Say Yes, Autumn 2004: A Campaign Notebook -- Diary Extracts

Edmond McLoughney, the UNICEF Representative in Turkey, accompanied by colleagues and Government officials, visited 16 provinces during August and September 2004 in connection with Haydi Kızlar Okula! -- the UNICEF-supported Girls’ Education Campaign. These are extracts from the notes he kept during that time.

3 September, Erzurum

As our two-car convoy journeyed from Ağrı to Erzurum, the leading car suddenly pulled over to meet a bus coming from the opposite direction. Our driver got out and collected a large brown package. As we continued on our way, a call to the driver revealed that the package was a supply of ‘Say Yes’ newsletters. This latest summer edition featured Haydi Kızlar Okula! and we needed copies for our meeting an hour later in Erzurum at 10am. The newsletters came overnight from Ankara and we were picking them up 800 kilometres away on a remote road in the East. If things can work with this kind of timing and efficiency, we figure that the campaign prospects are good.

At the Steering Committee meeting in Erzurum, the Deputy Governor spoke out strongly about what had to be done. The district governors were also very supportive. One of them was a woman -- unusual in the sense that provincial and district officials tend to be male.

Visiting a village, we met the muhtar, or headman, who had kept his 14 year old daughter, Elif, out of school after grade 5, citing village ‘tradition’ as justification. Even so, Elif wouldn’t let the matter drop. Every morning for a year she put her ID card in his pocket before he left for work as a reminder that she would cry all night, and not give him a moment’s peace. In the end Elif’s father gave in and let her resume her schooling.

Elif is two years older than the other children in grade 6 but she’s not worried because she has the chance to realise her ambition of becoming a teacher. The muhtar assured us that he has since spoken to all the parents in his village about sending their girls to school. Let’s hope they were listening.

On the road to Erzurum, we talked about how provincial officials frequently say: there’s no space when the subject of getting more girls into school is raised and how families often complain that we can’t afford it. Yet, there’s always space for the boys and the money to pay for them/ In short, girls are seen as being inferior to boys. The campaign can go a long way towards changing these ingrained attitudes with house-to-house tactics. Just getting families into the habit of sending their girls off to school every morning can break the practice of generations. The attitudes of today’s parents may not change greatly but their educated daughters will want to send their own girls to school -- and they won’t need to be pushed.

Marrying later, educated girls will have more confidence and self-esteem, a more equal partnership in marriage and they will have fewer children -- and their children will be born in a Turkey which is in the EU. Literacy offers a chance to prosper whereas illiteracy, offering little more than misery and despair, only doubles the burden of poverty.

5 September, Gaziantep

After arriving in Gaziantep around 7pm, we visited a household where an 11 year old girl was out-of-school because of an eye problem -- the family believed that reading would make her blind. We explained that they should at least take her to the school counsellor where they will hopefully be assured that study will not put her sight at risk.

The issue of disability often crops up as a barrier to girls attending school. Almost everywhere we go, we hear of girls being kept away from school because of the slightest disabilities. A disabled or chronically ill parent may also want a daughter to stay at home and help with the housework or care for the younger children.

In the evening, we reflected on how Haydi Kızlar Okula! is far more than just a way of getting more girls into school but also a catalyst for development, generating progress among the poorest, most marginalised and socially excluded children and families -- the very families who keep their girls from school.

13 September, Şanlıurfa

Opening day at 2002 Vakıflar Primary School in Şanlıurfa was a big event. In his keynote speech, the Prime Minister stressed two issues which had been identified as barriers to girls’ education. First he said that no school should charge ‘unofficial’ fees and that parents should not pay such fees if asked. Parents, he said, should be involved in the supervision of the matter through Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs). He added that principals of schools charging ‘unofficial’ fees would be investigated. Second, he said that corporal punishment should not be practiced in schools. The Prime Minister’s stress on these issues can be used to promote practical solutions.

Significantly Mr Kemal Unakıtan, the Minister of Finance, was present at the opening ceremony. As we awaited the arrival of the Prime Minister and his wife, I took the opportunity to ask him to give some more money to the Minister of National Education to pay for more schools, for incentives to teachers going to remote areas and to keep up the free school book scheme and other initiatives. He was very encouraging in his response, telling me that more money was now allocated to education than any other sector -- pointedly, defence was no longer the top budgetary expense this year.

In his speech later, the Prime Minister alluded to this, saying that education is the best form of defence. Bravo!

Mr Unakıtan also pointed out that the Prime Minister had told the cabinet that education was a national priority and that it should stay at the top of the list of annual budgetary allocations from now on. He added that he himself sees education as the key to national progress and development and that he was only too happy to follow the Prime Minister’s guidance.

16 September, Diyarbakır

Our meeting in Diyarbakır took place three days after schools re-opened and it became clear that the following month could net the biggest number of extra enrolments for girls. Prior to the start of the new school year, it’s hard to distinguish those girls who will enroll from those who won’t. When school starts, however, ‘out-of-school’ girls can be easily identified in poor neighbourhoods during school hours. A girl over 6 in any of these situations could be a campaign ‘target’.

To test the theory, we took an early afternoon stroll around a high-density neighbourhood. At first we were alarmed to find many children playing on the streets but to our vast relief we soon established that all but two of the many girls we spoke to had been to school that morning -- a two-shift system was in operation to alleviate the space problem. Along with another four -- sisters of the two we met -- we had identified 6 girls who were out-of-school within 20 minutes.

Staff from the Willows NGO took the girls’ details to follow up with the families later.

Continue to the second part, Additional Benefits.

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