Alarming school drop out of girls in Amuru district

Tuesday, 18 April, 2023

Amuru district is located in Northern Uganda and it is 2851.65squar kilometer long, with 13 sub counties and 203 villages. Its estimated population 186,696 (2014 national and housing census report)

A newly construct five stance modern latrine with a wash room to facilitate girls bathing and changing of their sanitary towels.

The district has 51 government aided primary schools only . Important to note is that in the lower section of primary education there are more girls than boys especially between the ages of 5 to 13 years however as they progress the ratio of drop out between girls and boys puts girls at a higher ratio.

Various surveys, reports and research studies by Government and other partners demonstrate a clear trend which suggests that high numbers of girls registered in lower Primary drop out before their primary leaving examinations is over 60%, in the same breath, 90% of schools within the district do not have any changing rooms that girls can access and use to freshen up during menstruation, forcing majority of them to drop out of school and many of those end up being married off by men fueling and contributing to the rising cases of child marriage and defilement in the district.

This critical gap of no proper sanitation facilities as recommended by government is among one of the contributing factors that is forcing girls out of school. other contributing factor are, the unbearable pain during the cycle that is made worse for t girls that do not have any sexual reproductive health information that could help them cope and manage the periodal pain, lack of proper sanitary pads thus making staying in school harder with uncomfortable padding products which some times contribute to ill health, lack of constant access to clean water to ensure they can freshen up during the cycle and misconception within the community that once a girl starts menstruation they are ready for marriage and child bearing.

Based on all the above issues, Amref Health Africa with support from Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Sports and the local government leadership in Amuru district;agreed to support 10 primary schools that have been highly affected by the above issues. On 31^st March Amref health Africa handed over 10, 05stance drainable pit latrines with Menstrual Hygiene Management spaces for girls to 10 Primary schools in Amuru district worth over 380 million Uganda shilling.

This support was made possible with funding from Amref Flying Doctors in the Netherlands. Through this integrated intervention we expect that it will contribute towards having the girl child stay longer in school , comfortably , thus the ripple effect will be seeing a reduction of teenage pregnancies in schools , child marriage and school dropout this is due to the fact that the project is integrating Sexual Reproductive Health rights and increased access to safe Sanitation , Water and Hygiene practices.

The 10 schools which have benefited in this first phase of the project are Mutema, Keyo, Lacor, Kaladima, Paminalwak, Abeera, Abbot, Labala, Oolaamilobo and Jimo primary schools. Each of the schools have between 700 – 1,300 pupils; implying that over 10,000 pupils were reached with these services and SRHR information.

Voices from the communities

Angoo Charity Peace, a p 6 pupil at Lacor primary school said that she used to miss out on her studies every other month when she is in her menstruation period, her periods takes about 4 days to clear. Consequently she would miss classes for those 04 days because her school lacked changing rooms. . She believes that one of the contributing factors of her poor performance that led to her repeating a class was due to missing class every other month thus she could not catch up with what she would have missed while she was away.

Angoo added that with the establishment of the new modern latrine facility that has a changing room and clean running clean, in her school, she expects to improve on her academic performance since she would not miss lessons anymore.

Ogena Alex the head teacher Keyo primary – which has an enrollment of 1,300 pupils this year of which 400 are girls, said that the changing rooms in the newly constructed pit latrine is going to help those girls who used to miss classes during menstruation period due to no proper changing and washing rooms within schoolAdding that the girls’ enrolment is going to increase. The school has also budgeted for sanitary pads and changing uniforms for the girls cycle might begin while at school.

Joyce Lanyero, the Amuru District Education Officer, said that with the construction of proper girls changing room, the district is optimistic that there will be an improvement in the girls’ enrolment and performance academically as the days they might spend at home during the period can be utilized for lessons and concentration.

Amref Health Africa message to the district , school children and the community .

Margaret Mugisa the Project Manager of Amref health Africa in Gulu and Amuru districts said that the construction latrine facilities with menstrual Hygiene Management Spaces for girls is among some of the interventions aimed at improving hygiene and reduce the high rates of teenage pregnancy among girls who normally drop out of schools during menstruation period. . She called upon the pupils , the school administration , the local government and the communities to uphold hygiene behaviors, safe guard the facilities (latrines) by ensuring proper usage, hygiene and maintenance in if they are to reduce girl child drop outs and improve on the health status of pupils in the district.

By Denis Otti , Nicholas Obonyo and Valentine Ojoro