Educated girls know their rights

I am a grade 5 student at the International School of Tanganyika. A few weeks ago I started a important project called the Final X, this project is a significant part of grade 5 since it helps us transition from elementary schooling to secondary schooling. I have decided to enquire into children’s right to education , with my 2 other group mates, I specifically was learning about girls right to education. I have found interesting facts and figures and would like to share it with the Dar community so they are inspired to try and help those who need support.

In many poverty-stricken countries girls are forced to get married and take care of the household instead of going to school. According to “Girls Not Brides.Org”, “Tanzania has the one of the highest child marriage prevalence rate compared to the world.” This means child marriage is very common in Tanzania. This upsets me and I hope Tanzania will hold rankings for stuff like “Most Beautiful Country, Most Clean Country” instead of highest highest child marriage prevalence rate compared to the world. There are many reasons for child marriage but the most common are girls being seen as financial burdens, cultural and traditional and gender-based inequality. In Tanzania girls are traded for cows, a documentary called “Bride-Trade” stated a non-educated girl will be traded for up to 10 cows but an educated girl worth only 5-7 cows. This because an educated girl knows her rights and will demand to go back to school and stop the marriage.

Many girls and boys live in unimaginable poverty, and have no time and/or no money to go to school. Instead they have many other responsibilities such as collecting water, tending to animals and caring for younger siblings. Other times, children must work and earn only a few coins a day, barely enough to support their families. According to “GirlsNotBrides.org” poverty and education are connected. If a girl is educated she will gain the basic skills and opportunities to lift her family out of poverty. Other families will see this and take the same approach, this cycle will slowly lift thousands of people out of poverty. By educating this generation and generations to come we can end the cycle of poverty once and for all. In Tanzania poverty seems common (from observing villages and rural areas), so by having more girls in school we can lift more families out of poverty.

People don’t understand how important educating girls is to the community. There are endless advantages to educating a girl as well as educating boys. A big advantage is educated girls can contribute to communities by becoming lawyers, doctors, teachers and much more and earn more money to support their families. Another advantage is educated woman has a chance to lift her and her family out of poverty. The final advantage is educating more women can end child marriage completely because girls know they have the right to a education and should not be forced to get married. If every girl in the world had a basic schooling, our whole world would benefit from it.

In conclusion, there are many advantages to educating a girl child. In the future girls can contribute to society because they have the schooling and resources to become teachers, lawyers, doctors and more. Educated women can lift their families out of poverty by encouraging her village or town to overcome the poverty. Finally, educating girls on their basic human rights, to education and the right to refuse marriage, can end child marriage. These are just three of the many advantages of educating a girl.

Khushi Devani

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5 Comments on "Educated girls know their rights"

  1. Grade 5 student – what an amazing insight, care and empathy for our future! Well done!

  2. Karishma Bhagani | May 5, 2017 at 05:07 |

    This is an excellent piece of writing and your opinions are so insightful! I think it is imperative that our generation continues to adopt this mentality and persevere to change the world around us. Excellent work! Hongera Khushi :)

  3. Excellent Khushi- very well written .. so proud of you xxx Minnie xxx

  4. That’s very true Khushi.WELL DONE

  5. Well informed and intelligent. You are our future leader

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