I. BACKGROUND
Most countries in Africa spend a vast amount of their Gross domestic product (GDP) on military and defense (Takhal, 2012). However, education is the greatest investment for success in a world that has become progressively more interdependent and interconnected through commerce, political, and social issues. It would be detrimental to Africa to remain solely focused on strengthening their military capability while devaluing access to universal primary education (Takhal, 2012). Africa’s greatest resource is their youth and they can achieve so much if they have access to universal primary education that is supported through secondary and post-secondary education. More than half of Africa’s population is under the age of thirty (Takhal, 2012). In Sub-Saharan Africa, 47% of the overall population is under the age of fifteen with an expected increase of five to fourteen year-olds by more than thirty-four percent over the next twenty years (Takhal, 2012). According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), most countries in sub-Saharan Africa spend ten times more on university students than primary school students (Takhal, 2012). With this disproportionate allocation of educational expenditures it is no shock that there are millions of primary school-age children out of school (Watkins, 2013).
In 1990, the Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtien, Thailand, vowed to reach universal primary education by the year 2000 (Henock Kifle, Mohammed Hussain, Hailu Mekonnen, 2002). However, as of 1999 there were approximately 120 million primary school-age children still not in school, with the majority in Sub-Saharan Africa (Henock Kifle, Mohammed Hussain, Hailu Mekonnen, 2002). The Mi...
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...rom Education: a crucial step towards peace in Central African Republic: http://www.unicef.ca/
Henock Kifle, Mohammed Hussain, Hailu Mekonnen. (2002, June). Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa. Retrieved from Global Poverty Report 2002: http://www.cpahq.org/
Takhal, A. (2012, March 21). Africa Must Invest its Primary Education Sector. Retrieved from Horseed Media: http://horseedmedia.net/
UNICEF. (2013, October 18). UNICEF. Retrieved from Central African republic: Seventy percent of school children still not in classrooms: http://www.unicef.org/
UnitedNations. (2008, September 25). End Poverty 2015 Millennium Development Goals. Retrieved from United Nations: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
Watkins, K. (2013, January 16). Too Little Access, Not Enough Learning: Africa's Twin Deficit in Education. Retrieved from Brookings: http://www.brookings.edu/
In conclusion, the suffering from malnutrition as well as the lack of education in rural Africa are spotlighted in both Dettwyler and Lee’s books. Both anthropologists give an insight into the true nature of the many problems faced by the people and how they confront life and death in a completely foreign manner. Even though both areas suffer from similar problems, steps are slowing being taken in the right direction to help educate people by setting up programs and making better schools. Although both the societies and their issues differ greatly, both are advancing toward similar solutions.
The World Bank Group. "Understanding and Responding to Poverty." PovertyNet. 16 March 2001. Online: http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/mission/up3.htm.
Education for children is very important for Ghana to increase their GDP. Although there is a rate of 34% for child labor, school attendance is increasing. The system is set up for eleven years: two years of Kindergarten, six years of primary school and three years of Junior High School. There are certain programs that are helping Ghana achieve their Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal education. There has been an implementation of an incentive in some areas providing one hot meal a day for students who attend school. Also, there was a new education plan in 2007 that aims to provide free primary education by 2015 (UNDP, Ghana, 2012, page 3). Although this is a tough goal to meet, there has been a substantial increase in school attendance over the past decade which will improve Ghana’s human capital in the future.
Education is widely valued all throughout the world, but especially in third world countries. Many people don’t understand how many kids want to learn, but in first world countries kids think of schools as a burden. Greg Mortenson has always saw the value in education and made some childrens wishes come true by creating safe and comfortable schools that gave them the education they wished. Greg Mortenson spent some of his childhood in Tanzania, but was raised in America. He and his little sister Christa were very close, but sadly she had epilepsy and had seizures very often. Greg often loved taking Christa on trips as a break from her life. He was an adventurer, and when his younger sister passed
There are many things that cause poverty in Africa. The main reason is that the rich in Africa hog all the money and resources causing a country where there are rich people and poor people, there is ...
Priscilla. “The World Economy and Africa.” JSpivey – Home – Wikispaces. 2010. 29 January 2010. .
