As we bid farewell to Women’s Month, it is important to remember the African proverb, “if you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a girl, you educate a nation.”
Investing in girls’ education can guarantee gratifying national payoffs. According to the World Bank, giving girls access to schooling is a central part of eradicating poverty. “Better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labour market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at a later age, and enable better health care and education for their children should they choose to become mothers. All these factors combined can lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty.”
On the other hand, lack of education puts women and girls at a higher risk of trafficking, exploitation, child marriages and other harmful practices.
One of the barriers to the education of girls is the biological process of menstruation. A girl’s first period can affect the amount of education she receives due to factors such as physical pain or discomfort and lack of menstrual products which can all contribute to preventing girls from attending school.
Missing days at school can then lead to girls dropping out and falling prey to child marriages and getting pregnant at a younger age. The current SA reality is that thousands of teenage girls miss school because they do not have sanitary pads when they menstruate.
According to Ronel Snyman, project manager at the Cradle of Hope shelter for abused women and children, “Girls are often forced to stay at home when menstruating to avoid the embarrassment of being in public without the necessary products because the piece of fabric, sock or newspaper did not provide enough protection.” Snyman further asked why condoms were freely available when sex was a choice, yet women do not choose whether to menstruate or not?
To ensure girls’ right to education is secured and unequal access to education is curtailed, there is a need for adequate and sufficient information around puberty, menstruation, and hygiene management to be provided at schools, as part of or separately from sexual and reproductive health education.
It is crucial to make menstrual education part of sexual and reproductive health rights. To ensure that girls can claim their right to education, there is a need to know the role the menstrual cycle plays in their ability to access education and if it is indeed a barrier.
Continuous absence from school during periods can lead to girls falling behind in their school work and their parents questioning the value of their education. This can lead to child marriages with the attendant lack of economic independence and trap girls in a vicious cycle of poverty which can only aid and abet gender-based violence.
By robbing girls of a chance to learn, grow and fully realise their potential, child marriage disempowers them. This it does by ensuring they remain dependent on others for their sustenance, thus stripping them of their agency and making them vulnerable to abuse.
Education can provide a window of opportunity to educate adolescents about changes occurring in their bodies, the reproductive system, fertility, contraception, consent and the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/Aids. It can also facilitate conversations on child marriages and how to prevent it.
It is incumbent upon the health and education sectors to combine efforts to ensure the subject of menstruation and how it affects girls and their access to schooling is given the prominence it deserves. Funds should be made available to ensure sanitary pads for those girls from deprived backgrounds. Such girls may need to register so they can receive their allocations on a monthly basis. These can be dispensed either at schools or at clinics. Having them at public places such as toilets as is the case with condoms may invite hoarding which might defeat the aim of the programme.
Finally, there is a need to tackle the taboo around menstruation and activism for the provision of sanitary pads that will help girls to stay in school. Quality education can only keep them out of toxic marriages while they are still children and ensure they become the best they can be by educating our nation.
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