Dar es Salaam:
TheGovernment of Japan has agreed to release to The United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) funds
amounting to US $400,000,which is equivalent to TZS 640,000,000,in
order to support the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania in
the implementation of a project targeting the PROVISION OF ALTERNATIVE
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADOLESCENT GIRLS FORCED OUT OF SCHOOLS DUE
TO TEENAGE PREGNANCIES.
The signing ceremony took place at the Ministry of Education and
Vocational Trainingconference hall at 9 AM on Thursday the 23rd of
February, 2012. A Plan of Operation for the project will be signed by
the Representative of the Ministry of Education and Vocational
Training and the Representative of UNESCO before the fundsare
released.
The two year project will focus on out-of-school adolescent girls and
young mothers between the ages of 13-19. The keyproject objectives
are; first to provide adolescent girls who are forced to drop out of
Ordinary secondary school due to pregnancies access to alternative
learning opportunities and to empower them through income generating
and life skills; secondly, to develop and test self-learning modules
and empowerment toolkits for learners and facilitators and thirdly, to
assess and document good practices and achievements which will inform
strategies addressing the issues related to adolescent girls.
The overall aim of this project is improving the quality of life and
social well-being of adolescent girls in Tanzania, in particular those
who were forced out of Ordinary secondary school due to teenage
pregnancy and truancy which is rampant in deprived rural
areas.Shinyanga rural and Kahama districts will pilot the project
based on the fact that Shinyanga is among the regions with a high
dropout rate of adolescent girls due to early pregnancy.