Survey to study violence against girls

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and NGO ActionAid Malawi are embarking on a US $36,000 survey to establish the extent of violence against girls. "The University of Malawi's Centre for Social Research will conduct the survey," the national coordinator of the Commonwealth Education Fund (CEF), Julita Nsanjama, told IRIN on Tuesday. "The objectives of the survey are to determine the prevalence of violence against girls in schools, and to establish the form under which violence takes place, and who are the main perpetrators. We will further analyse where do these victims report, if they do, and if they do not, then we will have to find out why," she said. CEF advocates for equal access to education and receives financial support from ActionAid. Nsanjama said the survey was expected to start by the end of next week. "The number of girls dropping out of school is higher compared to boys. The reasons for this are many, and some of them include early pregnancy and violence against girls, both at school and at home," she explained. A further aim of the survey, she said, was to help government achieve the UN's six Education for All (EFA) Goals, one of which was "the elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 ... with a focus on ensuring girls full access to and achievement in basic education of quality." The Malawian government has yet to draw up an EFA action plan. When the United Democratic Front government took over in 1994 it introduced free primary education, which led to an increase in school enrolment from about 1.2 million to over three million pupils. But over the years, the number of female school dropouts has increased. Only 30 percent of Malawian children complete primary school - the dropout rate for girls is 16 percent and 15 percent for boys. A study commissioned by the CEF last year, to examine the increase of male teacher/female student sexual relationships in schools and identify possible causes, found that a number of girls entered into sexual relationships with teachers for money, got pregnant and subsequently left school. It also established that many girls were leaving school because of violent behaviour by some teachers. Dan Msonda, the assistant programme officer of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), said the organisation was running a project "aimed at keeping girls in school by giving them awards and orienting teachers to reduce abuse and motivate parents to send their children to school" and empowering girls through vocational training.