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Calpakis"

Isabella Calpakis

Instructor: Malcolm Campbell

English 1103

6 November 2013

Education for African Children in Need

Thirteen-year-old Pascal Mwanchoka and his ten-year-old brother scour the

streets of Nairobi for scrap metal. If none is found, then they sleep hungry. The mother

is an alcoholic, and they are living alone on the streets. Education is not their priority

when starvation is their death threat, but what if an education could turn their lives

around?

According to dosomething.org, the African continent has areas with less than 50

percent literacy rates among children ages 18 and under. The chance of these children

learning how to read and write decreases as they become older and take on the

responsibility of supporting a family. Education should be a right, not a privilege, but it

is realistically the other way around. The barriers between first world and third world

countries are more complex than simple laws; Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africastates

that of all the worlds regions, Africas economies rank last in wealth as well as in rate

of growth (xxi).

As for the history behind the issue, much structure of the educational system

within the continent is a stripped-down version of what it once was. Before European

intervention, various ethnic groups educated children based on traditional norms and

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values. According toAfrican Higher Education Policy: A Survey of Sub-Saharan Africa,

education centered on training and discipline resembled modern schooling (26).

However, slave trades and political conflict forced a new educational system. It is a

shame that such a system could not sustain through societal issues and warfare; education

should have been kept a priority over other changes. Growing interest in Western

education put Africa in the dust, a continent left behind in the midst of conflict. This

neglect has carried forward into modern-day society.

If primary education were to be offered in regions of Africa such as Congo and

Tanzania, a growing concern that would need attention is population growth and control

over the years. Schooling for all children would be ideal, but would that be realistic? The

dilemma is that no child should be left behind. A familys monetary status should not be

a determinant of whether or not a child can receive an education.

Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa states that there is more than one obstacle to

mass education. Issues include access to reading materials, most jobs do not require

literacy, and schooling of such low quality that those who pass through years of

schooling are barely literate (xix). It is a shame to think that years of schooling are not

nearly as beneficial as they should be. Questions are asked of whether or not the end

results are worth the expense, since the quality is so low.

According to USA Today, governments in Africa declare that education is free,

but there are of course hindering factors. Public secondary schools this year failed to

report that there would still be charges for transportation, field trips, teacher conferences

and building swimming pools for schools. There is a small chance that this was human

error; perhaps the failure to report is derived from government corruption, and the

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attempt to deceive the public eye. Increasing population growth will not make it easier to

support education that must constantly be expanded to provide for all. Because each

nation has a limited amount of available funds; a balance must be achieved between the

quantity and quality of education (Sunal xxi).

There is only so much that outside relief efforts can help; rather, change must start

from within, and then spread. In Wine to Water, Doc Hendley attempts to bring clean

water to the regions of Darfur, but some of his efforts prove futile when politics become

involved. Encounters with the Janjaweed throughout his journey thwart his labor. His

work becomes demolished, making it only a temporaryfix. Developing countries need to

break the glass ceiling of poverty themselves in order for their living conditions to match

those of citizens in developed countries.

Over the years, the cost of providing education in Africa has risen. Teachers

salaries have been raised, and the issue is that these salaries are usually paid for by the

government. However, according to USA Today, it would be next to impossible to have

Africa fund their own teachers, when their GDP is around 3.3 percent. U.S. partners and

Kenyan community leaders have met to attempt to decide on a development strategy for

the entire community. In these discussions, Cynthia Sunal, editor of Undertaking

Challenges in the 21st

Century,mentions that factors such as lack of access to water and

poverty were prominent. Grassroots empowerment initiatives were found to be more

effective than a top-down approach. The African communities must make a united

decision to attempt to teach their children. It must be recognized that education can do

more than stimulate the mind; it can help teach self-reliance. It is next to impossible to

deliver primary education to growing populations across sub-Saharan Africa. According

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to Schooling in sub-Saharan Africa, valid purposes must be made clear in order for the

effort and expense of providing education (6). Education can help citizens become

literate and numerate, and it can also provide a base for education to be furthered later on.

When a person is given knowledge, that knowledge can never be taken away.

Children are the future of their own countries, and they will directly affect a countrys

progress. Education is easier and more efficient to provide now compared to previous

generations through the greater availability of technology. Technology can serve as an

outlet for these children and they can begin to understand the issues surrounding them.

Society is currently dominated by technology; extreme development would not be

possible otherwise. According toAfrican Higher Education Policy: A Survey of Sub-

Saharan Africa, African universities do not only lack staff, but facilities as well (76).

Training staff would be required for efficiency. However, staff would not reach their

potential without proper facilities. Funding should be re-directed to improve facilities in

the areas of A, B, C, etc.

Education is one of the most powerful weapons to place in the hands of a child;

with it, he can change the world, and help those around him. Rather than AK-47 machine

guns, young boys in war-torn areas should only be carrying with them the information

that will assist and guide them in further helping the world around them.

In addition to a classroom setting, these children need to learn in a hands-on

environment. They need to understand the diseases plaguing those around them, as well

as the causes, and learn what it is like to work medical miracles on patients in a hospital.

They need to understand diplomacy, and learn why countries, governments, or tribes are

at odds with one another. They need to be in the field to understand how they can make a

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difference with this information. They will have the most powerful voice in the future if

they can start to comprehend how inequities can be solved or helped.

God helps those who help themselves; if children in need of education start to

help themselves, and their families and communities rise from poverty, then they will be

helped and begin to see actions fall into place.

Some 46 million African children nearly half the school-age population

have never set foot in a classroom, stated by the United Nations in USA Today.

However, it is not too late. With the right access to resources initiated by the more

fortunate, students can begin to learn the empowering feeling of learning something new.

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Works Cited

Domatob, Jerry K.African Higher Education Policy A Survey of Sub-Saharan Africa.

San Francisco: International Scholars Publications, 1998. Print.

Hendley, Doc. Wine to Water: How One Man Saved Himself While Trying to save the

World. New York: Avery, 2012. Print.

Kennedy, Elizabeth A.Africa's Children Struggle for Education - USATODAY.com. N.p.,

21 July 2007. Web. 6 Oct. 2013.

Sunal, Cynthia S., ed. Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa: Contemporary Issues and

Future Concerns. New York & London: Garland, 1998. Print.

"11 Facts About Education Around the World."Do Something. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct.

2013.

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