DES 509 MAJOR PROJECTS

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Education plants the seeds of a better future for adolescents in Sierra Leone

'The State of the World's Children 2011 – Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity,' UNICEF’s new flagship report, focuses on the development and rights of more than a billion children aged 10 to 19 worldwide. This series of stories, essays and multimedia features seeks to accelerate and elevate adolescents' fight against poverty, inequality and gender discrimination. Here is one of the stories.

By Kyle O'Donoghue

KAILAHUN, Sierra Leone, 25 February 2011 – In this rural district of Kailahun, everyone takes part in farming on some level, whether you are a child helping your mother sort seeds or an old man weeding a field. However for David Vandy, 15, farming is no longer just about putting food on the table. It is about his education.

VIDEO: UNICEF correspondent Kyle O'Donoghue reports on the determination of David Vandy, 15, a boy in rural Sierra Leone who raises and sells crops to help pay his own school fees. Watch in RealPlayer

David grew up in Dawa village, a small town on Sierra Leone’s border with Liberia. It was not far from Dawa where the first rebels crossed the border in 1991, marking the start of Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war.

During the war, Kailahun was perhaps the most affected area, andit was under rebel occupation for the entire conflict. Most people fled amidst the mass killing, torture, rape and conscription of child soldiers. David and his family fled to Liberia.

Farming to pay for school

When they returned in 2002, David told his father that he wanted to go to school. However, a small fee of roughly $1 per term is levied on students at the school in Dawa to pay unregistered teachers and buy school supplies. For David's family, the fee was unattainable.

David Vandy, 15, raises and sells crops to help pay his school fees in Dawa village, located in the rural district of Kailahun, Sierra Leone.

“But I said to myself, I will go to school – I will force myself to go to school,” recalls David.

Not to be deterred, David went into the bush outside the village and began clearing his own patch of soil for cultivation. He plants chillies, cocoa and cassava, and when they mature he sells them at a nearby market. He uses the money to fund his own education.

Hope for the future

Part of only the second post-war class to graduate primary school in Dawa, David is optimistic about his future. “When I graduate school I want to be a teacher,” he says.

Should David pass his final exams, he will move on to high school in a nearby town. Questions remain as to whether he will be able to afford to travel and pay his own way.

Despite its poor infrastructure and a severe lack of trained teachers, Sierra Leone is striving to improve education. The stability afforded by eight years of peace is giving hope to the current generation of adolescents in this country.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sierraleone_57735.html

Ghana strives for universal access to primary education by abolishing school fees

Head teacher Adams Abdulai Iddrisu (left) stands with students at Zoozugu Primary School in the Tamale region of northern Ghana, outside a children's creche area built by the community.

This week’s UN Millennium Development Goals summit highlighted the importance of reaching the world’s most disadvantaged children in order to achieve the MDGs with equity by 2015. Here is a related story.

NEW YORK, USA, 23 September 2010 – School fees are widely recognized as a major barrier to achieving Millennium Development Goal 2 on universal access to primary education. Adams Abdulai Iddrisu is the head teacher at Zoozugu Primary School in the Tamale region of northern Ghana – one of a few countries that has abolished school fees in recent years. He spoke to UNICEF Radio about how taking away the price tag has helped many students stay in school.

AUDIO: Listen now

Mr. Iddrisu recalled that primary school was free when he was growing up in Ghana in the 1960s, with everything from textbooks to pens and notebooks covered by the government. But structural adjustments in the 1980s led to user fees as an alternative to tax-based financing of public services such as education.

Because school fees are prohibitively expensive for many of the most marginalized families, they block poor children’s enrollment and attendance. Many Ghanaian parents could not afford the fees, they kept their children home or put them to work.

Beyond tuition: abolition

In 2005, however, Ghana’s Ministry of Education abolished fees for basic education nationwide and introduced a capitation grant for all basic schools after a successful pilot programme the preceding year.

The government is now providing one meal a day in some poor districts where families may not have enough money to provide their children with breakfast before school. Students in some deprived schools are also receiving important aid in the form of school uniforms.

Mr. Iddrisu said he has gone house to house to find school-age students to be enrolled in his school. He is optimistic that 100 per cent of the children in his community can be reached.

