Study finds many girls selling bodies to pay for school

As many as four out of five schoolgirls in war-scarred Liberia are resorting to having sex for cash so they can pay for their education, a study by British-based charity Save the Children has found. A whole generation of Liberians had their schooling interrupted by 14 years of civil war. Many youths say the main thing they are longing for after elections in October, the first since the conflict ended in August 2003, is the chance to get a proper education. But in the West African country, where unemployment is estimated at 85 percent, sending a child to school costs half the average annual income of around US $115. "In the capital, Monrovia, an estimated 60 to 80 percent of teenage girls want an education so much, they sell the only commodity they have -- their bodies -- to fund it," Save the Children said in its report published on Monday. The charity said its researchers uncovered the problem unexpectedly in the course of carrying out their part of a wider global education survey. But their findings came as no surprise to local education officials on the ground. "This is a consequence of war," Erasmus Saydee, a school teacher in Monrovia, told IRIN on Tuesday. "Because of the war, their parents are out of jobs and mostly the parents cannot afford to pay their tuition." "It's a very serious problem. Just walk the streets at night around the various hotels and night clubs, you will find girls as young as 15 hanging around those places," he said. "I often see some of my female students at night when I know they should be studying... when I ask them why are they out in the street at such a late hour, they reply 'We came to hustle for money'." David Brent, the headteacher of another school, also acknowledged the problem. "This is very strange in our school system," he said. "Since their lovers or boyfriends pay their fees, they are under an... obligation to stay with that boyfriend or lover at night which may divert their attention from reviewing their lessons." Save the Children reckons that school fees are the biggest global barrier to girls going to school, with an estimated 60 million girls around the world denied an education. But the problems in Liberia, revealed after conversations with more than 300 girls, have implications far beyond the classroom. All of the 22 candidates running for president have pledged to send as many Liberian youngsters back to school as possible, should they win the 11 October polls. But in a country where the government is almost entirely reliant on donors, for everything from paying civil servant wages to providing security, it will be difficult for authorities to take action unilaterally. Pippa Ranger, a spokeswoman for Save the Children in London, told IRIN that the Education Ministry in Liberia wanted to make education free for all but would need help. "The international community needs to be supportive of the government in Liberia so that the Education Ministry can implement its plans and policies to make education free for all children," Ranger said.