So today my wonderful GLOW girl (the one I brought from my village to camp), who sought me out to learn English better and who I then privately tutored for a bit, and who also stole the show at GLOW because of her confidence and dynamism, came to me today. She came this morning to tell me she was going to check the exam results to find what Upper Secondary school she got into. (They have to have passed the test with a certain score to continue with S4, 5, 6, kinda like our high school). Now I'm not sure of all the particulars but I know that when she came to me this morning she was excited and full of hope and the girl that returned this afternoon was none of those things. She came back to tell me that she had not succeeded in securing a spot, but that she would try and get in touch with the Headmaster of the Teacher Training College because she had passed certain courses (but I guess not all of those necessary or not with high enough scores).
Otherwise, she can't continue school. HOW does that make sense? Maybe I'm missing some critical part of the equation, but shouldn't all those that WANT to continue school here get the opportunity to do so somewhere. Maybe it's the space, maybe it's the lack of teachers or funding to get them to these schools? Either way, I've been hit over the head with the reality of their situation. We take high school and many people even take college for granted. This girl, if she can't get the position at the Teacher Training school, if she's lucky, will go to work as a house girl for someone, or maybe be able to sell things at the market, or get a job in a shop. But in all likelihood, she'll just be stuck at home, taking care of her many younger siblings and waiting till she can get married or she won't and will start having children that she's too young and poor to care for. How can you break the cycle of this until everyone has the chance to break it for themselves?
What's the point in enabling these girls to make their own choices or learn about career planning or goal setting when they're robbed of those choices by their circumstances?
I can't stand this and the worst part of it is, I don't know what I can do about it at this point. If I could buy her way into a school I would, but I'm not even sure that's possible.
What's the point of being here if I can't even give this bright, amazing girl a chance at a future?
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