When girls stay away from school or drop out altogether, their reasons tend to differ from those of boys. The obvious one is pregnancy: nearly 6% of all girls aged between 14 to 19 years in SA were at different stages of pregnancy when the Stats SA 2019 Household survey was captured. And one in three of the girls who fall pregnant in this country will never complete their education.

Young men who are expecting a child, however, rarely have their schooling interrupted, ‘nor do they face the same stigma, shame or blame carried by pregnant learners,’ says the School Dropout: Gender Matters report, compiled by Zero Dropout – a national advocacy campaign to halve the country’s school dropout rate by 2030.

The report found that girls were most likely to leave school because of household financial insecurity and caretaking responsibilities (such as caring for younger siblings, sick relatives, elderly family members, or their own babies). In contrast, boys frequently dropped out because of poor academic performance and problems with their peers and teachers. ‘Males also left school to pursue technical and artisanal college training to ultimately find employment,’ says Zero Dropout. The campaign highlights school as the most feasible and accessible route to an education for South Africans, adding that ‘for now, passing matric is still the gateway to further education and training, and access into the labour market’.

The benefits of keeping girls in school are well documented and far-reaching – for the learner as well as for her future children, her community and the broader economy. One year of secondary education for a girl correlates with a 25% increase in wages later in life, according to the World Bank. If all girls globally complete 12 years of education, they will unlock between $15 trillion and $30 trillion lost in lifetime productivity and earnings.

In Africa alone, better education for teenage girls could add $2.4 trillion in income by 2040. Furthermore, the World Bank expects that a one percentage point increase in female education will raise the average GDP by 0.3 percentage points and the annual GDP growth rates by 0.2 percentage points.

Beyond the financial and economic gains, investing in girls’ education is also beneficial from a health and social development perspective. It not only helps prevent early marriage and delay parenthood, but also leads to women having fewer – and healthier – children. In fact, for each additional year

of a girl’s education, their children will on average live longer by an extra 0.32 years, with this figure being slightly higher for daughters.

Yet in SA, improving girls’ education is not a question of access to schooling, as primary-school enrolment is already 90% across genders and socio-economic backgrounds. Worryingly, 40% of these kids don’t make it to matric, but it’s actually the boys who drop out in higher numbers and have lower matric pass rates than the girls. ‘This doesn’t mean girls are not at risk of dropping out; it does mean that policy and programming may overlook the vulnerability of boy learners,’ cautions Zero Dropout. However, while girls may have slightly lower overall dropout rates, they are more vulnerable than boys to ‘silent’ absenteeism –  where they remain officially enrolled in school, despite only attending inconsistently. By missing class, they fall behind academically and never reach their potential.

Why is this happening? Girls not only have more ‘family commitments’ (12.1% of girls gave this reason to Stats SA vs 0.2% of boys), but they also experience ‘period poverty’. An estimated 30% of school-going girls in SA miss four to five days of school every month during their period, simply because they can’t afford menstrual products. Some resort to using old clothes, rags, newspapers, leaves, bark and grass instead, which poses serious health risks. And even if they have sanitary pads, there’s still the issue of whether their school offers access to water and the private facilities needed for changing and disposing of used sanitary products.

This is not a new problem, and government has initiated a sanitary dignity programme to provide free disposable sanitary pads to girls from low-income households. Unfortunately, these efforts have been hampered by funding and implementation challenges. Even the VAT exemption of sanitary pads (effective since 2019) doesn’t seem to be well executed, as tampons, menstrual cups, period panties and other feminine hygiene products remain taxed at 15%. For many poor households, these basic necessities remain unaffordable, and buying food takes priority over spending money on sanitary pads.

Media personalities such as Siv Ngesi have joined non-profits and corporates in providing free menstrual hygiene products and destigmatising menstruation to keep girls in school. The comedian co-founded the MENstruation Foundation, which distributes gratis sanitary pads via dispensing machines throughout Africa. ‘If men bled once a month, sanitary products would be free. Condoms are free and sanitary products are not; it’s a failure of justice,’ says Ngesi, who recently announced he would open a factory in Paarl to produce his own brand of affordable sanitary pads.

Major hygiene brands – such as Always, Lil-lets and Kotex – have been donating their products to school girls across SA for years. Pharmacy chains Clicks and Dis-Chem are also involved in CSI campaigns to provide girls with pads and menstrual education. Most recently, retailer Spar started its #EndPeriodPoverty campaign in line with the UN goal of ending period poverty by 2030. As part of the campaign, Spar encourages consumers to donate to the cause and spread awareness on social media.

Many corporates support non-profits such as the Imbumba Foundation, whose Caring4Girls programme promotes menstrual health, hygiene and puberty education, leads government policy and advocacy and provides menstrual hygiene products to vulnerable and indigent girls. ‘During the pandemic we experienced constraints on supply of sanitary products, which then pushed us to develop our own brand so we cannot be affected by outside factors,’ says Richard Mabaso, founder and CEO of the Imbumba Foundation. ‘Manufacturing our own brand has allowed us to increase the number of beneficiaries that can be reached by our donor partners.’

One of these partners is the JSE, which over the years has sent 11 staff members on Imbumba’s Trek4Mandela to summit Mount Kilimanjaro in their quest to raise awareness for period poverty. The JSE also supports two high schools in Limpopo und Gauteng, reaching more than 1 200 girls. Mabaso explains that as girls can miss up to 30 school days annually because of period poverty, the JSE’s contribution has potentially saved approximately 20,000 days of school attendance. He says the next step for his non-profit organisation is to enter the retail market to create a self-sustaining business model for its sanitaryware production.

Blossom Care Solutions also manufactures and distributes affordable sanitary pads, but what sets it apart is its micro-franchise model. ‘Our mission is two-fold: to end period poverty and to grow small businesses,’ says Raeesa Sarlie, Blossom’s business support lead. ‘Ideally, we aim to keep girls in school for a full year – that’s what we encourage wherever possible.

We also align each partnership with our donors’ ESD, ESG and BBBEE goals, and provide clear impact reporting so they can see the real difference their support makes.’

Corporate partners (which include Bidvest, BMW and South32) can make once-off donations or support the social enterprise through long-term CSI and ESD programmes. ‘Some give a set amount and are matched to a school that fits, while others choose a school themselves and tailor the support based on how many learners they want to assist and for how long,’ says Sarlie. ‘To date, we’ve donated over 2.4 million sanitary pads and supported more than 28,000 schoolgirls. Educators tell us how these learners show up more, engage more and grow in confidence,’ she concludes. ‘And we’re so grateful to the partners who help make that a reality.’

By Silke Colquhoun
Image: Gallo/Getty Images