Africa’s Failing Education
Do you remember at what age you learned to read? Reading is a basic skill needed in order to survive, and yet its absence appears to be ubiquitous in Africa where 61 out of 128 million kids are estimated to reach their adolescent years without being able to read (Watkins). And so it begs the question, why are African children not being educated?
Several millions of these children will be unable to read due to a lack of access to education and a late start in school, but even more surprising is that half of them will have already spent at least four years in school. With the importance of such a skill as basic and necessary as reading, this means that for four years in school, the students learn next to nothing. At the same time, with the strong appearance of rural poverty, many of these kids live in rural communities and are effected the most because rural schools have less qualified teachers and never enough of them in proportion to the kids attending (Agbor).
One of the main reasons for Africa’s education crisis is the lack of access to schools. From the 128 million children, about 33 million who are of primary age are not attending school (Fleet, Watkins, Greubel). Furthermore, 17 million will never attend school at all during their lifetime (Fleet). This is largely due to the ongoing poverty cycle in Africa. Impoverished parents have a difficult time supporting their families. In order to help, children often find jobs of their own and as a result cannot spend time at school. When these children mature into adults, life will become increasingly difficult because they never went to school. With low incomes, these adults will be unable to support their children, restarting the cycle. This vicious cycle keeps generations of families away from school and below the poverty line.
Although access is important, what may be even more crucial is that those who are lucky enough to be in school hardly learn any more than those who don’t attend school. According to data from regional assessments show that only 28% of Tanzanian 6th graders are reading at their proper grade level, 19% in Kenya, and less than even 10% in Uganda (Mwabu, Ackerman). Once again, this problem stems from financial issues. Schools are missing both books and qualified teachers. In the town of Bodinga more than 50 students are stuffed into a single room, where only a few will be lucky enough to have textbooks. If they are even luckier, a teacher will be present, and they will receive long periods of reading off papers that promote rote learning (Watkins). Schools are unequipped to handle the educational needs of their students because of their lack of funding, making them unable to acquire basic resources such as books and qualified teachers.
While there are several large issues that plague Africa today, one of the largest is education. Many solutions are proposed, but what is necessary overall is for governments to implement policies aimed at reducing poverty levels and funding schools. These policies should reinforce the infrastructure of rural areas in Africa in order to increase the children’s access to school (Agbor), and should spend money purchasing books and hiring effective teachers in order to make sure that the students who gain access to school attend for a noteworthy reason. With half of the continent’s child population not attending or wasting their time in school, Africa’s lack of education halts the continent’s progress as a whole, preventing the urbanization that Africa requires in order to industrialize and grow economically.
Works Cited:
Agbor, Julius. "Poverty, Inequality and Africa's Education Crisis." The Brookings Institution. N.p., 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Mwabu, Germano, and Xanthe Ackerman. "Focusing on Quality Education in Sub-Saharan Africa." The Brookings Institution. N.p., 28 May 2013.
Watkins, Kevin. "Too Little Access, Not Enough Learning: Africa's Twin Deficit in Education." The Brookings Institution. N.p., 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Van Fleet, Justin W. "Africa's Education Crisis: In School But Not Learning."The Brookings Institution. N.p., 17 Sept. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Van Fleet, Justin W., Kevin Watkins, and Lauren Greubel. "Africa Learning Barometer." The Brookings Institution. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
I really appreciate the way you used strong vocabulary effectively throughout the paper. Africa's failing education is a problem that needs to be addressed, not only for Africa, but for the better of the entire world. How do you think the majority of Africa can become educated?
ReplyDeleteI really like the flow of your article, and how it is rather easy to read, yet really informative. Education is a something that needs to be addressed in Africa, before it gets worse. Do you happen to know if there are foundations that help this cause?
ReplyDeleteI like how you use the italics in your second paragraph because it really emphasizes your point like wowowow. I found the beginning of your article a bit repetitive as you talk about the lack of education and then the lack of schools, however your main point about the importance of education and the benefits of making it available to children in Africa really stuck. I wrote a similar article about education and was wondering how you think people should resolve the problem where children aren't learning in classrooms although they are supplied with the right tools.
ReplyDeleteBy far my favorite aspect of of your article was the hook. I really enjoyed how it started with a thought-provoking question that made me want to read the rest of the article. My main take-away from your article was the fact that the poverty-cycle only exacerbates the education system's failure and how chaotic economic, political, and social struggle will lead to the downfall of the this system. My follow-up question is: When do you think the re-building process will begin for these torn-down educational systems and how will it begin?
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