Human Rights Watch conducted research between 20 to examine the impact of the government’s reversal of the 2003 order on adolescent girls and women who are pregnant or are parents. However, it has struggled to turn these efforts into a human rights reality for girls and women, many of whom continue to experience enormous systemic and social barriers to stay in school. With the removal of the order on night-shift schools and public commitments to tackle widespread school-related sexual violence and to increase enrollment and completion of secondary school, the government has shown political will to scale up and advance girls’ education. Civil society groups in Mozambique, with the support of prominent political and social leaders, led a campaign that successfully pressed the education ministry to revoke the order, remove discriminatory barriers against girls who are pregnant or are parents, and protect girls from widespread sexual violence in schools. In December 2018, the government revoked the 2003 order and instructed schools to enable pregnant and parenting students to study in day schools. This order effectively cemented and authorized discrimination against these students in the national education system, denying female students the right to study in day schools along with their peers. In 2003, the Mozambican government adopted a ministerial order that mandated school officials to move pregnant girls and adolescent mothers from daytime schools to night-shift schools-building on an existing infrastructure used for adult basic education. In 2020, only 4 percent of girls completed upper secondary. The very low completion rates at secondary level show the tremendous challenge in advancing girls’ progress and gender equality through education: in 2022, only 41 percent of girls completed lower secondary. A 2019 study of data collected over time of primary school dropouts in Mozambique found that 70 percent of pregnant girls, many of whom were still enrolled in primary school past puberty due to their late enrollment, dropped out of school. At least 1 in 10 girls has had a child before the age of 15, according to the United Nations. Its adolescent pregnancy rate is the highest in East and Southern Africa: 180 out of 1000 girls and young women ages 15 to 19 gave birth in 2023, in contrast with the regional average of 94 births per 1000 girls. The country has the fifth highest rate of child marriage in the world. Many girls face discrimination, gender-based violence, and poverty. Mozambique’s government faces enormous challenges in advancing adolescent girls’ and women’s right to education. “The child’s father will take his responsibilities again and the baby will go stay with my mom,” she said. “The school is far, and I spend a lot of money on transportation.” Like other adolescent girls and women who spoke with Human Rights Watch, Constância, now 19, hoped that her circumstances would improve. “I want to go back to the same school where I was already studying because I’m used to it,” she said. Her parents committed to getting the money to pay for her enrollment in the 2022 academic year. In 2021, then 18, she could not re-enroll in school because she no longer had money to pay for fees and other costs. He became angry and threatened to stop giving her money for the household expenses and her personal expenses, including the money she used to pay for her education.Ĭonstância decided to leave her boyfriend’s home and returned to her family’s home with her daughter. ![]() When her menstrual period became irregular, he accused her of having an abortion. Her boyfriend was against this, so she hid this from him. Once she gave birth to their daughter, she started taking contraceptives to avoid getting pregnant. When she found out she was pregnant, she moved in with her boyfriend, a 25-year-old man. ![]() As a result, she failed some exams and dropped out without completing the grade. She started missing classes because she had to breastfeed her daughter and had no one to support her with childcare. She never failed a grade and reached the 12th grade at age 17-a milestone that most adolescent girls are not able to reach in Mozambique because of the many systemic and social barriers they face to attend school.īut in grade 12, Constância had a child. ![]() Constância had an unblemished academic record.
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