Violent response: protecting African schoolgirls from sexual abuse

Why is sexual violence so prevalent in Africa’s schools? Why is predatory aggressive masculinity condoned? What are the links between abuse in schools, lack of information and poverty? How should schools tackle abuse and intimidation of female students?

A report from a collaborative research project between the University of Sussex School of Education and African educationalists, documents the abuse of girls in a number of junior secondary schools in Ghana, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The research builds on an earlier study carried out into the abuse of girls in junior secondary schools in Zimbabwe and demonstrates how schooling is condoning male aggression, feminine submission and transactional sex. The report warns that traditional teaching methods cannot change patterns of exploitative sexual behaviour.

Researchers found that schools are breeding grounds for potentially damaging gendered practices which remain with pupils into adult life. By not clamping down on sexual abuse and aggressive behaviour, schools send messages to pupils that violence is a ‘normal’ feature of life. Powerful peer pressures encourage pubescent girls to make themselves attractive to boys and boys to get girlfriends, using coercion if necessary. Transactional sex – as a means for girls to pay school fees, meet living expenses or obtain gifts – seems common. Girls often see their bodies as an economic asset. Some may enter sexual relationships with older men out of choice but poverty pushes other girls, who have no other means of supporting themselves, into dependent and potentially exploitative liaisons. Girls come to see their bodies as an economic asset. In such relationships, they have limited choices over the use of condoms.

The researchers found that:

• Sexual abuse by older pupils, teachers and ‘sugar daddies’ is only one aspect of a wider problem of school-based violence, which includes excessive corporal punishment and bullying.
• There are high levels of apathy among officials, lack of information among pupils and parents and a reluctance to believe girls who make allegations.
• Most teachers do not see boys’ intimidating behaviour as a serious problem but as part of growing up.
• Teachers are generally unwilling to report other teachers’ sexual misconduct.
• Not all parents, teachers and girls disapprove of teachers or older men having sexual liaisons with schoolgirls, whether for economic or cultural reasons.

Only an imaginative holistic approach – bringing together teachers, parents, pupils, state officials and civil society – can make schools safe environments for Africa’s schoolgirls. Young people must be encouraged to analyse the power in gender relations in both private and public arenas and to reflect on their behaviour. Drama, media, art, poetry and storytelling can enable pupils to discuss gender roles and gender identity and develop more constructive, respectful and consensual relationships.

Drawing on experience from trialling strategic interventions in the three countries, the authors also call for:

• schools to become less authoritarian, more pupil-friendly and more supportive of girls so as to promote effective learning and personal development
• teachers to be trained to identify and punish abuse and to publicise the penalties that it incurs
• the teacher training curriculum to include ethical conduct, sexual harassment, HIV/AIDS and guidance on how schools can challenge negative stereotypes about female and male behaviour
• civil servants to ensure effective dissemination and enforcement of regulations about teacher misconduct and sexual abuse and to speedily prosecute those accused of sexual relations with pupils
• ministries to provide clear guidelines to district officials, schools, parent and teacher associations and the general public on the regulations prohibiting and punishing all aspects of professional misconduct
• research to be carried out into the prevalence of homophobic violence, sexual harassment of teachers and the abuse of boys in schools.

Source(s):
‘An investigative study of the abuse of girls in African Schools’ by F Leach et al, Department for International Development: Educational Papers, No. 54, DFID, August 2003 Full document.

Funded by: Department for International Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 8 December 2003

Further Information:
Fiona Leach
Sussex School of Education
University of Sussex
Brighton
BN1 9RG
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1273 678256
Fax: +44 (0) 1273 678568
Contact the contributor: f.e.leach@sussex.ac.uk

Sussex School of Education, University of Sussex, UK

Other related links:
Take a look at the id21 Gender Violence in Schools collection of research highlights

Insights Gender Violence Special Issue: 'Conspiracy of silence? Stamping out abuse in African schools'

The Medical Research Council has research papers on sexual violence