Many still not reached – especially girls

Still, families in Ghana’s rural north often prefer to have their daughters tend cattle rather than attend school, and may leave a daughter in the care of another family member, such as a sister.

Especially in rural areas, many of those eligible for school are still left out. In some cases, their families have not been informed that the school fees are now abolished.

If this situation is to change, said Mr. Iddrisu, parents themselves need education about the importance of schooling for their children, and teachers need more incentives to work in rural areas where there is a great need for qualified educators.

Reaching marginalized children

UNICEF estimates that over 100 million children of primary school age – 52 per cent of them girls – were out of school in 2008. Some 44 million of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa. Among them are some of the world’s most marginalized and vulnerable children, who are perhaps most in need of the opportunities that can come with a better education.

Although most poor countries still make parents pay some kinds of fees for their children’s education, Ghana isn’t the only one to try bringing more students into the classroom by reducing fees. Steps to eliminate school fees in Uganda helped primary school enrolment scale up from 2.5 million to 6.5 between 1997 and 2000. Tanzania also saw enrolment grow, from 1.4 million to 3 million, after that country enacted similar measures.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ghana_56200.html

Uganda launches education campaign for war-affected children

A girl pupil in a crowd of boys inside the Karas Primary School in Uganda’s Nakapiripirit District.

By Sabine Dolan

The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child will be the theme of the 51st session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women from 26 February to 9 March 2007. Here is one in a series of related stories.

NEW YORK, USA, 15 February 2007 – UNICEF Uganda and its partners have put education in the spotlight this week with the launch of their ‘Go to school, back to school, stay in school’ campaign to help 1.3 million children get primary education in the country’s conflict-affected north and northeast.

Although much of Uganda has emerged from civil war and economic chaos since the 1980s, the north of the country remains caught in a humanitarian crisis. As many as 1.6 million people displaced by violence live in camps in the Acholi and Lango sub-regions. Women and children comprise 80 per cent of the displaced population.

Eighty per cent is also the grim proportion of children there aged 7 to 18 who have never been to school – a majority of them girls.

UNICEF has supported district local governments in northern Uganda’s sub-region of Karamoja for the past 20 years to implement key interventions for children.

Boosting school enrolment

The education campaign was launched on 13 February by the Ministry of Education-Sports, the World Food Programme and other partners at the Napumpum Primary School in northern Uganda’s Kotido District.

The initiative strives to accelerate primary school completion by both girls and boys. It adheres to UNICEF’s broader effort to provide quality education during emergencies and ‘build back better’ in the education sector in post-crisis situations.

“Low levels of primary school enrolment, retention and completion represent a basic violation of child rights and an urgent priority for action by all stakeholders,” says UNICEF Representative in Uganda Keith McKenzie. “The immediate impact of low education levels on individual health, HIV/AIDS prevention and protection from various forms of neglect, abuse and exploitation is critical.”

The ‘Go to school, back to school, stay in school’ campaign plans a series of regional launches during the current academic year. Besides the targeted children, it will benefit 13,000 teachers in 1,600 schools throughout 18 districts.

Members of the Girls’ Education Movement club at Naitakwai Primary School in Moroto District, northeastern Uganda, perform songs and skits containing messages emphasizing the importance of school for girls.

A sense of stability

Although Uganda’s introduction of universal primary education in 1997 dramatically improved enrollment, the latest census data indicate that more than 700,000 children aged 6 to 12 have never attended school. Furthermore, at least two-thirds of children enrolled in primary school do not complete their full primary education cycle, and a significant gender gap remains.

The new campaign aims to boost the primary education of northern Ugandan children and help reverse the gap between boys and girls. As UNICEF strives to make education an integral part of its humanitarian response in Uganda and elsewhere, schools become a safe space that can provide psychological support, stability and a sense of normalcy to children affected by conflict.

“UNICEF and its partners reaffirm our commitment to avail all the resources possible to help communities in Karamoja and across Uganda send their children – girls and boys alike – to school,” says Mr. McKenzie.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uganda_38329.html

Education and awareness make progress against female genital cutting in Kenya

A schoolgirl at Ruthimitu Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya. Increasing girls’ access to education is a key strategy to help end female genital mutilation, because educated women are less likely to allow their daughters to be cut.

