Next week, Michele Obama and her daughters, Malia and Sasha, will travel to Liberia to promote an issue close to the First Lady’s heart – providing educational access and opportunities to young women and girls in countries where such access is severely limited.
No doubt at the forefront of Mrs. Obama’s mind are a host of staggering statistics. 63% of Liberian girls between the ages of 15 and 24 are illiterate – to put it another way, there is a greater chance of a Liberian girl being married before the age of 18 than there is of her being able to read. An astounding 63% of primary-aged girls are out of school, and even when girls graduate, they do so only half as literate as their male counterparts. Disturbingly, there is a perverse prevalence of girls being coerced into having sex with their teachers to pass a class or graduate to the next grade.
These statistics tell a bleak, alarming story that – unfortunately – is not unique to Liberia. During my nine years with Bridge International Academies providing education to thousands of children from emerging communities across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and India, the story is one with which I’ve become depressingly familiar.
The characters in these stories are not mere statistics. They are real people with names. They are young women and girls filled with remarkable promise, potential, ambition, and hope. I am heartened to say, they are girls that I’ve met time and time again through my work with Bridge. Girls like Naomi Mutuku, for example, who dreams of becoming a journalist so she can help connect the people of the world by sharing their stories; girls like Velma Nelima, who dreams of becoming a doctor so that she might cure cancer.
Like Mrs. Obama, I am the mother of two daughters, and I’ve made it a point to share with my own girls the stories of girls I have dedicated my work to, such as Naomi and Velma. The message that I hope my daughters, and others, glean is this: if presented with opportunity and guidance, young women everywhere possess the power to determine their own futures, to write their own stories of success. It is up to those of us who lucked into lives of relative privilege to do the work that ensures these girls have a fair shot to achieve their dreams.
The First Lady’s trip to Liberia occurs at a critical juncture in the history of the country’s public school system. Acknowledging and facing the failing state of Liberia’s public schools – particularly with respect to female students – President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has created the Partnership Schools of Liberia initiative. Beginning September 2016, a limited number of public primary schools in Liberia will become Partnership Schools, public schools managed in partnership with several leading education providers in order to improve public primary education for thousands of Liberian children. I am delighted and excited that Bridge will be leading this charge, sharing our teacher preparation and support methods, school management programs, technology and materials in 50 public primary schools. Though the initiative will benefit children regardless of gender, the positive impact for Liberian’s female students will be profound.
What the Government of Liberia and the First Lady have recognized is that girls’ education is about more than just counting numbers of classrooms and children in seats. It is a social justice movement. We need to embolden communities to insist that girls have the same access to education as boys. We need to empower mothers to advocate on behalf of their daughters’ educations. We need to train teachers to call on girls in class and encourage girls to actively participate. We need to set up leadership programs for girls, like the Peace Corps’ Camp GLOW, that show girls they are capable beyond measure. Most importantly, we need to create classrooms where all children are learning.
If we can do this, the possibilities are endless. Educating girls changes the social and economic outlook of families, communities and countries. According to A World at School, when a girl stays in school, national birth rates lower, maternal and infant mortality decreases, and rates of child marriage are lowered. Some countries lose more than $1 billion a year by failing to educate girls to the same level as boys.
Today, the statistics tell one story. But tomorrow, the story could be different. There are thousands of Naomis and Velmas out there writing their own stories. If we all work together, we can make it possible for more girls to do the same. It is the stories of people working together to overcome the statistics that will endure to be retold. It’s these stories from which we can all draw instruction and inspiration. Let’s join with Michelle Obama, and partner together to Let Girls Learn.
Dr May, the co-founder of Bridge International Academies, has been recognized by WEF as one of 15 women changing the world in 2015, a WEF Social Entrepreneur, Girl Effect Accelerator Entrepreneur, one of CNBC’s Next List of Rebels, Leaders, and Innovators, and served on the International Advisory Panel for the Brookings Institute Millions Learning Initiative. She lives in Nairobi, Kenya.