ISEM, creating a safe learning environment for female and other vulnerable students in secondary schools

Malawi adult literacy rate is around 60% and fewer than 40% of females and 60% of males aged 25+ years have had any secondary education. Appallingly, females make up 39% of all students at tertiary level mostly due to limited boarding facilities and fewer female students gaining the required grades. The proportion of girls and boys in secondary school is at 46% to 54%, respectively. There are several factors behind high school drop-out rates: early marriages perpetrated by deep rooted social-cultural beliefs have been known to negatively influence girls’ enrollment and survival in school.

Through ISEM, under the Improving Secondary Education Completion Rates among Girls and Other Vulnerable Students  project, EU  has adopted mutually reinforcing strategies at levels of the learners themselves, schools and community support structures at district and national level with the hope of increasing the number of girls enrolling and completing secondary school. Through the provision of bursaries, this project has contributed to high retention and completion rate among girls.

Mtiyesanji, a leaner from Chankhanga Kasungu shares her story

"I dropped out of school in 2015 due to pregnancy. After two years, I was traced by a group of women who encouraged me to go back to school and introduced me to the ISEM Project. I am happy to be back to school and being supported with a bursury by this project. I can now see a bright future ahead of me. I am confident that I will be able to support my siblings and even my child in school. I encourage my friends who dropped out of school because of pregnancies and early marriages to seek opportunities of going back to school. Early pregnancies do not pay. I have been through it and I know what I am talking about. Nothing feels better for me like being back in school" Mtiyesanji-Kasungu-Malawi