Africa Educates Her Campaign: A Southern African Perspective on the Hidden Barriers to Tertiary Education
Africa Educates Her Campaign
Sixth Anniversary Edition, 2026
From Bringing Girls Back to School to Seeing Them Graduate
A Southern African Perspective on the Hidden Barriers to Tertiary Education
Our 2020 interviews with young women in Angola showed that financial difficulties were not the only barriers to tertiary education.
Some girls complete primary and secondary education but struggle with university admission because of weak foundational learning. Others enter university but cannot afford to remain there or take many years to graduate.
Welcome to the Sixth Anniversary Edition
Greetings, and a warm welcome to the sixth anniversary edition of the Africa Educates Her Campaign.
My name is Sofonie Dala, and I am proud to serve as a Southern Africa Ambassador for this campaign.
Since its beginning, Africa Educates Her has been a rallying call to African Union Member States, education stakeholders and young people. Its purpose is to ensure that girls and young women return to school, and stay there, during and after crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, when school closures swept across the world, we asked an urgent question:
How do we bring girls back to school?
Six years on, the answer is still unfinished, and a new question demands our attention:
How do we ensure that girls not only return to school, but also reach, remain in and graduate from university?
This anniversary edition looks beyond school re-enrolment to a part of the education journey that is far less visible: tertiary education. A girl who completes secondary school has crossed an important threshold, but for many young women the road to a degree is blocked by barriers that rarely make headlines, including financial pressure, unsafe environments, caregiving responsibilities and limited access to guidance and mentorship.
Over the course of this edition, we will explore these hidden barriers from a Southern African perspective and call on governments, institutions, communities and young people to turn commitment into action.
Because education must not end at the school gate. It must lead to the graduation stage.
The Stories We Heard in 2020
Our 2020 interviews are an important historical record. The young women we spoke to were never just statistics. They were students with ambitions, families, responsibilities and dreams of building professional lives.
Six years later, their stories allow us to ask a question that matters:
What happened to the girls we asked the world to bring back to school?
1 Rudmila: When University Becomes a Years-Long Struggle
Rudmila shows us another side of the problem. She entered university, but she has struggled for years to complete her fifth year.
She has described working hard in her studies, and she reports scoring more than 14 points in a public Ministry of Education recruitment competition. This shows real academic and professional potential. Yet progression has remained difficult.
Since adolescence, Rudmila has also lived with severe, recurring headaches that she compares to migraines. Years of watching colleagues graduate ahead of her have added to her emotional distress and frustration. More recently, she entered a traditional marriage, another significant transition in her life.
Her story reminds us that access to university is not enough. Governments and universities must also invest in:
- student retention and academic support;
- health and wellbeing services;
- counselling and mental-health support;
- support for students who fall behind;
- clear and reasonable pathways to graduation;
- flexible arrangements for students facing difficult personal circumstances.
A student should not become invisible simply because she takes longer to graduate.
2. Filismina: Six Years Waiting for the University Door to Open
In 2020, Filismina told us that a lack of financial resources was keeping her out of university. According to our campaign follow-up, six years later this remains the central barrier that has prevented her from beginning her studies.
She is now expecting a baby and has entered a traditional marriage.
Her story is especially important because it shows that the passage of time does not remove an educational barrier on its own. A young woman can remain capable and willing to study while financial circumstances keep university out of reach.
It also shows how life transitions can accumulate. When university is delayed for years, marriage, pregnancy, employment and family responsibilities can make a return to education harder with every passing year.
3. Chelsea: A Story of Delay, Work and Eventual Success
Chelsea's story has a different outcome.
In 2020, she told the campaign that financial difficulties had forced her to interrupt her studies in her second year. Rather than give up her dream, she began working and saving money. Her journey was delayed, but it did not end.
In 2025, Chelsea completed her degree in Business Management. Congratulations, Chelsea.
Her story shows that financial hardship need not mean the end of education when a student has persistence and, eventually, an opportunity to continue.
But we must also ask:
Why should a young woman have to interrupt her studies and work for years simply because she cannot afford to continue?
Chelsea's success should inspire us. It should also challenge governments to make the pathway to graduation less dependent on individual financial survival.
What happens after a girl returns to school?
Three stories from our campaign
Rudmila entered university but has struggled for years to complete her fifth year. She has also reported health challenges and the emotional pressure of watching her colleagues graduate before her.
Filismina reported in 2020 that financial difficulties prevented her from entering university. Six years later, she has still been unable to begin her university studies.
Chelsea had to interrupt her university studies in her second year because of financial difficulties and worked to save money. We congratulate her for successfully completing Business Management in 2025.
