Child marriage in Sierra Leone (2016)

In Sierra Leone, 50 per cent of girls surveyed in 2010 (age 15–49) first married before age 18. The survey also found that 26 per cent of teenage girls aged 15–19 had experienced a birth – a figure that, according to one assessment, may have increased during the recent Ebola outbreak, when schools were closed for eight months.

While the Government of Sierra Leone is committed to providing universal primary school education for all children, current policy prohibits visibly pregnant girls from attending school. UNICEF is working with the Government as well partners UNFPA, DFID and Irish Aid to help ensure the rights of all children, including pregnant girls, to an education.

As an initial post-Ebola recovery measure, UNICEF and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology launched an initiative in October 2015 to support learning for 11,000 pregnant and recently pregnant teenage girls, through after-hours learning sessions in schools, classes at separate Community Learning Centres and radio programmes for home study.

Many girls who drop out because of marriage or pregnancy never return to school, and the hope is that such programmes will eventually enable children to reintegrate into the school system. The initiative to ensure pregnant and recently pregnant girls can continue with their education also includes skills training and access to information technology.