Abrar Hussain of DOT
The United Nations Human Rights Watch (HRW) has revealed in a new report that female students in Senegal – some as young as 16 – are coerced by their teachers into having sexual intercourse in exchange for better grades.
In the report titled ‘It’s Not Normal: Sexual Exploitation, Harassment, and Abuse in Secondary Schools in Senegal’, HRW quoted students alleging that teachers lure them into their house and threaten to lower grades if refused. Sometimes the teachers offer food, mobile phones and even new clothes.
“One day, he asked me to go to his house. When I went to his house, he offered to give me money and resources. And I told him no. … He became nasty, (he said) he was not going to give me good grades,” said 16-year-old Aïssatou (not her real name).
In its report, HRW did not publish the real names of the victims in order to protect their privacy.
The report added that students who got pregnant by their teachers have had to drop out of school, while school-related sexual violence still remains a serious problem in many schools in Senegal.
The Ministry of Education of Senegal has not yet made an official response to the report.
-Source: CNN