GIRLS` EDUCATION IN AFAR, ETHIOPIA

GIRLS’
EDUCATION
IN AFAR,
ETHIOPIA
As part of the monitoring and evaluation framework of the Pastoralist Afar Girls’ Education
Support (PAGES) project, this study sought to use the SenseMaker® storytelling methodology to
answer research questions about the value, purpose, perceptions, and relevance of girls’ education
in Afar. The sample selected 100 households from within the larger baseline study sample for
PAGES, with one girl aged 10-19 and one female caregiver from each household participating as
respondents. This helped the study combine and compare perceptions of girls and adults about
education in four woredas in Afar region: Chifra, Hadilella, Mille, and Semurobi. Using the
SenseMaker® methodology, each respondent shared a true story of her choosing related to an
experience of girls’ education, and then she conducted the primary analysis of her story by
responding to a set of analytical questions developed in advance by the research team.
The Afar are a predominantly nomadic population, organized in clans, who live in
three countries: Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. Afar culture has ensured survival in
harsh environmental circumstances: intense heat and drought with minimal
rainfall—barely 4 to 7 inches a year. Girls are the ones to fetch water walking up to
20 km every day. Girls also herd animals with their brothers. Women are in charge of
household tasks and men are in charge of decision-making and travel frequently to the
city to acquire paid work. Afar’s school Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) for boys and girls
is 42%, far below the national average (86%). Some remote woredas, such as Mille,
have an NER as low as 18% for girls1
HOW MANY GIRLS ARE ACTUALLY IN SCHOOL?
75% OF GIRLS SAID THEY WERE “IN SCHOOL”
25% attended 5 days
18% attended 3 days
Female caregivers and girls were asked: Tell me about a girl who did or didn’t go to
school and how that made her situation or those around her better or worse.
12% attended 4 days
HOW DID THIS GIRLS' STORY
MAKE YOU FEEL?
Confident, Encouraged,
Determined, or Ambitious
5% attended 1 day
3% attended 2 days
3% Dropped out
27%
67%
3% Never been to school
(n=100)
WHO BENEFITS FROM A GIRL’S EDUCATION?
Angry or Frustrated
60%
33%
Sad or Shameful
60%
32%
Happy or Proud
30%
36%
Surprised
3%
1%
(n=185)
Helped her
KEY
GIRLS (n=100)
CAREGIVERS (n=100)
WHAT IS THE
PURPOSE OF
EDUCATION
IN AFAR?
Helps girls benefit
themselves, their families,
and the Afari community
and break out of poverty.
Helped her family
Helped her community
Respondents were asked to place a dot closer to the concept(s) that most related to
their story. From the distribution of dots we can see that some respondents thought
that a girl's education help her, her, family, and her community in equal measure
(cluster of dots at the center) while another group of respondents thought a girls'
education mainly help her and her family and less her community (cluster of dots
nearer to the left side of the triangle).
A DECISIVE GIRL’S STORY
My friend goes to school. She travels a long distance to get
to school. Her family understands the value of education. She
is a strong girl. Her strength is in that she has refused to herd
goats. She says she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in
darkness. She says she wants to be educated and support
herself and her family.
—Girl, Semurobi, Age 14
1
CAN
EDUCATION
BE HARMFUL?
Few people said that girls'
education is harmful because:
it places a financial burden
on the family, creates more
problems for the family, takes
away the girls' help in
household, and makes a
woman less marriageable
and more insisting.
Regional Education Bureau 2010.
Prepared for Girl Hub Ethiopia by Rita S. Fierro, Ph.D., graphics by Susan Mangan
WHICH IS
BETTER
FOR GIRLS?
EDUCATION
OR MARRIAGE?
These data show the complexity
of relationship between attitudes
and actual behaviours. While
families show positive attitudes
towards choosing education over
marriage, marriage (early
marriage and absuma marriage
combined) is still the biggest
barrier to education, and school
attendance rates are very low.
75% say
education is
more
important
than
marriage
10% say marriage
15% say they are is more important
equally important
(n= 198)
than education
CHILD MARRIAGE.
I’m currently married. I’ve stopped going to school, it was
my mother and father who married me off. The reason I quit
is because the school was too far away. But because a really
nice school has been built in our neighbourhood, I have
decided to start again next year. Even though my husband
doesn’t go to school, he will not stop me from doing so.
—Girl, Chifra, Age 14
WHAT CAN I LEARN IN
SCHOOL THAT IS HELPFUL
TO MY COMMUNITY AND ME?
(N= 200)
WHAT DETERMINES WHETHER A GIRLS GOES TO
SCHOOL? FAMILY BELIEFS? ACCESS? BOTH?
respondents access to a quality
25% of
school nearby comes first
he family’s ideas about education
32% tcome
first
27% says they both equally do
63%
60%
38%
Afar
Language
Health
Anything
Currently
Learning
in School
36%
72
24%
Hygiene Veterinary
Studies
20%
English
(n= 181)
WHO CAN HELP GIRLS
OVERCOME THESE
BARRIERS?
WHAT ARE THE MOST
FREQUENT BARRIERS TO
GIRLS EDUCATION?
KEY
Chores
Marriage
Absuma Marriage2
Low Household income
84%
77%
52%
OLDER BROTHER
FATHER
MOTHER
(N=200)3
82%
Chores
46%
67%
74%
Marriage
35%
52%
47%
26%
48%
49%
19%
30%
26%
4%
8%
7%
57%
61%
Absuma Marriage2
36%
33%
6%
25%
Low Household income
KEY
GIRLS (n=100)
CAREGIVERS (n=100)
Mobility
Absuma: Relationship with family of cousins. From Absuma relationships, Absuma
marriages follow most frequently where a girl’s first cousin has first choice to marry
her once she is ready (after her first menstruation). If he declines to marry her, she
may marry someone else.
2
Parental Attitude
Percentages add up to more than 100 because three responses were
allowed per respondent.
3
Prepared for Girl Hub Ethiopia by Rita S. Fierro, Ph.D., graphics by Susan Mangan.