These stories show that access, retention and graduation are three different challenges.
The wider problem
Education cannot be measured only by enrolment.
A student may pass through primary school without acquiring adequate literacy skills and later face serious difficulties in university admission. In Angola, learning assessments have highlighted significant foundational learning challenges.
This means that governments must address the entire education pathway:
Primary education → Secondary education → University admission → Retention → Graduation.
Our recommendations
Governments and education institutions should:
- Strengthen reading, writing and mathematics in primary education.
- Improve teacher training and teaching quality.
- Make university admission systems transparent and fair.
- Expand scholarships and financial assistance for disadvantaged students.
- Provide academic, health and counselling support to students struggling at university.
- Create pathways for women who interrupt their studies to return and graduate.
- Collect reliable data on female admission, dropout and graduation rates.
SDGs
This call directly supports SDG 4 – Quality Education, especially equal access to tertiary education, SDG 5 – Gender Equality, SDG 1 – No Poverty, SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-being, and SDG 10 – Reduced Inequalities.
A NEW RALLYING CALL
Six years ago, we said:
Bring Girls Back to School.
Today, we say:
Bring Her Back. Help Her Learn. Help Her Enter University. Help Her Stay. Help Her Graduate.
Africa Educates Her – Six Years of Listening, Learning and Calling for Action.
BONUS
LASSALETH
In her 3rd year of Law
- Lassaleth, História Bónus, Estudante de Direito, Angola.
- No
3.º ano de Direito, estudar em Angola tornou-se cada vez mais
frustrante à medida que descobria as violações dos direitos humanos em
África.
In her 3rd year of Law, studying in Angola became more frustrating as she learned about human rights violations across Africa. - O seu obstáculo foi outro: não houve doença nem falta de apoio financeiro. Frustrada, decidiu continuar os estudos em Portugal.
Her barrier was different: no illness, no lack of financial support. Frustrated, she decided to continue her studies in Portugal. - Mas o sonho exigia dinheiro. Trabalhou para poupar, mas foi repetidamente vítima de burlas.
But the dream needed money. She worked to save, yet repeatedly fell victim to scams. - Não chegou a ir para Portugal e ainda não regressou à universidade.
She never reached Portugal, and she has not returned to university. - Hoje
faz um curso intensivo de inglês e poderá tentar a sorte num país de
língua inglesa, pois Portugal raramente oferece bolsas de estudo.
Today she studies English intensively and may try her luck in an English-speaking country. Portugal rarely offers scholarships. - O que a sua história nos diz / What her story tells us: o acesso ao ensino superior também depende de informação, caminhos seguros e bolsas de estudo no estrangeiro (ODS 4.b).
https://she-leads.blogspot.com/2023/11/how-climate-change-can-increase-your.html
Africa Educates Her Campaign: Sixth Anniversary Edition, 2026
.gif)
1. From the 2020 Emergency to the 2026 Reality
The COVID-19 pandemic caused one of the largest disruptions to education in modern history. UNESCO reported that approximately 1.2 billion students and young people were affected by school closures.
UNICEF later warned that more than 11 million girls might never return to school. It also projected that millions more could face a higher risk of child marriage because of the disruption and economic pressure.
These concerns were central to Africa Educates Her. In 2020, we listened directly to young women and girls and documented their experiences, fears and aspirations.
Six years later, their stories tell us something important:
Returning to school is only the beginning.
A girl can complete primary and secondary education and still be unable to enter university. Another may enter university but spend many extra years trying to graduate. Access to education must therefore be understood as a continuum:
Primary education → Secondary education → University admission → University retention → Graduation → Employment and economic independence
A failure at any point on this journey can interrupt a girl's education.
2. The Hidden Barrier: Finishing School Does Not Guarantee University Access
In Southern Africa, discussions about girls' education usually focus on the visible barriers:
- lack of identification documents;
- poverty and school fees;
- transport and school infrastructure;
- early pregnancy and child marriage;
- household responsibilities.
These barriers are real. But our campaign interviews show that they are not the only ones.
Some girls complete primary and secondary school despite poverty and hardship, only to meet a new obstacle: they are not academically prepared for the transition to higher education.
A student may spend years in school without building strong foundations in reading, writing, mathematics and critical thinking. She keeps moving up through the system, but when she faces a competitive university admission examination, the gaps accumulated over the years suddenly become decisive.
This reveals a hidden contradiction:
A girl can hold a school certificate without having received the learning foundation she needs to compete for a university place.
