Schoolgirls worldwide suffer abuse, says Amnesty

Thousands of girls around the world are not attending school through fear of physical attack or sexual abuse by teachers and fellow pupils, an Amnesty International report claimed on Mar. 6. The report, Safe Schools -- Every Girl's Right, found that girls frequently faced harassment, violence and intimidation by strangers on their way to school and in class by teachers and fellow students. While boys were also subjected to some violent attack, girls were more often targeted. "Every day, girls face being assaulted on their way to school, pushed and hit in school grounds, teased and insulted by their classmates, and humiliated by having rumors about them circulated through whisper campaigns, mobile phones or the internet," said the report. It added: "Some are threatened with sexual assault by other students, offered higher marks by teachers in exchange for sexual favors, even raped in the staffroom. Some are caned or beaten in school in the name of discipline." Amnesty is calling on governments and schools to do more to tackle the problem. Information about girls' access to education was collated from reports by the United Nations, charities and non-governmental organizations across the globe. Amnesty found that in Malawi 50% of schoolgirls said they had been touched in a sexual manner without permission, by either their teachers or male pupils. Some 14,000 schoolgirls in Tanzania were expelled from school between 2003 and 2006 for getting pregnant, while 50% of Zimbabwean junior secondary school girls reported "unsolicited contact" on the way to school by strangers. In the US, 83% of girls in public schools aged between 12 and 16 said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment. In Latin America, sexual harassment in schools was found to be widespread. Girls living in war torn countries were particularly vulnerable to kidnapping and sexual violence, the report found. A UNESCO study published last year found that 40% of the 77 million school-age children not attending school lived in areas affected by conflict. In Afghanistan alone, more than 170 violent attacks on schools took place in the first six months of 2006. And a number of girls' schools in the country have been burned down. The Amnesty report backs previous studies that found girls still experienced barriers to education, despite education being a human right. Although the number of children attending school was found to be increasing, the figures disguised the gender imbalance. Girls are still seen as second-class citizens in many parts of the world, and with some countries still charging school fees it is often girls who miss out on an education if they have male siblings and money is tight. Amnesty found that fear of violence was another factor that discouraged parents from sending their daughters to school. "The importance of stopping violence against girls has not been factored into the millennium development goals relating to education," said Amnesty. "The goals include calls for universal primary education and gender equality, but they measure progress by the number of girls in class, without seeking to address violence and discrimination that affect both the quality of girls' educational experience and their access to education." The millennium development goals to alleviate poverty by 2015 were agreed by more than 190 countries in 2000. Heather Harvey, Amnesty's stop violence against women campaigner, said: "Every girl has a right to education in a safe environment. We demand that countries take immediate action to fulfil their international commitments and make schools safe for girls." Amnesty says governments and schools needed to make the safety of girls a priority. Those who attack and harass girls needed to be punished and better counselling and medical support needed to be available for victims. Effective systems that allow girls to report attacks in confidence should be introduced in schools and teachers needed to be better trained in dealing with violent incidences.