Gbarnga — Patricia Kollie should be at school today but instead she is at home in Gbarnga, Liberia, pounding a pile of cassava leaves in a wooden mortar. Her entire body is slightly swollen. Her dress fits a little too snug at the stomach.
Kollie's house is a few minutes walk from the St. Mark Lutheran High School in the city of Gbarnga, Bong County, 164 kilometres away from this West African nation's capital, Monrovia. Kollie is 21 years old but attends grade 11. This is because she missed out on school during the country's 14-year civil war, which only ended in 2003, but during which time the education system had collapsed.
The end of the war should have provided her with an opportunity to start her studies again. But last month she was expelled for being pregnant.
"We were five who were pregnant. They called us in the office. They said 'You are pregnant. Since you feel you're big, go home. I can't keep you in my school,'" Kollie explained.
Kollie said she begged Peter Jutee, the principal, to let her stay at the private school but he refused claiming getting pregnant and then remaining enrolled is a violation of the school's handbook. Private schools draw up their handbook and the education arm of the Lutheran church in Liberia developed the one at St. Mark Lutheran High School.
"We took the decision in line with our own handbook," said Jutee. "Article 10.2d states that we can't keep pregnant women in school. When they give birth, we readmit them."
Kollie and the other four girls appealed to the administration to complete the school year, but the appeal was rejected.
The Liberia Education law is silent on what should happen to girls who get pregnant while enrolled.
Pregnancy and subsequently dropping out of school is just one of many problems limiting access to education for girls in Liberia.
Girls in the rural areas have even more obstacles in their paths. Traditional practices along with a lack of schools and financial support are some of the challenges they must overcome.
In April, more than a hundred schoolgirls in Mah District of Nimba County in northern Liberia were forcibly taken from school for traditional initiation. At the traditional school, the girls are circumcised and "prepared for marriage life".
The situation in Mah District resulted in the complete closure of the entire school and the county education officer withdrew the teachers for reassignment elsewhere.
The challenges in educating the girl child are indisputable, but equally, their ability to contribute to Liberia's growth is unquestionable.
At the launch of the Girl's Education National Policy in April 2006, Liberia's and Africa's first democratically elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, spoke about how "the education of girls will become a cornerstone of development in Liberia." Sirleaf said that Liberia is working "to see a new country with a shared vision for girls' education...to free humankind from poverty, discrimination and disease."
A Free and Compulsory Primary Education Policy was instituted by Sirleaf's government as a means of achieving progress towards the Millennium Development Goal two, which calls for universal primary education for all children by 2015.
The policy is achieving its primary objective, which is increased enrolment. For the past three years school enrolment, especially at the primary level, has increased by 50 percent.
However, a challenging and troubling indication is the question of quality delivery; this includes adequate physical space for learning to accommodate the growing number of enrolled students and adequately trained instructors who are available to teach on a regular basis.
Sirleaf's clear vision about education is still a long way from being achieved. Poverty, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy and rape are taking their toll on the lives of Liberian young women.
British Charity Save the Children reports that one in three Liberian girls will give birth before their 20th birthday - one of the highest rates of teen motherhood in the world.
A February 2012 report by the group Defence for Children International indicates that rape is the most frequently reported crime in Liberia, with girls aged 10 to 14 as the most frequent victims.
Kollie's situation exemplifies the challenges faced by girls seeking an education. She said she got pregnant because she needed the man's financial support.
"The man who impregnated me was only helping me," she said. Now in an ironic turn of events, because she is carrying his baby, Kollie can no longer benefit from the school fees the father of her child gave her. Private school tuition fees cost about 7,000 Liberian dollars or 92 dollars; the monthly salary of a Liberian Civil servant.
Rape and sex for grades are not uncommon here. A study by Save the Children found that as many as four out of five schoolgirls in war-scarred Liberia resorted to having sex for cash so they could pay for their education.
Another 2011 survey by Action Aid Liberia entitled "Women and the City" found that transactional sex or "sex for grades" is a major problem across three top universities in Monrovia, with many female students having encountered some form of harassment from male tutors.
As Kollie continued to pound the cassava leaves under the breezy shades of mango trees in her yard, she says she would never compromise herself sexually just to guarantee she remained in school.
"Me, I don't have any one to go and beg for me or tell the authorities here's something for you," she said. She recalled how nine female students became pregnant last year but some of them were not expelled.
"I don't know what they pass through to remain in school last year," she said, looking distressed.
When asked about this, Jutee insisted that the students were only pardoned because they were graduating seniors.
Founder of the Liberia Women Media Action Committee, Tovian Estella Nelson, said that Kollie's expulsion underlined the complexities of keeping Libera's girls in school. The committee established Liberia's first women's radio station, the Liberia Women Democracy Radio F.M. 91.1.
"Poverty in Liberia is a chronic, deep-rooted problem confronting most grassroots families, and exposes girls to sexual violence and other risks, even in schools," she said.
Nelson said that programmes intended to increase girl's enrollment failed to adequately address issues surrounding retention and empowerment.
"While there is a law on girl's education, there is no proper mechanism for effective implementation and monitoring. Also, the national budget does not respond directly to the learning needs of Liberian students from a gender-based approach, leaving girl's education policy issues on the margin.
