Combating Child Marriage through Education in Subsaharan Africa

Abstract

By the end of today another 25,000 young children will have been robbed of their childhoods, cheated of their right to an education, exposed to life-threatening health risks, and set on a road leading to a life of servitude and poverty. child marriage is a hidden crisis. Because the victims are overwhelmingly young, poor and mostly female, their voices are seldom heard by governments. Their concerns do not register on the agendas of global summits. But child marriage is destroying human potential and reinforcing gender inequalities on a global scale. It jeopardizes education, is harmful to health and turns millions of girls into second-class citizens, locking them and their children into cycles of poverty. Education has the potential to act as an antidote to child marriage. There is clear evidence that the more education young girls receive the later they marry, especially if they reach secondary school. The challenge is to get girls through primary and into secondary education. Gender inequalities in school entry and dropout rates means that over 8 million girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia face elevated risks of child marriage during their early adolescent years. This paper considers the basis for combating child marriage through education in Sub-Saharan Africa focusing more on Nigeria, the country whose Christian and Islamic practice are rooted in the interpretation of the Bible and Quran respectively. Significantly, the caveat that copulation should be delayed until such girls are mature is often ignored as these child brides are engaged in sex. Young teenagers may not be able to give informed consent to marriage. In addition, because of their tender years, they are unable to express their sexual autonomy. Against this background, it canvasses that the implications of this practice are multi dimensional. This paper concludes that the practice can be jettisoned.