The government should set aside funds to ensure that all children get access to quality education, as highlighted by Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5, a child education lobby group has said.
In a statement to commemorate the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the Every Child in School movement celebrated the government’s enactment of the Education Amendment Act which signaled a commitment to avail funds for the education of vulnerable children in the country.
“As we commemorate this year’s 16 days against gender based violence under the theme; ‘Orange the World: Fund Respond, Prevent, Collect!’, we now call upon the government to dedicate practical resources to ensure every child has access to education, by building adequate schools and ensuring schools are adequately resourced to promote quality education according to Agenda 2030 and the sustainable development goals 4 and 5.”
The Every Child in School campaign was launched in 2017 by Tag a Life International (TaLI), a girls and young women’s right organisation, to lobby the government to align existing education laws to the 2013 Constitution, which guarantees state funded basic education.
The campaign was initiated within a context where many girls, sometimes together with their brothers, were out of school due to inability to pay school fees, early and forced marriages, as well as rape and other forms of abuses and vulnerabilities.
ECIS successfully lobbied and the government committed to avail free state-funded education for all, including children living with disabilities.
The Education Amendment Act also guarantees that pregnant girls remain at school and the right to access to menstrual health management. The Act also outlaws corporal punishment.
The advent of COVID-19 exacerbated already existing challenges for children, as highlighted by founder and executive director of TaLI, Nyaradzo Mashayamombe.
“COVID-19 heightened the vulnerability of poor and disadvantaged school children. Vulnerable children, particularly those in rural communities, did not have access to distance learning facilities. There must be clear, strategic funding for access to education for all children. We want to see every child in school. We are hoping that there will be a per capita increase in the allocation of funds for children in the 2021 budget,” she said.
ECIS decried the inability of girls to return to school: “We are more concerned than ever, that more girls are being reportedly unable to return to school due to pregnancies during the COVID-19 lockdowns. We urge the government to move deliberately in ensuring mobilisation of children to go back to school.
“Ensuring every child has access to state funded education will eliminate GBV against children especially girls and young women. As we commemorate the 16 days of activism this year, let us remember that ‘An Educated Girl Is A Protected Girl’.
