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Experiences and challenges faced by young women in educational institutions
Zimbabwe
National Students Union (ZINASU)
March 08, 2011
Speech on International
Women's Day 2011: Equal access to education, training and
science and technology - Pathway to decent work for women
Presented by Kundai Chambara,
ZINASU National Gender and Human Rights Secretary at Women's
Coalition commemorations
Revolutionary greetings
comrades and friends!
I would like
to thank the organizers of this event who gave me this opportunity
to share with you the road or rather the path a female student has
to travel in order to attain a degree, HND, even a National Certificate.
It is so painful and devastating to think or even imagine what we
go through every single day at our institutions of higher learning
in Zimbabwe.
It is now common knowledge
that in Zimbabwe there is an upsurge in enrolment. Which is not
bad in itself but the problem comes when the welfare of the students
is forsaken, to be particular the female students who are the most
vulnerable as compared to their male counter parts. When I say the
welfare of students I refer to issues relating to accommodation,
availability of food, a conducive learning environment, access to
sanitary wear etc
Late last year when we
were at one of our provincial female gatherings it was shocking
to hear one female student who confessed to go to extremes of walking
down the ramp at a modeling gala at their institution without wearing
an underwear in order to acquire on campus accommodation, but sadly
she never got the promised accommodation.
Since 2007 the
halls of residence at the University
of Zimbabwe have been closed despite the high court ruling to
open. Accommodation therefore is a nightmare for all students at
the oldest University. Students are now involved in what we call
beginning of semester marriages. These marriages last an average
of 3-4 months as the semester closes the marriage comes to an end
or rather a separation waiting reunion the next semester. The undergraduates
have been reduced to live like rats in off campus residence where
they pay full rentals per head. I can spend the whole day talking
of accommodation problems but my fellow female cdes if you can have
a chance of visiting Senga in Gweru, Coldstream in Chinhoyi, Morning
Side in Masvingo you will know that there is a lot to share.
Our number one enemy
is the privatisation of the tertiary education in Zimbabwe. Students
are being forced to pay a ransom of 450 + for a semester but traditionally
government used to fully fund Education, students had to be paid
for being academically prudent. Tertiary education has been turned
into education for the elite and what will become of us the daughters
of civil servants, orphans and the poor. College dropouts have increased.
Parents now prefer to send sons to colleges than daughters leaving
most females with a bleak future. The female student then endure
the psychological trauma of being a college dropout. To curb this
there is only one solution of no choice that is to enter into a
suicidal bondage of the government sponsored cadetship scheme which
only covers a third of tuition fees. What will become of the remaining
two thirds you will never find a well wisher but as a female you
get into contractual relationships with older men in order to purchase
a plate of sadza which costs a dollar every meal and other necessities.
Unfortunately you can't negotiate safe sex when you are a junior
part and mere beneficiary in the relationship. Eventually STIs and
HIV become rampant on campuses.
As a female you will
never escape paying with sex, the lecturers will be waiting for
you. Abusive lecturers demand sexual favors for you to pass your
courses. As you move to industrial attachment the bosses will be
waiting for you no attachment without sex, no report without sex,
no assessment without sex. If only we can go back to the era where
industries would bid to get a student on attachment the incidences
of sexual abuse will be reduced. How do we get there when only a
few people own the means of production and we have a corrupt government.
My fellow cdes my main
worry is not to share the challenges of the female students of today
but rather how we can solve these problems. Our mouths are closed
we cant express our dissatisfaction fearing the partisan and brutal
college security and police force .We are denied our right to elect
student leadership of our own choice. Even if we manage to have
one the authorities suppress these leaders by threatening them with
expulsions or suspensions.
ZINASU demands the reintroduction
of the loan and grant scheme and opening of halls of residence at
the University of Zimbabwe. We further call for the domestication
of international conventions like the Convention for the Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the SADC protocol for
Gender and Development.
We stand in
solidarity with the people of Libya and the 45
revolutionaries most importantly the 12 gallant women persecuted
by Mugabe's paranoid regime for watching videos of North African
uprisings.
Visit the ZINASU
fact
sheet
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