The sexual and reproductive health of younger adolescents

The sexual and reproductive health of younger adolescents
At the national level, DHS data show that up to
41% of 10–14-year-old girls and 35% of boys in
the same age group in 26 sub-Saharan African
countries were living with neither parent (although
they may have been living with other relatives),
with somewhat lower proportions in Latin America
and the Caribbean and the lowest proportions in
Asia (Chong et al. 2006:14–15). Employment data
for children and young adolescents are unreliable,
given the frequently informal, family-based and
sporadic nature of their work. However, according
to ILO definitions, an estimated 37% of 10–14-yearold
boys and 30% of girls in this age group in
sub-Saharan Africa are working, compared with
26% and 27%, respectively, in Asia and the Pacific
and 17% and 5%, respectively, in Latin America and
the Caribbean (Hagemann et al. 2006:31). (Some of
these young workers are also enrolled in school.)
These and other indicators such as girls’ marriages
before the age of 15 years (Appendix Table 2) reveal
patterns of early status transitions for many children
and young adolescents that stand in marked
contrast to international human rights standards.
They also attest to the enormous challenges in
some countries of reaching 10–14 year olds with
the sexual and reproductive health information and
services to which they are entitled.
School enrolment is especially critical in this regard.
Because primary schooling is to be both free and
compulsory, attendance is an obligation as well
as an entitlement. All children are to be enrolled
beginning at the age of about 6 years and must
continue through a minimum of 6 years of primary
school to the age of 12 years, or – given late
starts, missed years, repeated grades or a longer
standard of primary school – to 14–15 years or more
(Melchiorre 2004; UNESCO 2004).
recent DHS surveys. 2 In nine of the 56 countries for
which data are available, over 90% of urban and
rural girls and boys are currently attending school
(Gabon, South Africa, Armenia and Jordan, and the
five central Asian republics). In all other countries,
attendance falls below this level for at least one
category and usually all. The lowest attendance
is reported for rural girls in Burkina Faso and the
Niger (about 20%) and in Bolivia (Plurinational State
of), the Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia,
Mali and Pakistan (30–35%), and for rural boys in
Burkina Faso, Bolivia and the Niger (30–35%). Not
surprisingly, young urban adolescents are more
likely to be in school than their rural counterparts in
almost all countries. The pattern of sex differences
is mixed. Girls in sub-Saharan Africa are about
80–100% as likely as boys to be attending school
if they live in urban areas, and 50–100% as likely if
they live in the countryside. In other regions, girls
are typically near or even above parity with boys in
urban areas (see especially Bangladesh, Nicaragua
and the Philippines), a situation that intensifies in
the rural areas of some countries and reverses in
others. Particularly low ratios of rural girls to boys
attending school at the ages of 11–15 years, which
reflect traditional patterns of discrimination against
girl children, are apparent throughout much of
western and central Africa; in Ethiopia, Morocco
and Turkey; in Nepal, India and Pakistan; and in
Paraguay, of the countries included here.
Although overall school attendance at younger
ages has been rising dramatically in some countries,
especially among girls, attendance often drops off
steadily between the ages of 10 and 14 years for
both sexes. Keeping adolescents in school to the
age of at least 15 years (and longer if possible) is
The extent to which schooling is available as
a formal platform for (at least hypothetically)
fostering the cognitive development of young
adolescents and their acquisition of knowledge and
analytical skills is apparent in the attendance rates
reported in Appendix Table 1 for countries with
2
DHS reports now tabulate school attendance for the age groups
6–10, 11–15 and 16–20 years, which makes comparisons with
previous tabulations difficult. Tables showing the percentage
of 10–14-year-old female students who are in primary and
secondary school, the percentage of male and female students
who have fallen two or more years behind the normative grade
for their age, and the percentage of all out-of-school girls aged
10–14 years who have never attended school can be found in
Lloyd 2009:21, 15, 30.
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