In Sophie McBain’s The learning curve, she describes that poverty-stricken children in the African country of Uganda haven’t had an opportunity for secondary school education for years owing to the fact that they couldn’t afford it. Due to the costly expense, only “one in four children of secondary school age” have been enrolled in school in Uganda up until 2008 (Sophie McBain). Those who weren’t privileged with attending school were then consigned to a life of living “on less than $1.25 a day,” condemning them to poverty the rest of their life (Sophie McBain). McBain explains that one of these impoverished children, John-Mary Nantengo, had high aspirations of going to a secondary school during his juvenile years,
The number of people who have been excluded from education is enormous. The school age population includes thousands of displaced children across Sudan. Many more young people have never acquired basic literacy, numeracy or life skills. Girls and women are among those who fare the worst in accessing education. Parents with very limited means will often prioritize boys’ education, and girls are often kept at home to ensure their bride price. A girl in South Sudan is three times more likely to die in childbirth than she is to finish primary school. The lack of adult literacy and education greatly impedes people’s ability to engage in economic activities and hinders the growth and peaceful development of the country. There is a need for recognized, non-formal alternative education options to help provide people with the essential literacy, numeracy and skills they need to support themselves. The challenges of the formal school system also need to be addressed to bring an end to a cycle that leaves people without any access to education. Investment needs to be made in all aspects of public education. Fewer than 50% of schools have a permanent building. Most communities have no learning materials, resources or
The Lack of Funding Coming from First World Countries Going Towards the Education System in Third World Countries
UNESCO. (2013). Education for all global monitoring report, policy paper no. 10: Children still battling to go to school. Paris, France: UNESCO. Retrieved from http://www.unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002216/221668E.pdf
In Nigeria, not everyone has the opportunity to quality education. Throughout life I have had several disruptions on my educational path. I attended school until my father’s business went bankrupt, combined with the local terror in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Afterwards, Family and I began a series of migrations in search of a better life, In the process, we migrated to several different countries with different education
Queiroz, Mario de. "AFRICA: A Continent of Orphans - IPS ipsnews.net." IPS Inter Press Service. N.p., 13 Dec. 2006. Web. 14 Jan. 2010. .
Nigeria had a vision that by 2020 it would be one of the top 20 most developed countries in the world, to achieve that the educational sector had to be improved so therefore a lot of polices were made in the educational sector. The universal basic education policy was more focused on than others because it had a lot of advantages and also a lot of ways to which it could eradicate poverty examples of these were; literacy for adults ,skills for out of school youths and basic education for all children (UN special Envoy 2). After the policy was implemented the number of children enrolled in primary schools increased by a lot this was stated in a research carried out by the world bank in 2013 using Nigeria`s data survey of 2011. Also Nigerian children are more likely to go to school in urban areas than in the rural areas and then in the rural areas the number of males is always higher than that of the females. In Nigeria, children in its southern part enrol in school and do more literacy related activities than in the northern parts of the country. Even in the north the percentage of out of school children is higher in north-eastern Nigeria than other parts, especially areas that have been affected by insurgence such as Borno state (UN special Envoy 4). Females are
Equal access to education for both males and females is not a universal right. For girls in Ghana, education is often a luxury, and yet the education of Ghanaian girls is crucial to the reduction of poverty within the country. By educating the female population in Ghana, females gain empowerment, social status, and the ability to access tools and jobs that will help aid their families in escaping poverty. Sadly, according to Debrah Emmanuel (2013), “56 percent of women… had no formal education” (p. 55). This paper will argue that in order to aid Ghana as a whole in development it is imperative that Ghanaian females are educated. The may be accomplished by compiling government, community, and private resources. By compiling these resources towards
There is no doubt that European colonialism has left a grave impact on Africa. Many of Africa’s current and recent issues can trace their roots back to the poor decisions made during the European colonial era. Some good has resulted however, like modern medicine, education, and infrastructure. Africa’s history and culture have also been transformed. It will take many years for the scars left by colonization to fade, but some things may never truly disappear. The fate of the continent may be unclear, but its past provides us with information on why the present is the way it is.