3. The Learning Crisis Begins Before University
This is not simply a university problem. It begins much earlier.
Evidence from Angola shows how serious the challenge is. A World Bank assessment, using an Early Grade Reading Assessment, found that only one in three 10-year-olds could read a full sentence. It also estimated that women have fewer expected years of schooling than men, and that girls' learning-adjusted years of schooling are substantially lower.
Students who leave primary and secondary school without adequate foundational skills are likely to struggle later when they try to enter higher education. The Sustainable Development Goals recognise this link:
- SDG 4.1 calls for all children to complete quality primary and secondary education with effective learning outcomes.
- SDG 4.6 calls for young people and adults to achieve literacy and numeracy.
- SDG 4.3 calls for equal access to affordable, quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.
University access cannot be separated from the quality of primary and secondary education.
4. The Angolan University Admission Challenge
In our conversations with young women, one issue came up again and again: university admission examinations.
For students whose earlier schooling did not provide strong foundations, these examinations can become a major barrier. This raises an important policy question:
Should an admission examination measure a student's potential for higher education, or mainly reproduce the weaknesses and inequalities of the education system that came before it?
The concern is greatest for students who have spent years in schools with limited teaching quality, learning resources and teacher preparation. The United Nations' 2026 SDG reporting highlights persistent learning inequalities and notes that in sub-Saharan Africa, around two in five teachers did not meet national qualification requirements in 2023.
This does not mean that every teacher is poorly prepared, or that every admission examination is unfair. It does mean that governments must examine the whole education pipeline, rather than placing the responsibility for learning failure on students alone.
6. The Six-Year Lesson
Our campaign began with a single call: Bring girls back to school.
Six years later, the experiences of the young women we followed show that the campaign must evolve:
- Bring girls back.
- Help them learn.
- Help them enter university.
- Help them stay.
- Help them graduate.
- Help them move into decent work.
Education cannot be measured by enrolment alone.
- A student in a classroom is not necessarily receiving a quality education.
- A university admission is not necessarily a university completion.
- A university degree is not necessarily economic independence.
We must measure the whole journey.
7. Our Campaign Cohort: A Warning, Not a Global Statistic
Among the young women followed through our interviews, only a very small proportion had reached university graduation by the end of this follow-up. Our internal observation is that approximately 1% had completed university.
This figure comes from our own interview and follow-up group. It does not represent all girls in Angola, Southern Africa or Africa. Even so, a small cohort can reveal structural problems that deserve investigation.
The stories of Filismina, Rudmila and Chelsea show three different stages of the journey:
| Young woman | Where she is on the journey |
|---|---|
| Filismina | Unable to enter university |
| Rudmila | Entered university but struggling to complete |
| Chelsea | Interrupted her studies because of poverty, but eventually graduated |
Together, they show that access, retention and completion are three different challenges.
8. What Governments Should Do
Africa Educates Her calls on governments, education authorities, universities, teachers, communities and development partners to move beyond the traditional question of school enrolment.
Recommendation 1: Strengthen foundational literacy
Governments must ensure that children leave primary education able to read, write and understand what they read. Learning outcomes should be monitored, not only attendance and promotion between grades.
Recommendation 2: Support learners who fall behind instead of passing them on
Students who are behind in literacy, numeracy or other foundational skills should receive extra support before they move up. Promotion without mastery does not solve the problem. It simply transfers it to secondary school and, eventually, to university.
Recommendation 3: Reform university admission systems
Admission examinations should be transparent, fair and aligned with what students can realistically be expected to learn in secondary school. Universities and governments should investigate whether current systems disproportionately exclude students from disadvantaged schools.
Recommendation 4: Establish scholarships and student financial assistance
Support should cover more than tuition where necessary, including:
- transport and accommodation;
- books and learning materials;
- internet access;
- food;
- examination fees.
Recommendation 5: Create retention programmes for vulnerable students
Admission should not be the end of public responsibility. Universities should provide:
- academic tutoring and mentoring;
- counselling and mental-health support;
- disability support;
- financial-aid offices;
- early-warning systems for students at risk of dropping out.
Recommendation 6: Support women who return after an interruption
Women who leave university because of financial hardship, pregnancy, marriage, employment or family responsibilities need realistic pathways back.
A temporary interruption should never become a permanent exclusion.
Recommendation 7: Collect gender-disaggregated tertiary education data
Governments should publish data on:
- female enrolment, admission rates and admission-test performance;
- dropout rates, average time to graduation and graduation rates;
- financial barriers;
- regional and rural/urban disparities;
- employment after graduation.
Without data, girls disappear from the education system and no one knows where or why.
