Harassment and rape hampering girls’ education

In schools across South Africa, thousands of girls of every race and economic group are encountering sexual violence and harassment that impede their access to education, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released on Tuesday. School authorities rarely challenge the perpetrators, and many girls interrupt their education or leave school altogether because they feel vulnerable to sexual assault and exposure to HIV/AIDS, the report concludes.

‘Scared at School: Sexual Violence Against Girls in South African Schools’, confirms earlier reports that sexual violence is especially rampant in South African schools, and also outlines the negative effects this has on girls’ education - the most important basis for gender equality - in that country, the US-based rights group said.

Girls are learning that sexual violence and abuse are an inescapable part of going to school every day, so they don’t go, said Erika George, counsel to the Academic Freedom Program at Human Rights Watch and the author of the report. “South African officials say they’re committed to educational equality. If they mean it, they must address the problem of sexual violence in schools, without delay.”

Girls fall victims to fellow students, but more often to teachers and school employees. Teachers can misuse their authority to sexually abuse girls, sometimes reinforcing sexual demands with threats of corporal punishment or promises of better grades, or even money. Typical assaults are rape and sexual coercion by teachers and school employees, sexual abuse, advances, and harassment by teachers, abuses of authority taking advantage of vulnerability, “dating” relationships, rape and sexual violence by fellow students, sexual harassment and violence in transit to and from school.

To view the report visit:
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/03/sa-0327.htm