle in the informal economy hawking t-shirts or baking bread. Our ever present friend corruption also influences this: the buying of grades and even degrees is so widespread that possession of a high school certificate starts to loose value. Merit, even when you can proove you are capable, means nothing when it is easier for someone to just hire their cousin (which is also seen as a family duty).
· The Schooling to Skilled Work Gap: This is a major barrier for both girls and boys. Basic education is undoubtedly important and needed. But the current state of education is so dire in Liberia (due to underfunding, corruption, low capacity, lack of teachers, etc.) that education does not necessarily mean someone has the skills to be employed. It does not even necessarily mean someone can read - many 12th grade students graduate reading at a 5th grade level. Furthermore, even educated people lack skills that are needed in the present economy. People (the few that are lucky) are graduating college with history degrees when the country needs engineers or health professionals. Therefore there are masses of unemployed yet "educated" young people and even more uneducated and unemployed youth forced to struggle in the informal economy hawking t-shirts or baking bread. Our ever present friend corruption also influences this: the buying of grades and even degrees is so widespread that possession of a high school certificate starts to loose value. Merit, even when you can proove you are capable, means nothing when it is easier for someone to just hire their cousin (which is also seen as a family duty).
· Need for Public Education for All: When it comes to education, the focus is often on children and youth, but there are huge education gaps in Liberia across population groups. Adults, youth, and children alike need to gain knowledge and skills in leadership development, civic education, human rights education, community advocacy and peaceful civil action. They need these skills to understand and claim their rights and demand accountability of their government. There are billboards all over Monrovia saying "corruption ends with you!" but how can people end corruption if they don't even know it is their right to challenge the decisions of their local government or advocate for their land rights? Similarly, how can a girl know where to turn for help protecting her right to education if she doesn't know that she has a right to say no to being married off at 14 years?
So there is my condensed version of the major barriers to education for girls. Most, if not all, of these barriers also prevent boys from getting a quality education. More focus needs to be of finding viable solutions for girls and boys to work together to demand their right to a quality and equitable education for all. To do that, I think its important that people start working for gender equality and empowerment for boys as well as girls. Focusing solely on girls only alienates potentially valuable male partners and reinforces that belief that gender is "wome's work" further ghettoizing gender and development work (as fancy PhD's like to call it). There are already too many barriers, we don't need to create more by reinforcing artifical silos.
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