Let girls be girls, not wives

                               By DOREEN NAWA

Child marriages are an order of the day in Lunga District.

LOCAL Government minister Emerine Kabanshi has attributed the increased cases in child marriages in Lunga District in Luapula Province to poor school infrastructure.
Speaking when she held meetings in four chiefdoms last week, Ms Kabanshi said girls who are victims of child marriages are among those who are least educated, poorest, and living in rural areas.
She said girls with higher levels of schooling are less likely to marry as children.
She said the solution to child marriages lies in building more schools and sensitising parents on the importance of allowing girls to get educated.
“In Lunga, I can estimate that over 90 percent of girls with no education are married off before they reach teenage, compared to the situation in urban areas, where girls get the much needed education and decide to get married after reaching 20 years of age,” Ms Kabanshi said.
According to Ms Kabanshi, educating adolescent girls has been a critical factor in increasing the age of marriage in a number of developing countries like Zambia.
“Getting the out-of-school girls back into education will be crucial to end child marriage, and government alone cannot do it. We need efforts from all co-operating partners like non-governmental organisations to come on board and find solutions to this vice,” Ms Kabanshi said.
Ms Kabanshi, who is also Luapula constituency member of Parliament, was in Lunga District recently to highlight government plans in developing the district.
And speaking earlier, Lunga district commissioner Raphael Kauseni described the education standards in his district as a disaster.
“We have a lot of work to do in bringing quality education to Lunga District. Education in Lunga is a disaster. The number of school drop-outs is too high, the infrastructure is the poorest in the country and there are no incentives for one to work as a teacher here,” Mr Kauseni said.
Mr Kauseni said Lunga is regarded as an open-air prison for truant teachers and once the Ministry of Education identifies such teachers, the teachers are sent to Lunga to serve their ‘sentence’.
Mr Kauseni said education initiatives that help girls to avoid child marriage must include awareness-raising campaigns for parents and community leaders on the benefits of girls’ education.
Other incentives include scholarship programmes for girls, female mentors and teachers, equipping schools with sex-segregated toilets and providing training for teachers on how to ensure a safe environment for all students.
Lunga is one of the new districts that were declared by President Sata in December 2011 shortly after the September 2011 elections.