Grande Baie, Mauritius — In sub-Saharan Africa, 24 million girls did not attend school in 2002, according to the annual State of the World's Children report released last month by the United Nations' Children's Fund (Unicef). That represents an increase of 4 million since 1990.
"When a girl is without the knowledge and life skills that school can provide, there are immediate and long-term effects. She is exposed to many more risks than her educated counterparts and the consequences are bequeathed to the next generation," said UNICEF in its report.
Across the world, 122 million children are being kept out of school, and, Unicef says, there are nine million more girls than boys who are missing out on educational opportunities. Of course, millions of girls all over Africa are receiving an education, despite the growing gender gap between girls' and boys' school attendance on the continent.
One school-going teenager is Alline Kabbatende from Rwanda. She met AllAfrica's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton at a recent African education conference in Mauritius. Alline was selected to address delegates at the biennial meeting of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), held in the resort of Grande Baie in December.
Alline attends FAWE Girl's School in the Rwandan capital, named after the Forum for African Women Educationalists, with its secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya. FAWE was created in 1992 as a response to the World Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. The idea of FAWE was to promote girls' education, and the forum was set up by women ministers of education in Africa to tackle the issue of gender in education and achieve Education for All.
Recently, FAWE created what it calls "centres of excellence" at a number of educational institutions around Africa - including one at Alline's school in Kigali. She discussed the impact of the initiative on her school, as well as sharing her aspirations for her own, and her country's future.
My name is Kabbatende Alline, I'm from Kigali, Rwanda, from FAWE Girls'School. I'm 16 years' old.
So your school, FAWE Girls' School is one of the forum's Centres of Excellences set up by FAWE? In what way is your school a centre of excellence and what has it taught you?
It has taught me that as a girl, I have a right to speak out and to be heard. I have learnt that I am not inferior to boys. It is a centre of excellence in a way that there are many girls' schools around the continent, but ours teaches us who we really are, what we can do and what role me play in today's society.
And what role do you expect that students from FAWE girls' school in Rwanda are going to play in Rwanda, in Africa and in the world?
Well there is no particular role, but we are going to play the same role as boys. Before, they thought boys are the ones who are supposed to help in the development of the nation and generally be the engineers and the doctors of tomorrow. But now we know that we too play a role in the development of the nation. We too can be engineers, doctors, astronomists or whatever it is.
So Alline, how does that knowledge make you feel?
It makes me feel proud to be a girl, you know. I feel that I can make it. I feel that I am really somebody in today's society and I have a role to play to change my nation, to develop my country and, yah, to stand up for girls, you know.
And how does it feel to be invited here to Mauritius to talk about how you feel and about your school?
Well I was very honoured. It was really exciting. It was really nice and it was fun addressing the cause of girls in today's world.
What did you tell the delegates?
I was generally telling them how our school has become a centre of excellence by empowering the girls and that's helping them to improve their performance, because they are then able to know what they are and what they can do.
So, for example, in science subjects they no longer feel inferior to boys. They are able to study hard, work hard and achieve good results, yah. That was what I was talking about.
And what are your strong subjects other than, obviously, public speaking?!
Actually it's Math. Mathematics, yes, and Physics.
So it's sciences and figures all the way?
Yah, really, yes.
What are you planning to be when you grow up - well I guess you're growing up -- but when you're a full adult? I suppose you want to go university and so on.
Of course. And I want to be an astronomist.
You want to be an astronomist?!
Yes!
That sounds exciting!
It really is. I think it is anyway.
Why astronomy?
Well because I'm the type of person who wants to reach for the stars. So I want to go beyond what's here, the clouds and all. I really want to know what's beyond us, I'm interested, yah.
Now when you were coming here to Mauritius from Rwanda, what did your schoolmates say to you? What message did they want you to tell us, the grown ups, at this meeting here in Mauritius?
Well they wanted me to tell you, to tell everyone here and to tell the world that our school has done a lot. It has helped the girls to know who they are, just like I was saying, to know who they are and what they can do.
Many came when they were shy and timid. For example, me, I could not talk and I would just keep to myself and hide in the corners. They want the world to know that they have changed. They are different people today. They know what they represent in today's world, you know. That is what they wanted me to come and tell the world.
And what have you learnt here in Mauritius?
Well, first of all, I learnt something by speaking to the people here, I learnt something. I wasn't used to it. I also learnt that there are people who care about us, as girls. There are people who really want to do something about our education and our life generally in school and that's really nice.
Alline, what is life like now in Rwanda? It's almost ten years since the start of the genocide in April 1994. You must have been a tiny tot then, but you're living in Rwanda now. What is it like for a young girl like you living and growing up and going to school in Rwanda?
Well it depends on who you're talking about. For example, me. I wasn't there during the genocide. But there are girls who were there during the genocide. In my school they are being helped. They are now able to speak and they are given moral support by teachers and their friends.
But there are some girls in other parts of the country who were raped and whose families were killed and they are still not okay. There are still many trauma centres around the country because many people are still, you know, mad, they are still crazy because of what happened. So it depends on where you are really.
But you're in school in Kigali. You're privileged, you're going to school and I suppose you're going to school with girls who come from, probably, both sides of the divide. Is there tension? Or do you, the younger people, just get on with life and look to the future in Rwanda?
Exactly. We just look to the future. There is no tension, no, not at all. In fact those who were not there, those who did not suffer always help those who were actually victims. There are actually some with scars, you know, where they were cut and all. But the students don't laugh at them or say your face is deformed. No. They are always there to give them moral support and to encourage them and let them know that they are not different because of what happened.
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So are you hopeful for Rwanda?
Very...very, very, very. Yah, I am.
Do you think it can recover from the genocide?
Yes, actually it has already, what is remaining is very little. I think it can, in the next five years or so, yah, everything will be okay -
Even though there are still people imprisoned, the alleged genocidaires as they're called, even though there is still a Criminal Tribunal and the trials are continuing in Arusha and the community court system - gachacha - still going on in Rwanda? Is this a way for people to put the past behind them or is the genocide ever present?
Well I think it's ever present. But, sincerely speaking, there are all these things. But also the government is doing a lot to make people try to wipe things away and try to wipe the slate clean and put the past behind. These days, or even before, these families of the genocidaires who are in prison, they still had that anger that someone is still in prison - despite the fact that they actually killed people. But now they have come to see, you know, that justice is justice and things are okay.
We have a new court system called gachacha, where basically, people come together. The genocidaires who are from prison come and confess what they did. The people in the community come and say, maybe I saw you killing this one and this one. Then you come together, the genocidaires apologise and generally they are just bridging you know everything. And, yah, I think five years or so, honestly if you ask me...mmm.
You look a bit quizzical, a bit doubtful about that. Are you sure?
No, I'm not quizzical, I'm very sure. I'm just, you know, stressing the point.
