VOA慢速英語:Puberty Lessons for African Girls May Raise Attendance

[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:03.26]this is the Education Report in Special English. [00:08.92]A new study shows that simple, [00:12.27]low-cost interventions can help teenage girls in Africa [00:18.66]stay in school during their monthly periods. [00:24.05]Paul Montgomery led the study. [00:26.91]He is a professor in the Department of Social Policy [00:32.07]and Intervention at Oxford University in England. [00:37.51]"Women are the driving force of economic development across Africa. [00:41.80]And so it's particularly important to do [00:45.78]what you can to keep girls going to school." [00:48.93]One hundred twenty girls in Ghana took part in the study. [00:54.17]They were an average of almost sixteen years old. [00:59.33]They attended three secondary schools [01:03.25]in urban areas and one in a rural area. [01:08.20]In the study, girls at two of the schools [01:12.65]received free sanitary pads and lessons on puberty. [01:19.19]Their attendance increased by an average of six days, [01:24.65]or nine percent, during a sixty-five-day term. [01:31.20]The puberty lessons included information [01:35.35]about personal care during menstruation. [01:39.49]The girls also learned about the biology of [01:44.09]their developing bodies and about pregnancy. [01:49.98]At the third school, the girls [01:53.27]received the lessons but not the free pads. [01:58.12]Attendance by these girls also improved by nine percent, [02:04.52]but that took about five months. [02:07.55]At the fourth school the girls [02:10.75]did not receive the pads or the lessons. [02:14.64]That group showed no improvement in school attendance. [02:20.23]Professor Montgomery says the girls in the study [02:24.58]had several reasons for missing school [02:28.17]during their monthly bleeding. [02:31.47]"Embarrassment was a big part of it, certainly, [02:36.27]and that was reported by well over half the girls. [02:38.92]But ignorance, I think, was a very big part of it, too, [02:42.16]and they just didn't know what they were doing." [02:44.08]He says the interventions might not only keep girls [02:47.83]from missing school, but also reduce teen pregnancies. [02:53.57]"I think one of the things menstruation does [02:56.37]is that it signals the onset of the girl transitioning into womanhood. [03:00.22]And that in turn, I think, sets them up to get pregnant. [03:04.11]So I think we'll be able to help reduce teen pregnancy, [03:09.05]improve their entering the labor market [03:12.19]and the economic development of those women." [03:14.93]The Public Library of Science [03:17.63]published the study in its journal PLOS One. [03:21.42]A larger study is taking place in Uganda until twenty fifteen. [03:27.12]The Oxford professor says the hope is to learn [03:32.71]more about the effects of puberty on school attendance. [03:38.42]"So, we already know that education is important. [03:40.72]We know that pads are important. [03:42.11]We know that both are important. [03:43.20]And we 'll be able to separate out these key issues, [03:46.05]and then be able to give some really strong advice [03:49.05]for development officers as far as sub-Saharan Africa is concerned." [03:54.35]And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. [03:58.75]I'm Laurel Bowman.

00:00

00:00

MP3下載 文本下載