A post-graduate law student in South Africa, Noluthando Honono has participated in the Bakhita Partnership of Education launched by the Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network-Africa, and the student-led Right to Education campaign in South Africa. Photo: Jenny Cafiso/CJI
South African girls’ education activist Noluthando Honono urged Canadians on April 18 to stand up for girls, especially those in the Global South, who are disproportionately denied their right to education.
“On a practical level, if you don’t educate more than half of the population, you cannot guarantee any kind of sustainability,” said Honono, speaking at an event organized by Canadian Jesuits International (CJI) in Toronto.
More importantly, “it’s just the right thing to do…it’s an injustice that’s gone on for far too long,” Honono said. Worldwide, an estimated 250 million children between the ages of six and 18 are out of school, and 53% of them are girls, according to UNESCO.
Honono, who contributes to education and ecology initiatives of the Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network- Africa, spoke in Toronto as part of a speaking tour to raise awareness of the plight of girls excluded from education and to highlight CJI’s support for projects that address barriers to girls’ education in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
She identified three major barriers to educating girls in Africa: socioeconomic issues, cultural norms, and “mindset.”
“Money does make the world go round, somehow. And because money makes the world go round, it also means that not having it has the potential to make your world stand still,” said Honono. A family of limited resources would often choose to educate boys because they are seen as breadwinners who will stay and provide for the rest of the household, she noted. A girl child, on the other hand, is seen as someone who is unlikely to contribute to the household because she is expected to marry, she added.
While there are countries where access to education is free, “the things that come with that don’t necessarily come free as well,” said Honono. “School supplies still have to be paid for; you still need to make sure that there’s transport for your child to get to the school; and you still need to be able to ensure that in that schooling system, they are able to access something for their success.”
On a cultural level, the first-born male child is often given preference and privileges to ensure his success as he is tasked with being the patriarch of a family, Honono said. Girls, on the other hand, are often married off young. “Younger brides tend to be more valuable in the sense that the younger the girl, the more likely they are to be able to bear children,” she said. While some African countries have passed laws banning child marriages, the practice continues, she said.
“The mindset issue is one of the biggest problems that exist,” said Honono, noting that “a big portion of the generation that makes decisions did not have access to education.” And even if they did, “it wasn’t [one] that was offered at a depth that was necessary for them to understand the value of education.” In South Africa, the Bantu education that existed during the apartheid era was one in which black South Africans “were educated to a degree where they could function in the economies of that time, but not that they could specialize in a way that would make them impactful.” It was an education that was “not worth anything… It was enough for you to be considered a nurse, which just meant that you would be cleaning up after the real nurses, and the real doctors were doing their actual jobs.”
This has meant that “a big portion of the populace does not necessarily care for the value of education, which is even worse when graduates end up unemployed,” she said.
The student protests in South Africa in 2015 proved that it was possible to get a government to address some issues surrounding the education budget, she said. Changing people’s mindset can be more difficult, she added. “You cannot change the mindset of people until they start to engage with things in a way that gives them significantly more light, with regards to what the impact of their actions are, what the impact of not acting is ultimately going to be.”
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated inequalities, including in education, Honono said. In South Africa, students from poor families didn’t have access to electronics and the Internet and couldn’t continue learning online. As a result, they are two years behind in their education, she noted. Many girls got pregnant, others became matriarchs of homes after they lost members of their families.
UN Women has recognized that the pandemic has reversed progress on gender equality in education and has resulted in increased adolescent pregnancy and put adolescent girls at risk of sexual violence and exploitation. More than 10.5 million children have lost a parent or primary caregiver due to Covid-19, which can lead to children dropping out of school, according to a research study.
“We need to find alternative ways of getting educated, even if it doesn’t mean that they don’t end up in school full-time,” said Honono, who is conducting research on the impact of COVID-19 on students, and developing a proposal for “return-to-school” program in South Africa. “The reality is that there will need to be some form of compromise.”
Maximus Muyembe Chongo, SJ, discusses how Jesuits in Zambia are helping to address barriers to girls’ education. Photo: Jenny Cafiso/CJI
At the same event, Maximus Muyembe Chongo, SJ, discussed how Jesuits in Zambia are addressing the issue of access to quality education, with a particular focus on girls’ education.
Chongo cited how the Jesuit Theological Research Centre (JCTR), a CJI partner, has involved children and their parents in advocacy efforts that include analyzing the country’s budget, particularly its allocations for education and health, and campaigning for change where it is needed. “The rights of the child must be” reflected in the budget, he said.
“JCTR believes that advocacy can only be effective if citizens have the capacity to speak for themselves,” said Chongo, a Jesuit scholastic pursuing a Master of Divinity degree in theology at Regis College/University of Toronto, Canada.
Chongo noted how a JCTR project in three districts has helped address classroom and teacher shortages, among other issues.
