Young girls still find it just as difficult to continue their studies in sub-Saharan Africa: 55 million girls compared to 49 million boys are not in school, according to the UNESCO world report on school dropout among boys. However, in several countries where parity had been achieved, the situation has been reversed in recent years to the detriment of boys.
In Senegal, for example, “boys were much less likely than girls to drop out of school in 1999. This trend was reversed a decade later, in 2011, with more boys dropping out of school than girls: 113 boys per 100 girls. In 2019, only 88 boys were enrolled in primary education for every 100 girls”, explains to franceinfo Africa Matthias Eck, specialist in the education and gender equality program at UNESCO and co-author of the recent study by the UN organization.
The Gambia, Rwanda and Burundi are experiencing a situation similar to that of Senegal. In these countries, “the poorest boys are now less likely than the poorest girls to complete primary education. In Lesotho, which has one of the world’s largest gender gaps to the detriment of boys, only 67 boys poorest complete primary education for every 100 poorest girls”, continues the expert. “School dropout is a phenomenon that has grown. What was before a problem of rich countries, in this case those of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), has also become a problem in low- and middle-income countries”.
Poverty is still one of the main reasons behind this trend. It encourages parents to put their children to work to increase the family’s income. “In southern African countries where fewer boys than girls complete primary and secondary education, notably in Lesotho and Namibia, boys are taken out of school very early to herd cattle or migrate to South Africa to work in the mines”asserts Matthias Eck. Likewise, “Child labor is highest in sub-Saharan African countries. In Ethiopia, 51% of boys aged 5 to 17 work, as do Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Madagascar, where two-fifths or more of these boys are working.”
Social and cultural constraints also contribute to the aggravation of the phenomenon which is observed at all levels in sub-Saharan Africa: 32% in primary, 30% in lower secondary and 38% in upper secondary. “In Lesotho, explains the Unesco expertinitiation ceremonies underpin this transition to work and adulthood”. “Our children are coerced by their peers to go to initiation school, regrets a father from the Highlands of Lesotho whose testimony was collected as part of the UNESCO investigation. Those who are not circumcised are discriminated against by their friends. It is because most of the boys in our community have gone to initiation schools that this causes them to leave school earlier.” When it’s not peer pressure, initiates inflict it on themselves. “When they come back from the initiation schools, underlines another testimony, they see themselves as men and cannot go back to school with children (…). Boys, after reaching a certain age, must go to initiation, marry and have children, so that the child grows up being channeled in this way.”
Among the social norms that hinder the retention of boys in school, we find the role attributed to men, namely that of protecting and providing for the needs of their families. Little boys can also suffer from the prejudices of their teachers who find them more turbulent than girls and from the corporal punishment inflicted on them.
Repetition, which is increasing all over the world, also promotes dropout among boys. In South Africa, Algeria, eSwatini, Lesotho, Morocco and Namibia, girls repeat less than their peers of the opposite sex. School dropout associated with youth unemployment in African countries is a time bomb in States where conflicts or insecurity are on the increase. Boys are easy recruits for armed groups. “Countries with the highest proportions of young men aged 15-24 who were not in education, employment or training are mainly found in sub-Saharan Africa”, says Matthias Eck. With a rate of 57%, Niger, in the fight against jihadism and terrorism, beats all records.