Early marriages affect child education

 By Our Reporter

Despite government’s efforts to provide free primary and secondary education to all, 18 in every 100 girls get married under the age of eighteen, according to the recent report dubbed Children of Zanzibar 2020.

More than three million or a third of girls in sub-Saharan Africa are married before their 18th birthday each year. The region has the highest prevalence of early marriages in the world, 35 percent, well above the world average of 19 percent.

According to a report released by the Zanzibar Office of Chief Government Statistician (OCGS), three girls out of ten aged 20-24 years get married before the age of fifteen.

The study  shows that 2.2% of girls (two in ten) aged 15 to 19 years gave birth before the age of fifteen while seventeen out of one hundred girls (17%) gave birth before the age of eighteen.

On child labor, the report shows 6.8 percent of boys and 4.3 percent of girls aged 5-17 years were engaged in child labour of whom 52.8% was engaged in hazardous work most of these children (87.2%) lived in rural areas.

On gender-based violence, the report indicates that 14% of females aged 15-49 years experienced physical violence at the age of fifteen and 9% of women aged 15-49 years experienced sexual violence in the past 12 months

According to the report, over 7 in 10 girls and 6 in 10 boys aged 13–24 years who experienced physical violence prior to the age of 18 reported physical violence by their school or madrasa teachers.

The report also documents the impact of physical abuse where 71 percent of boys and 62 percent of girls aged 13-24 years experienced physical abuse before reaching the age of eighteen.

The report further indicates that 9.3% of boys and 6.2% of girls reported experiencing sexual violence before the age of 18 while less than half of girls and boys who experienced sexual violence in childhood told someone about it and 5.5% of boys and 12.7% of girls who experienced childhood sexual violence received services.

The report reaffirms that out of 91.7% of children under five registered at birth; only 63.6% of them had birth certificates.

The study has shown that 19.7% out of 25.3% of men aged 15 years and above having sex with a non-marital, non-cohabitating partner in the past 12 months have confirmed using condoms while 8.1% out of 11.2 of women with same age have reported using a condom while having sexual intercourse with their partners