By Malini Morzaria and Zeinab Ahmed

NAIROBI, Kenya, 24 August 2006 – In the North Eastern Province of Kenya, UNICEF is helping communities abandon the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), or cutting, which is still inflicted upon the vast majority of girls in the province.

While FGM is not as prevalent in the rest of the country, a 2003 nationwide survey revealed that almost a third of Kenyan women aged 15 to 49 had undergone genital mutilation. But the same survey also showed a 30 per cent reduction in the practice.

The reduction is largely due to increased education, female economic empowerment and the introduction of so-called ‘alternative rites of passage’ – which replace FGM with rituals that retain the cultural significance of a coming-of-age ceremony without physically harming the young women involved.

Increasing the pressure

Despite the overall decline in the practice across Kenya, FGM is still carried out in 60 of the country’s 75 districts. Some 99 per cent of girls who are ‘cut’ undergo infibulation, the most radical and severe form of cutting.

A UNICEF study conducted in Garissa and Myale in 2004 found that about 60 per cent of FGM practitioners felt increasing pressure to abandon the rite. Almost half said religious leaders provided the strongest impetus to abandon the practice, while 40 per cent cited an increased awareness of girls’ rights.

Only about 1 in 10 practitioners said the strongest motive for stopping the tradition was a greater understanding of its adverse effects on girls and women.

UNICEF and the Population Council, an international non-governmental organization, are training health service providers in Kenya to promote safer maternal health and provide increased psychosocial support for women affected by FGM.

Education is key

Increasing access to education is another key strategy because educated women are less likely to allow their daughters to be cut. In North Eastern Province, less than 20 per cent of girls are ever enrolled in school.

To help address this problem, UNICEF is working with the Ministry of Education and the Office of the President to increase access to education through support for mobile schools, boarding schools, improved water and sanitation facilities in schools and better-quality teaching in child-centred, girl-friendly classrooms.

Around the province, communities are being encouraged to openly discuss the dangers of FGM and promote child rights. As a result, even in conservative communities, people are talking about the practice and its adverse effects.

Help from religious leaders

The power of community pressure is illustrated by the case of Isnino Shuria, 80, a former practitioner of FGM who learned the rite from her mother.

“My mother died when I was 17, and I took over her practice,” says Ms. Shuria, who continued ‘cutting’ until eight years ago, when a group of women visited her with religious leaders who said FGM violated Islamic values. “I did not listen at first,” she recalls, “but after their third visit I stopped and realized what I was doing.”

The community women raised funds so that Ms. Shuria and others in her position could buy livestock to support themselves and make up for their loss of income.

“There are about 25 of us now,” says Ms. Shuria. “I deliver babies and massage mothers who have problem pregnancies – it is much better. I have many well-wishers who help me and my family.”

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/kenya_35433.html

Education provides a way out for indigenous children in Republic of Congo

And indigenous Baka boy holds up his chalkboard for inspection at his school in Impfondo, the capital of Likouala province in the northern Republic of Congo.

By Guy Hubbard
TOANGANA, Republic of Congo, 7 October 2009 – It’s a sunny morning, and Rufin Kokolo, 8, is getting ready to go to school. He lives in Tosangana village on the outskirts of Impfondo, capital of Likouala province.

VIDEO: Watch now

Rufin and his younger sister, who has just started kindergarten, hug their father, Gerard Kokolo. Mr. Kokolo, a father of seven, encourages Rufin to pay attention in class.

As the two children set off for school, they are joined by friends who will walk the route together with them.

Bullied and ridiculed
Two years ago, this could not have happened – not because the children lacked schools to attend, but because as members of the Baka ethnic group, one of the country’s indigenous hunter-and-gatherer communities, they were bullied and ridiculed. Better known by their colonial label, pygmies, the Baka are considered by many to be inferior and backward.

For the large majority of the Republic of Congo’s indigenous children, discrimination by both students and teachers is too much to bear. Most of them have never entered a classroom.

