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Tafadzwa Ndlovu Herald Reporter
Government is concerned with the increasing number female drop-outs at secondary and tertiary level, despite progress made in achieving Millennium Development Goals on gender parity at primary education.
At the launch of the Beijing+20 consultative process in Harare last week, Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Oppah Muchinguri, said it was critical to investigate this trend.

“There has been significant progress made in net primary school enrolments and towards eliminating gender disparity in primary education enrolment,” she said.

“We need to investigate why our young girls are continuously dropping out of school at secondary level, yet the enrolment is high at primary level. We are concerned that the heavy focus on numbers has resulted in less focus on completion of secondary level, educational quality and learning outcomes.”

The 2012 Zimbabwe MDGs Progress Report reflected gender parity on primary school enrolment, but this was not maintained at secondary and tertiary levels.

While there is closer gender equality in enrolment in lower secondary school, girls experience higher drop-out rates after that.

Seventy-eight percent of girls drop out at Form Four compared to 75 percent of boys.

Enrolment of females at secondary school and tertiary institutions is also significantly lower than that of males.

At the same occasion, United Nations representative Ms Revai Makanje, said some girls dropped out because they lacked basics like sanitary wear.

“Because she is laughed at after spoiling her uniform, she loses her self-esteem; these are some of the issues we can help our girls with and provide basic needs,” she said.

A recent study revealed that 62 percent of teenage girls in Zimbabwe do not have access to sanitary wear and use unhygienic alternatives such as leaves, rags or cow dung.

UN education organ Unesco, estimates that 10 percent of African girls will miss school during their monthly period and eventually drop out.