News / National
School losing pupils to child marriages
03 Aug 2017 at 17:00hrs | Views
Chinotumenyere Secondary School - a remote learning institution situated here - is losing an average of four girls each term to child marriages.
Concerned parents and guardians alleged this week that some of the teachers and law enforcement agents operating in the area were partly to blame for the early child marriages.
"In Shinja, girls are being married while in form One and Two. Every term there are at least four drop outs," a note submitted by the concerned parents to Eastern News reads in part.
Most of these cases go unreported.
The note had a list of children the parents considered as gifted but are running the risk of dropping out of school or being married early, due to poverty.
A child protection committee member at the school, Bogy Munoriarwa, confirmed that the school's authorities had battled to save the girl child from predatory men, without success.
"The committee is really concerned about the level of sexual abuse at the school and we have raised our complaints at district level as the complaints we have raised locally are not being attended to," he said.
Munoriarwa also expressed frustration at the authorities' handling of the issue which he said has been raised with the district child protection committee - a body with representatives from various State and non-governmental organisations with interests in child rights issues.
A parent that spoke off the record claimed that because the school is located in a remote part of the country, police and teachers were doing as they please with the girls.
The parents said family members were not making the situation any better as they are also marrying them off at a rate of one per month.
"Last year, the school lost 13 girls to early marriages . . . When the school invites police officers (to investigate these cases), they then unashamedly walk away with their own girls for abuse and our complaints are not being attended to anywhere," the parent said.
Concerned parents and guardians alleged this week that some of the teachers and law enforcement agents operating in the area were partly to blame for the early child marriages.
"In Shinja, girls are being married while in form One and Two. Every term there are at least four drop outs," a note submitted by the concerned parents to Eastern News reads in part.
Most of these cases go unreported.
The note had a list of children the parents considered as gifted but are running the risk of dropping out of school or being married early, due to poverty.
A child protection committee member at the school, Bogy Munoriarwa, confirmed that the school's authorities had battled to save the girl child from predatory men, without success.
"The committee is really concerned about the level of sexual abuse at the school and we have raised our complaints at district level as the complaints we have raised locally are not being attended to," he said.
Munoriarwa also expressed frustration at the authorities' handling of the issue which he said has been raised with the district child protection committee - a body with representatives from various State and non-governmental organisations with interests in child rights issues.
A parent that spoke off the record claimed that because the school is located in a remote part of the country, police and teachers were doing as they please with the girls.
The parents said family members were not making the situation any better as they are also marrying them off at a rate of one per month.
"Last year, the school lost 13 girls to early marriages . . . When the school invites police officers (to investigate these cases), they then unashamedly walk away with their own girls for abuse and our complaints are not being attended to anywhere," the parent said.
Source - dailynews
