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educationseptember'08 The best present that any boy or girl is ever likely to get in life is - education. It may not seem like it at the time but for most children there will be no better gift in their entire lives than having this chance to go to school to learn to read and write and to understand numbers. These are the essential elements in laying the foundations for acquiring the skills and knowledge which should provide every child with a passport to a lifetime of opportunities. And in our modern world the continuing success of any country and its people depends on the ability and training of its young men and women. In advanced countries education is often taken for granted and is usually provided free by the state up to the age of 18. However, in most parts of the developing world children are seldom so lucky. Incredibly almost 1 in 7 children in the world today have no primary school to go to. This is unlucky for the 75m children in 2006 (1999 103m) and severely limits their future prospects. In sub-Saharan Africa, the world's poorest region, primary school enrolment is only 68% which means that 33m children who live there are out of school. In Burkina Faso and Djibouti only 36% of primary school age children attend school and Niger 38%. If these figures are shocking then so is the fact that only 1 in 3 children complete their primary education in sub-Saharan Africa. This in a continent that is crying out for talent and expertise to help countries move forward.
The reasons are varied:- a) there may not be a school within walking distance, b) there may not be enough teachers to teach all of the children, c) parents may be unable to afford to pay the school fees, d) the family may be so poor that they need their children to help on their plot of land.
And in a kind of selection process it may be that only one or two children will attend school from a family or perhaps just the boys. And this latter problem has consequences for future family life as World Bank research has demonstrated that education increases the likelihood of women choosing to have smaller, healthier families and deciding to send their own children to school. Another problem is class sizes. We in the rich world may baulk at the idea of more than 30 pupils in a class but in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa the pupil/teacher ratio is absurd at more than double that figure :- in Rwanda and Congo Republic it is 60:1, in Malawi 62:1, in Mozambique 66:1, in Chad 68:1 and in Central African Republic 90:1. Imagine having to control a class of 90 kids! But even if you are one of the luckier kids in Africa and have a school to go to other challenges can present themselves:- a) the classroom
may well be under a tree as the local authority cannot afford to build
a school. Inevitably then, when it rains, lessons stop and on really wet
days pupils do not even turn up. b) for some
pupils it’s a long walk everyday - both ways. Getting to school by
car, particularly in the countryside, is not an option. c) in many schools there are no desks leaving kids to sit on bricks trying to read outdated and worn out textbooks. And as there is no electricity, the internet is no substitute. d) double shifts are sometimes needed to accommodate all the pupils putting tremendous pressure on teachers whose salaries are often paid months late. e) HIV/AIDS is causing huge damage to the education system in many countries with teachers falling ill. In fact in many poor countries like Malawi and Zambia, AIDS is killing teachers faster than they can be replaced. Many children, too, are missing school because they have to look after parents or other relatives who are dying. So far we have only dealt with primary schools but as children get older in sub-Saharan Africa their chances of going on to secondary school are even smaller. All in all in sub-Saharan Africa more children of secondary school age attend primary school than secondary school where only 1 in 4 children of secondary school age gains secondary education. In Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Somalia and Tanzania fewer than 10% of teenagers attend secondary school This lack of educational opportunity is reflected in the fact that in the developing world today there are an estimated 770m adults who are illiterate, 2/3 rds of them women. And here again in sub-Saharan Africa is where you find the worst statistics with a literacy rate of just 14% in Niger, 24% in Somalia, 26% in Burkina Faso and Chad and 29% in Sierra Leone. If poor countries are going to start to advance education has to be at the very heart of development but too many governments are failing to invest in their childrens' education. However, things may slowly be changing - for the better. At the World Education Forum held in Dakar in Senegal in 2000, 180 countries made a commitment to the effect that no country seriously committed to primary education for every child should be thwarted by lack of funds. This strong commitment made by some of the world's richest governments should be a tremendous incentive for countries to act. The same theme of Universal Primary Education (UPE) was further boosted by the United Nations at the Millennium Summit in 2000 by its inclusion as one of several UN Millennium Development Goals (see GLOBALISATION) to be reached by 2015. However the task will be enormous for according to a recent UNDP Human Development Report on present trends it will take sub-Saharan Africa until 2129 to achieve universal primary education. So for UPE
to succeed in all areas of the developing world it is going to need money
and commitment from both rich and poor countries. And in financial terms
alone it is estimated that $7-8 bn will need to be found annually for
investment in schools, books, materials and teachers. So two questions
1) where will this money come from and 2) will all parents send their
children to school anyway? Rich countries could start to make education for all a reality by supporting governments in the developing world which show real resolve in attempts to get children into schools. These rich countries could do this by increasing their ODA budgets or by targeting existing grants to poor countries for educational purposes. Rich countries could also play a further important role in offering to train teachers in various secondary school subjects and by offering free places at their universities for the brightest and best of school-leavers from the developing world on condition that on graduation they put their talents to good use back in their own countries. Further support could come from rich countries by opening up their markets and eliminating wasteful subsidies. This would generate many more jobs in the developing world leading to higher living standards and less excuse for children being out of school. 2) In a study carried out by the World Food Programme in West Africa it was found that introducing school meals more than doubled school enrolment whilst at the same time led to a 40% improvement in academic results. This is perhaps not surprising as many children in Africa eat less than the bare minimum and if going to school means that children get at least one good meal every day it can only help their development whilst at the same time leaving more food available for parents and grandparents. And at an annual cost of $34 (£17) for each pupil this looks like a bargain.
Today success in the global economy is even more closely linked to the skill of the workforce than ever before so it is essential that children everywhere are given the foundations of an education that will allow them to grasp these opportunities. And we cannot afford to fail them! For no education means not just being unable to use his/her mind to full advantage - with so much time on their hands it often leads youngsters into crime, drugs, violence and prostitution which ultimately lead to prison and escalating social problems. |
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just1world@just1world.org |
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1)
The HIPC Initiative (see DEBT RELIEF) offers hope here for some poor countries.
Uganda, the first country to complete the HIPC process, has seen hundreds
of millions of dollars in outstanding loans cancelled with the savings
being channelled mainly into health, water and free primary education.
As a result there are now an extra 3.5m children in primary school in
Uganda. This is an excellent use of the money saved and the IMF and World
Bank should be encouraged to extend this programme to more countries.
A
free lunch is one thing but another necessity is the need to abolish school
fees. The Kibaki government in Kenya did just this when it was elected
in December 2002 and already it has put an additional 1.5m children in
the classroom. And when Tanzania abolished primary school fees enrolment
shot up from 59% to 82% in 2 years. Other governments should consider
following suit.