In response, the Catholic Church, with support from UNICEF, has opened 14 preparatory schools in Likouala province, a huge area in northern Congo. Built with support from Baka parents, the schools provide a safe and welcoming place for their children.

Cycle of bigotry
The initiative is led by a Swiss missionary, Father Lucien Favre, who is committed to using education to break the cycle of bigotry.

When Baka children go into a classroom with other students from the majority Bantu ethnic group without being prepared, he says, they quickly become discouraged. “Bantu children will attend class, while the Baka children will cut the grass outside. So the child becomes less interested and prefers to go back to the forest rather than to be a slave in school,” Father Favre explains.

For Rufin’s family and others in the community, leaving their forest habitat and moving to town has been extremely difficult. Escaping discrimination and abuse from the local population is almost impossible.

Indigenous Baka children in the Republic of Congo often do not go to school because of discrimination, but UNICEF has been opening schools designed to meet their needs, in partnership with the Catholic Church.

Still, many Baka hope the next generation can finally escape poverty and marginalization. “I want my children to go to school,” says Mr. Kokolo. “This is the only way we can succeed in being treated like the Bantu. The children can no longer survive as we did in the forest without education.”

Looking towards integration
After a half-hour walk, Rufin and his friends arrive at their school. Local residents built its two classrooms out of bamboo and tin on land owned by the Catholic Church.

Head teacher Jean Baptiste Ruzinadaza, a Rwandan refugee, begins the day by leading the children in the national anthem as the flag is raised. It’s their first lesson in citizenship and learning about their rights.

The curriculum is designed especially for the mobile indigenous children of Central Africa, with an eye towards helping them integrate into the public education system.

“We have found that the solution to discrimination is preparation,” says Mr. Ruzinadaza. “It’s a sort of pre-school for them, to teach them the habits of students. The ones that have gone on to government schools have adapted well.”

Mr. Ruzinadaza seeks to make classes, which include drawing and language, as creative as possible. The intent is to instil confidence and a love of learning in children like Rufin. “I am go to school so I can be president … and help those still living in the forest,” Rufin says proudly.

Laying the foundation
With Baka communities spread out, often in remote areas, reaching every child is an enormous challenge. Getting land for the schools also has been difficult.

In many cases, schools have to rely on local authorities or churches to donate land. And since the schools are not yet part of the public system, money must be found every month to pay teachers.

Yet the evidence so far clearly demonstrates that the preparatory schools are helping to make education available for indigenous children in the Republic of Congo – and laying the foundation for their future learning.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/congo_51350.html

Girls’ Education Project focuses on getting students back to school in Nigeria

With help from the Girls’ Education Project, UNICEF has distributed free learning materials to 720 schools in northern Nigeria, helping parents send their children to school. Wasila, 10 (centre), is one of the project’s beneficiaries.

By Christine Jaulmes

BAKORI, Nigeria, 11 April 2007 – Full of energy, pupils run in circles on the playground of Nadabo Primary School in the small town of Bakori, northern Nigeria. They are having fun in gymnastics class, where the female teacher has them exercising.

All the boys and girls are wearing white-and-green uniforms, with a long hijab (veil) for the girls – a Hausa tradition that can be seen throughout the region.

Behind the school gate, another group of children congregates. They are not wearing uniforms. Many of the girls carry large trays on top of their heads as they wait to sell goods such as bread and peanuts to their more fortunate peers.

40 per cent not in school

Among the working children is Jamila, 12, who goes door to door every day selling vegetables. It has been four years since she had to quit school.

“I dropped out in 2003 when I was in class two,” says Jamila. “I left because I didn’t have a school uniform. My mother wanted me to work to make some money so that hopefully one day we can afford the uniform again.”

Jamila, 12 (centre), sells vegetables to housewives. Four years ago, she dropped out of school because her family couldn’t afford her uniform.

Jamila is one of many girls from poor families who have been forced to leave their education behind in northern Nigeria, where 40 per cent of school-aged children are not in school.

To help face the mounting challenge, the Government of Nigeria, UNICEF and other partners have launched the Girls’ Education Project here. Its goals: to get more children to school and reduce gender disparities in primary and secondary education. With $50 million committed by the United Kingdom, the project has had a head start and is quickly gaining momentum.

