Child Education in Africa
Overview
Africa is facing a problem that almost 60 percent of their upcoming youth drop out of schools by age 15. This means that the coming generation will be faced with the problem of illiteracy.
The bigger problem is the lack of awareness and future expectation of the problem that is growing every day in the youth who are supposed to be the future of a nation, country, or even family.
We need to know the causes before we can present the solutions. Some of the most prominent causes are:
- A high linguistic diversity exists in the African continent especially the very underdeveloped. You could find hundreds of languages in just one country. As such, schooling takes place an international language, but this presents another problem and that is that it is not the native language – poorer understanding, impairs learning, causes lack of interest, and subsequent dropouts.
- Facilities and educators are very low in standard. Many schools are unable to pay for teachers so, they choose the lesser qualified ones. An overcrowded class and an underqualified teacher along with lack of facilities is a recipe for disaster.
- Next, emigration causes a loss of well-educated people and financial loss. The loss of skilled people is replaced with another cost which implies the loss of money spent educating people who then leave, and others replace them. It is an unending and depleting cycle.
- Conflict makes most of the available funds to be spent on the resulting chaos and that depletes the money that would otherwise have been spent on education.
- Child labor – we do not need anything to be explained here, children are used to getting money instead of sending them to school.
Having seen some of the most important problems we need to discuss the solutions that could be implemented to encourage child education in Africa. Five important measures that can be taken are:
Equality
Equal opportunities can be provided for both boys and girls and this includes amenities. But the more important factors are equality in education, a measure of achievement, fairness, and opportunities in education that is the same irrespective of gender or geographical or religious tendencies. This can also be achieved by completely free and quality-based primary and secondary education leading to a better-educated generation of boys and girls.
Regulating of funds
The government must review and regulate the access and expenditure of school funds. This will prevent the embezzlement of a fund intended for use in schools which in turn will improve the quality of education. When the quality of education improves there is hope that the percentage of dropouts will decrease. And, maybe some will re-register. This will also make teachers’ salaries much improved and so, more qualified teachers.
Training of teachers
It is not enough to have an educated person as a teacher, he must be trained to deal with the teaching process and to convey the subject matter in a more interesting way. Again, he will be trained to teach in modern updated ways which will make education attractive.
Encouragement
Means of encouraging a student for an achievement will be implemented in schools. These do not have to be expense bases compensations but could be ways of honoring students and getting them to be proud of their achievements. Also, opportunities could be presented to achievers such as scholarships, a university education and more way to make them see the benefits of education especially girls.
Parents interactions and inspection of schools
Encouraging parents to interact in the process of their children’s education will not only result in several eyes and hands to help, but it will make the parents want their children to go on learning. At the same time, will be encouraged to complain in case something arises before it becomes a huge issue. The other factor is the inspection of the school, regular parents’ meetings will make parents keep their eye on the running of the school along with the regular inspection by a government official.
Creativity
Creativity is important to create the interest needed for the students to love the learning process. this is not only in the teaching methods but in all areas of school interactions. New methods, art classes, carving, mending, maintenance, computer-based studies, to mention just a few. New creative methods are also needed to facilitate the learning of the second language which will then help them in subject learning.
In conclusion
African Children towards a better future
There is a vast treasure of intellect and capabilities hidden in the children of a continent. Tapping them will not only serve their mother countries but will also serve all of humanity. “Building on the remarkable gains for children in Africa over the past 25 years, the potential of one billion children is vast” as stated by the UNICEF . And with education always comes the decrease of disease, hunger, the spread of infections, and an increase in the general level of human life and mortality rate.
Finally, research needs these fresh minds and to discover those genius children; both boys and girls who will later become scientists of the future and maybe find solutions to global problems or diseases that are still incurable. One of the most innovative ways to discover hidden talents is to implement STEM.
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