"Sadly many girls, like Patricia, will continue to engage in premature and unsafe sex just to survive and remain in school, until policy makers recognise and take appropriate actions to address the interaction between poverty and girl's education."
Meanwhile Kollie and the four other expelled grade 12 students had already paid their fees for the entire year. When they are readmitted after they have their babies, they will have to begin the year again and also, more critically, find money to pay the school fees once more.
"I had already paid my school fees and the junior and senior prom fees," she said.
Kollie expressed disappointment that school officials took a long time to expel them. According to her, the administration was aware she and other girls were already pregnant, yet allowed them to clear all their financial obligations and then expelled them, just weeks before the end of the academic year on Jun. 30.
Jutee claimed he was simply following the rules of the school's handbook, and insisted the girls were not being punished for getting pregnant.
But regardless next year the girls will have to source new funding to cover the same fees they already paid this year.
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Following actions can be useful: 1) If the culprit is a worker then 50% from his salary to the girl until she enrolls back to school; after that, mandatory monthly allowance for maintenance of the child; 2) If the author is a student then he should be barred from school on equity basis (equal number of months the girl will stay out of school); 3) Government should enact a law forbidden the marketing of girls for marriage by their parents; 4) For girls who sex for man’s financial support the best way is to seek advice from health centre for family planning to protect against pregnancy; 5) jail those who rape equal number of years the raped victim has; and 6) College tutors trafficking sex for grades in schools should be jailed for five years.
I strongly believe that the lack of leadership and legislative ingenuity, among other things, are the underlining factors in this situation. It is about time that the government of Liberia under its education reform agenda develops an alternative education program for girls who become pregnant while in school as well as students who are above 19 years of age. As a man who attended school in Liberia myself, I think the combining of adult male students (19 years and above) with innocent young girls in the same school system is dangerous and it is one of the main reasons why school girls get easily corrupted. Let’s have men and women go alternative schools and let kids be kids in their own learning environment.
I also think that regular school going age for both boys and girls in Liberia should be set from 4 to 18 years of age. Student above 19 years of age and still in high school, including pregnant school girls should be enrolled and or continue their education pursuit in a well structured National Alternative Education Diploma Program (NAEDP).The problem of pregnant school girls can only be fixed through a resounding national education initiative and not by shifting all the blame on students and school authorities. Moreover, any such strong education initiative needs to include stringent punishment for teachers, school administrators and government officials who are engaged in the practice of corrupting our precious jewels.
We need to protect our girls and find all means possible to have them continue their education by creating an alternative education program that will eventually eliminate the social stigma they faced. We are all quite aware that once a female student gets pregnant for the first time, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for her to return to school. While I do not personally endorse teen-age pregnancy, I personally feel that our society has not done enough to tackle the root causes of girls getting pregnant while in school. Therefore, our government needs to deal with this existing reality head-on and recognize that our female students, who become pregnant while in school, are simply victims, in most cases, of corrupt male adults, poverty and ignorance. Our country is too old not to be ingenious enough to set a policy for pregnant school girls and adult students in these modern times. I call on our national legislators to do their job of law making to help our vulnerable citizens and stop the bickering on their personal benefits and pettiness.
Both these two authors had very poignant points and it would be silly for me to say more.What I would add is that the Lutherans are poor in thier relations with humanity and this is why I say when we embrace practices in the way Europeans do things they are inhumane and flops.We need to reembrace our own strong beliefs Wets Africa was a place where many of the children of Israel sought refuge also,I slam was fundamental to most of all West Africans.These belief systems are one with pride dignity and the differnce is that sex outside marriage is frowned upon.Our families no matter how poor must initiate strong moral values that will enable our young women to prize thier virginity.One more thing the circumsision of women is also used as a preventive measure for one becoming highly sexed or promiscuous.This is why I say Africans have been wize in thier cultures which was critised and debenked by Europeans .Africa had a hig state of morality before the advent of enslavement and colonialism, these two thinsgs was a curse to Africa. It is within our benifit to recoup our lost heritage and seek to recapture the pride and dignity we have.It is also important that young men grow to protect thier sisters from being used and they refrain from this idea that we are like animals and we always have to have sex.We are a strong race of people who have created the greatest of all things , the African mother and father have dreated all manner of ethnicities and races of man.Without the Africn humanity would have been lost, they would have become misled misruled following certain principles that would have undermined the growth of humanity.We must stand proud wwe must not be frighetned of mony and not compromise our values for pennies.We will find many visitors comming into Africa for the thrill of seeking sex both from young men and women ,we must abolish those trades and behaviours.Pride is very important to oru development, we are intelligent people and times have changed we are not dependent on whites for our mercy they are not our gods or bosses.The time is for us to be wize nd like one author said the government must take a lead in increasing aid to these young women and the youngsters in school must be taught responsible behavoiur. They should be taught that should they parent a child it is important they feed and care for theat child and both the parents are needed in order for that child to survive in these times.They should also learn it is not in thier interest to have childrenand if they are going to be irresponsible they should want to be able to protect themselves. Sexual promiscuity is not to be practiced and they should learn this it is an ignoble and waste of natures providers.Many principles that were inbedded in Africn cultures has been destroyed by Europeans.Thier christian practices have been so weak so hypocritical, we truly need to become the family oriented societies that was the backbone of Africn cultures over the planet.