Learning materials distributed

Like Jamila, 10-year-old Wasila remembers the shock she felt when her parents asked her to leave school a year ago. “My parents asked me to drop out and work so that I can support them,” she recalls. “I was not happy and didn’t like it, so much so that I almost felt I had a fever.”

Fortunately, Wasila didn’t miss out on school for too long. Through the Girls’ Education Project, free learning materials have been distributed in more than 700 schools in northern Nigeria, lifting a big financial burden for families like hers.

“While she was out of school, I heard that her school had gotten instruction materials, including books and school bags, and that attracted my attention,” says Wasila’s father, Sani Hudu, who also has six other children. “I decided to send her back to school.”

With UNICEF school bags on their backs, boys and girls at the Nadabo Primary School in Bakori, northern Nigeria, participate in a physical education class.

‘The importance of education’

When Wasila returned to school, she was greeted with a spacious and comfortable learning environment.

“It’s clean everywhere,” she exclaims about her school, which has been reconstructed by the state government. It now has water pumps, as well as separate latrines for boys and girls. Teachers also benefit, receiving extra training.

“The importance of education, for example, is that one can become someone like a medical doctor who can help women deliver babies safely,” says Wasila, who studies hard and has become the top student in her class. She takes her education seriously, knowing that there are still many girls in Nigeria who couldn’t afford to give their dreams a second chance.

After school, Wasila likes to read to her father and show him what she has learnt at school. Her good marks bring a rare smile to Mr. Hudu, who has been struggling to support his seven children with a small pension.

Next to them is Wasila’s little brother. With hers encouragement, he is trying on his sister’s blue UNICEF school bag. On the top of the bag, a slogan in the Hausa language reads clearly, ‘Take me to school’.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_39351.html

Zimbabwe education crisis worsens

News note

Zimbabwe education crisis worsens

Nearly all of rural schools closed

HARARE, 10 February 2009 – As the world focuses on the inauguration of Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister and the commencement of a government of national unity, UNICEF today released data revealing that 94 per cent of schools in rural Zimbabwe remain closed and called for a prioritisation of the education sector by the new government.

“The education situation is a national disaster. It is imperative that the unity government focuses on this. Children in rural areas already live on the margins, many are orphaned, a huge number depend on food aid, they struggle on numerous fronts.” said Roeland Monasch, UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe. “Now these children are being denied the only basic right that can better their prospects. It is unacceptable.”

The figures emerging from routine assessment visits across Zimbabwe revealed that 66 of 70 schools were abandoned. In the only fully operational school found during visits, a third of pupils were reporting for classes. Many of the abandoned schools have been vandalized.

The education crisis which started last year saw a marked depletion of teachers in schools, plummeting school attendance rate from over 80 per cent to 20 per cent and postponement of national schools’ exams. This year schools were opened two weeks late, exam results have not been released and learning only resumed in some urban areas for the few who could afford to subsidize teachers’ salaries and pay exorbitant tuition fees in US dollars.

“It is the responsibility of government to ensure that every child receives an education. The burden of salaries, learning material and school maintenance should not fall on parents,” said Mr. Monasch.

“This is just not sustainable, most parents cannot carry this burden and many children will fall between the cracks, and rural schools bear testimony to this”.

Now on the brink of collapse, Zimbabwe's education system was once the best in Africa.

However, past successes have been reversed by a raft of problems hinging on the lack of financing, which has led to a marked declined in the pay envelope of teachers and school improvement grants.

While UNICEF already provides support to the Ministry of Education Sport and Culture - an investment of US$17 million over the last two years - for classroom construction, school fees assistance to over 100 000 children, textbooks, learning materials, boreholes, toilets in rural schools, the children’s agency recognises teachers remain vital for learning and support to bring back the teachers in the classroom is requisite.

“Strong, swift and decisive national leadership is critical at this juncture but so is international support to the sector” said Mr Monasch. This is an opportunity for all stakeholders to show their commitment to Zimbabwe and its children.”

About UNICEF
UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_47915.html