9. The SDGs: Education Is a Continuum
This campaign supports several Sustainable Development Goals.
SDG 4: Quality Education. Our strongest link is Target 4.3 (equal access to affordable, quality tertiary education). We also draw on Targets 4.1 (quality primary and secondary education), 4.5 (eliminating gender disparities), 4.6 (literacy and numeracy) and 4.c (supply of qualified teachers).
SDG 5: Gender Equality. Girls and young women should have equal opportunities to gain education, professional qualifications and economic independence. Education is not only about entering classrooms. It is about enabling women to participate fully in social and economic life.
SDG 1: No Poverty. Financial barriers can stop a capable young woman from entering or finishing university. Scholarships and social protection help prevent poverty from repeating across generations.
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. Higher education builds skills, employment and entrepreneurship, but policy must also connect graduates to decent work.
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities. A student's family income, location or school background should not decide whether she gets the chance to graduate.
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being. Students cannot learn well when health problems are ignored. Rudmila's experience reminds us that health and education cannot be treated as separate policy areas.
10. A New Rallying Call for 2026
Six years ago, Africa Educates Her asked African society to bring girls back to school after the pandemic. Today we renew that call and make it broader:
BRING HER BACK.
HELP HER LEARN.
LET HER ENTER UNIVERSITY.
HELP HER STAY.
HELP HER GRADUATE.
Bringing a girl back to school is not the end of the journey. It is the beginning.
11. Our Message to African Union Member States
Africa cannot afford an education system in which a girl spends years in school and reaches adulthood without the foundational skills she needs to succeed.
- We cannot celebrate enrolment while ignoring learning.
- We cannot celebrate university admission while ignoring graduation.
- We cannot tell young women that education is their path to empowerment, and then leave them without the financial, academic and health support to complete it.
The girls we interviewed in 2020 have grown into young women. Some continued. Some were delayed. Some are still waiting. Some have entered marriage and motherhood. And some, like Chelsea, have reached graduation.
Their stories deserve to be followed. Their experiences deserve to be documented. Their challenges deserve policy responses.
Conclusion
The sixth anniversary of Africa Educates Her is not only a celebration. It is a moment of accountability.
The campaign began in an unprecedented global crisis with a simple, urgent message: bring girls back to school. Six years later, we have learned that returning to school is not enough. A girl must be able to learn properly, progress through the system, reach university, afford to stay, receive support when she struggles, and finally graduate.
That responsibility cannot rest on the girl alone. It belongs to governments, education systems, universities, teachers, communities, families and society as a whole.
Africa Educates Her therefore renews its call:
LET NO GIRL'S EDUCATION END AT THE SCHOOL GATE.
Bring her back. Educate her. Support her. Let her graduate.
Sofonie Dala
Southern Africa Ambassador, Africa Educates Her Campaign
Sixth Anniversary Edition, 2026
REFERENCES
Africa Educates Her Campaign – Angola. (2020). Africa Educates Her Campaign – Angola. Season 3. Webisode 11. She Leads.
https://she-leads.blogspot.com/2020/12/africa-educates-her-campaign-angola_8.html
Africa Educates Her Campaign – Angola. (2020). Girls back to school after lockdowns – Angola: Campaign with Sofonie Dala, Webisode 16. She Leads.
https://she-leads.blogspot.com/2020/11/girls-back-to-school-after-lockdowns_4.html
Dala, S. (2020). Overview of Africa Educates Her Campaign Angola: Interview with Sofonie Dala. Sofonie Dala – Young Talents from Africa.
https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2020_11_30_archive.html
Dala, S. (2021). Africa Educates Her Campaign – Angola: Season 3. Don't Miss Out! Sofonie Dala – Young Talents from Africa.
https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2021/01/africa-educates-her-campaign-angola.html
Dala, S. (2026). Bringing social impact ideas to fruition (CTA): Rudmila – Angolan traditions: The Bate-Porta ritual. ICAN Africa.
https://icanafrica.blogspot.com/2026/05/rudmila-angolan-traditions-bate-porta.html
Dala, S. (2026). The 2026 Africa Educates Her Campaign Report – Angola: 6th Anniversary, 2020–2026. Sofonie Dala – Young Talents from Africa.
https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2026_09_17_archive.html
United Nations. (n.d.). Goal 4: Quality education. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4
World Bank. (2021). Angola Girls Empowerment and Learning for All Project. World Bank.
https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/304891619791752356/pdf/Angola-Girls-Empowerment-and-Learning-for-All-Project.pdf
Comments
Post a Comment