EDUCATION Minister, Shaik Baksh, quite correctly has expressed deep concern about the low level of school attendance in Region One , consequently greater attention will be paid to addressing the problem, including the prosecution of negligent parents.
Mr. Baksh said that trend cannot continue, as it will, undoubtedly, affect the achievement of the goals and quality of the imperative benchmarks of the 2008-2013 Education Strategic Plan (ESP).
However, perhaps one of the first steps that should be taken is that the region’s Education Department be mandated to do a study to determine the cause(s) for the low attendance; because without unearthing this, it would be impracticable to find the appropriate solution to the problem.
In hinterland communities, such as those in Region One, one of the factors could be the logistics of travelling as villages are extremely far apart and in many instances, rivers have to be traversed in order to get to school.
Another factor could be poverty, which is not a factor limited to the hinterland, but also affects school attendance on the coastland as well. Also with the communal lifestyle being prevalent among the indigenous communities and the limited availability of labour, it is possible that many children may be involved in helping their parents with work on the farms or other means of earning a livelihood.
In many cases, it could be a combination of two or more of these factors which are affecting attendance at schools.
The problem could also be parents-negligence related; and if this is the case, then stern measures should be taken against defaulting parents as was advocated by Mr. Baksh.
The role of parents in ensuring their children receive a sound education is a crucial one and could never be over emphasised. Unfortunately, the get rich quick syndrome has taken a firm foothold in our society and consequently, many people, including parents do not value a sound education or even see the necessity of it. This is not only adversely affecting the education system, but is having spiralling negative effects on attitude, behaviour and morals.
On the surface, the problem of school attendance may seem to be a straightforward and simple one, but in reality it is a very complex one and has serious long-term implications for national and community development and reduction of poverty.
It is now universally accepted that a sound education is the key to reducing poverty and school attendance is fundamental to achieving this; as such the problem must be nipped in the bud and with the urgency which was expressed by the Education Minister.
A UNESCO workshop on Education and Poverty Eradication in Kampala,
Uganda, 30 July to 3 August 2001, asserted that the role of education in poverty eradication, in close co-operation with other social sectors, is crucial. No country has succeeded if it has not educated its people. Not only is education important in reducing poverty, it is also a key to wealth creation. Within this context, one of the pledges of the Dakar Framework for Action – Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments – was “to promote EFA policies within a sustainable and well-integrated sector framework clearly linked to poverty elimination and development strategies.”
But former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere aptly sums it up:”Education is not a way to escape poverty – It is a way of fighting it.”
Therefore, all the obstacles and problems within the education system must be dealt with in a timely manner, through a scientific, methodical and systematic manner, so that we will achieve the desired results.